Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
This is one of the fruits of the Year of Mercy at the shrine of Lourdes. On November 12, 2016, at 10 am, Bishop Nicolas Brouwet of Tarbes and Lourdes (France), inaugurated the Way of Consolation (Chemin de la Consolation): a new place of devotion in the heart of the shrine, designed to remember unborn children and lift them up in prayer. This new idea was devised in collaboration with the Mother of Mercy ministry, which offers concrete help and support to women facing an abortion, through listening and prayer.
Throughout the meditation path are little signs with life-affirming passages from the Gospel, and short meditations written by Father André Cabes, rector of the Shrine, to guide the pilgrims and bring interior consolation. At the end of the symbolic journey, parents are asked to give a name to their unborn child and write it in a "Book of Life," so that local nuns and pilgrims can add them to their prayer intentions. Situated below the historic Stations of the Cross of Lourdes, this path of consolation ends at a special grotto dedicated to those children: the "Grotto of the two Marys.”