"Someone is waiting for me in Lourdes"

I love the Virgin Mary. I appreciate her and I pray to her. She consoles me, she guides me and she makes me smile. She is actually the one who led me to God. The first time I felt her presence was at the Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette (French Alps). I was in the church and a celebration was taking place. I don't know why, but I cried and cried from love, because I suddenly realized that God mattered!

A few years went by… I forgot all about Mary, and Christ didn't appeal to me much anymore. Until one day, in an airport, during a time in my life when I was only interested in having a good tim—wasting my life away—I met a religious brother who looked me straight in the eye and told me, "I'm going to pray to the Virgin Mary for you." I looked him up in the eyes and replied: "I didn't ask you for anything. Why are you telling me this? I don't need your prayers!" and I walked away.

But a few weeks later I thought about what he said: "I am going to pray to the Virgin Mary for you..." and it made me want to do the Camino pilgrimage (Spain) to find… something. Was it the meaning of my life? Recovering the flavor of life, in this world where I have always felt different and out of place?

On the Camino, I did not find any answers to these so-called "existential" questions. I went as far as Pamplona, and said to myself, "I don't have to go to Santiago. Someone is waiting for me in Lourdes." So I turned around and went north to Lourdes. The Virgin Mary was waiting for me there! She reminded me that "the Lord has done great things for me." It is thanks to her love that I am a practicing Catholic today.

Sometimes when I am "on strike" with Christ, I speak to Mary and no doubt she transmits my prayers to God. I would just like to say to all those who need to be consoled, who are hurt and lonely, to all the unloved of this world: just know that someone is waiting for you. The Virgin Mary, Mother of the poor, will welcome you and she will never abandon you.

S.M.

Testimony sent to Marie de Nazareth, following the Mission Conference in Paris, France, September 2020