A Few More Photos From Lourdes...

Mass is the central part of the pilgrimage to Lourdes. We were incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to celebrate High Mass twice during our pilgrimage, both times in the Crypt of the parish church, Sacre Coeur.

I managed to take plenty of photos during Mass on the first visit to the Crypt, although not quite as many as usual, as I was responsible for singing the Mass propers (just the Rossini psalm tones, nothing too complicated) and I hadn't quite figured out how to hold the music and the camera at the same time...

It seemed rather strange to have stained glass windows in a Crypt. The entrance to the Crypt is outside the Church, near the back, and there is a steep staircase down into it (it does have a good hand rail.) I noticed people's feet just near the top of the windows, so realised that there must be some sort of basement area outside, though I didn't get time to explore.

On the second visit to the church, I was battling with the sequence Lauda Sion as well as with the Mass propers, as it was the feast of Corpus Christi. When I was first informed that I'd need to sing the sequence, I thought I knew which one it was, and was pretty sure I could manage it. I then discovered that it wasn't what I was thinking of... but was still not too worried, as I thought that the music was probably the same for each of the verses...

... and then I saw the music. It changed every two verses (roughly) ... and there were 24 verses. By the Wednesday evening, I was desperate. Fr. Tim sent me an MP3 file, and I tried to learn it. I couldn't just sing along: the acoustics in the Crypt meant that it had to be sung much more slowly than in the clip. At 3:30am, after falling asleep for five minutes sitting bolt upright with the hymn book in my hands, I realised that I really needed to go to bed...

On reflection, I should have kept my mouth shut, and made it up as I went along.

;-)

James Barton, senior MC from Chislehurst, knew it a bit, Fr. Tim knew it best (but as celebrant he had other stuff to do first) and I had a good stab at it. Between the three of us, we managed quite well, although there was a little faltering round about verse 10...

This seriously interfered with my photographic activities, and I contented myself with taking a shot during Benediction after Mass...

Mass on the first day in Lourdes was in the Glorious Cross chapel. I had been informed by the Domaine staff that this was a replacement for the St. Michael Chapel on the Grotto-side of the Crypt. There was no mention of the chapel anywhere on the Lourdes website, and Google failed to throw any light on its location.

We discovered that the chapel was in what had previously been the Musée Tresor - the museum with old vestments and Mass vessels. Effectively, the chapel was nothing more than a glorified lecture room. It was marginally better than the St. Patrick's Chapel over in the hemicycle (the chapel which looked like a whitewashed garage, or large cupboard) but there wasn't much in it. It is definitely one to avoid...

The candlesticks and altar cards (and possibly the crucifix) were among the items Jonathan (Blackfen's senior MC) had brought with him. For some reason the Lourdes shrine authorities seem to like providing a single large pillar candle and a plant pot for the altars...

On the last day, we had Mass in the St. Gabriel Chapel, on the road-side of the Crypt Chapel. Once again, we provided the candlesticks...

More photos can be seen on my Flickr photostream.