Archbishop McQuaid’s Address to Lourdes Pilgrims

The following address was given to Dublin school pilgrims by the Most Rev. John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland, on the concluding day of the annual diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, 16th August, 1955:

Each pilgrim knows in his heart what the grace of this sojourn at Lourdes has meant for him. All of us hope that it has meant as much for every fellow pilgrim and invalid, for not one of us has failed to experience the gentle mercy of the Mother of God.

Now we know that all who, in obedience to Our Lady’s wish, come to this sacred place to do penance and pray, share in some way in the vision of St. Bernadette. It is not that we have seen Our Lady: that is a grace reserved for another life. We are not worthy to be favoured as the child who was chosen by God to be the confidant of His mother. But here in the Grotto, at Mass, and in the processions of the Blessed Sacrament, we have been soothed by the peace that is, as it were, the perfume of the Shrine. We have been drawn by the stainless innocence of the Virgin Mary. We have been strengthened by the holiness of the Immaculate Mother, who in grace stands next to God made man Himself.

The Fall and Original Sin

Sanctifying Grace and Justification