A Little about Lourdes

The city of Lourdes in France is known for the Saint Bernadette. In 1852 as a 14 year old girl she claimed that she saw and spoke to Mary 18 times. To make a long story short, the place where she had these visions was in a cave next to a river. Mary told her to dig in a muddy spot and drink the water that comes up. She was told that the water has healing power. People come from all over the world to get some of the healing water. The city is lined with shops that sell containers (I thought the container that was shaped like Bernadette would make a good Syrup container, my wife did not think that was funny) to hold the holy water from the spring that she uncovered. Of course there is a huge church on the hill overlooking the spring. The city has a population of 15,000 and more hotels than any city in France except Paris. Over 5,000,000 people visit the site each year. A few of them just curious onlookers like us, but most of them are there for religious reasons. The whole thing sounds obserd but being there with so many devoted followers has it's own power or spirit.

Of course I spent my time looking at the huge trout in the river. I finally asked a group of men if they knew if it was okay to fish in the river. They said they didn't think so. I told them that one of my passions is fishing and that I was from Utah. The next question from them was "are you Mormon?" I told them I was they then asked what I thought about Bernadette and Mary. I didn't want to offend them by saying anything about the Syrup bottles so I told them "I'm not sure how I feel. Mary and Bernadette is not something for me but I do believe in God and in miracles". They were from Germany so I told them about President Uchtdorf.

I don't know what to think about events like this. I worry that it has kept many people from the light of the truth but at the same time it has helped some people turn to spiritual things. It's hard to know. I'll leave it up to you.