A Christian is essentially a pilgrim. The Church is a pilgrim Church. The whole of our life is one long journey to God. Summing up his existence Christ said: "I came from the Father ... and now I am going to the Father". Now the risen Lord unites us to Himself and invites us to come with Him to the Father. Our whole life is our response to that invitation.

To make a pilgrimage is to set out on a journey which expresses outwardly our deeper, spiritual journey through life. A pilgrimage made in proper disposition gives us new strength and purpose to continue faithfully to the end the more serious pilgrimage of life itself.

There is no absolute necessity for us to go on pilgrimage to Lourdes in order to live faithful to God. But from Lourdes, Our Lady has sent out the invitation to us: Come here in procession, in prayer, in penance. She invites us to leave for a while our homes, our work, and the cares which normally absorb our time, to share, for a short time, in the spirit of prayer, penance and fraternal charity, to share more fully in the Eucharist and in the living faith of the Church. She wishes us to do this, not as an end in itself, but so that we may become more truly people of prayer, penance and charity, people charged with faith and living in true union with Christ, her Son.

Look at the crowds: men, women and children of different colours and races, of every social condition and profession, rich and poor, sick and healthy. In them we do not see simply other people. In those crowds gathered around the Grotto, walking in the procession of the Blessed Sacrament and the Torchlight procession, and especially participating in the celebration of the Eucharist we enter more deeply into the mystery of the Church, the people assembled by God.