Thousands expected to travel to Marian grotto
By Agnieszka Krawczynski
The B.C. Catholic
Thousands of pilgrims are expected to converge on Heritage Park in Mission this summer.
As many as 4,000 Catholics will pray at the Our Lady of Lourdes grotto Aug. 20.
“We try to make it as prayerful as possible,” said Jack Ethier, a member of the organizing committee.
The event, five days after the Feast of the Assumption, will begin with confessions at 10 a.m. Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, is to celebrate Mass at 1 p.m. before the whole crowd moves up the hill, singing and praying, in procession to the Marian shrine.
Volunteers will release coloured balloons for every Hail Mary and Glory Be as thousands pray the rosary.
He said pilgrims have been making the trek annually since St. Joseph’s Church was built down the road in the 1980s.
“We used to walk from St. Joseph’s Church out to the park,” said Ethier, a longtime parishioner. “We don’t walk downtown anymore,” but the event does continue to draw thousands to the shrine.
A grotto in honour of Our Lady has stood at that site for decades. The first shrine was built there in 1892, he said. It was rebuilt in 1957, and the current structure has been around since 1997.
Ethier said after the procession, families often sit down with picnic lunches. There will also be a concession stand and a few booths selling religious items.
“We have our pilgrimage to meet with the people, to honour Mary, and to thank Jesus at Mass.”
He hopes pilgrims will meet each other over lunch and also stop by the nearby Oblate cemetery to honour priests who have died, including those who built the grotto so many years ago.
