Our Lady of Lourdes honoured

Published: 19 February 2012
By: Paul Dobbyn

A BRISBANE priest has hailed last weekend's record-breaking Our Lady of Lourdes procession and others like it as "an important bridge for newcomers to Australia's shores".

The procession to mark Our Lady of Lourdes feast day on February 11 started with a Marian Mass which packed St Stephen's Cathedral, Brisbane.

More than 800 participants, the largest number yet, according to organisers, then took part in a procession through closed Brisbane streets to the Villa Maria Centre in Fortitude Valley where Benediction was held.

Organisers, the Apostles of Mary, commented on the large number of children present for the event who were also keen to walk alongside the float bearing the statue of Our Lady.

Jesuit priest and Apostles of Mary chaplain Fr Gregory Jordan said the numbers of people from various ethnic groups taking part indicated the importance of such devotions to them.

"When a believing community migrates to a new country, many desperately miss their traditional devotions," he said. "There's often a falling away from the faith.

"Rosary processions such as was held last weekend and the other devotions with it tend to check that drift."

Fr Jordan said such events were "the face of the Church meeting these people where they are at".

"Their eyes were shining ... you could see they really loved it," he said.

Fr Jordan, who has been involved with the event for the past six years, said the procession had a marked impact on people in the streets through which it passed.

"Men on building sites were watching and those involved in roadworks stopped their machinery as we passed," he said.

"Some diners in restaurants on the way stopped eating and came out to watch. One woman of the Coptic Orthodox faith on being told 'Our Lady is passing by' came out to see us and was over the moon with joy."

Sunnybank parish, which is named after Our Lady of Lourdes, also celebrates the feast day annually.

Other similar events this year will include the annual Corpus Christi procession at Indooroopilly's Nudgee Junior College in June and a Rosary bouquet gathering in October.