The much-awaited Lourdes Pilgrimage is back in 2023! I am sure that this trip will be very meaningful after a prolonged delay.

Every year about 8000 members of the Order and certainly as many volunteers gather in Lourdes to bring their Malades to our Blessed Lady to be comforted and to pray together. It is a unique experience and I strongly recommend it to anyone who has not been there even if they are not catholic.

We will again jointly organise our pilgrimage with the Australian and the Korean Association. Dunstan de Souza is the Lourdes coordinator in Australia, Philippe de Vieil Castel is a long-term volunteer in Hong Kong, who has very kindly volunteered to coordinate the Hong Kong pilgrims this year. Dunstan and Philippe will work closely together.

The dates are:

Departure Hong Kong 1^st of May 2023 evening
Return Hong Kong 10^th May 2023 morning

The time in Lourdes will be from the 2^nd to the 9^th May 2023

We are planning this year to fly to Paris and take the train from the airport straight to Lourdes. We will be having malades (the Lourdes term for people with physical ailments) coming with us this year for the first time, so we urge you to join the group flight so we can altogether join in this pilgrimage.

Lovina Au-Yeung is kindly coordinating all the flights and the train tickets, as well as buses etc we might need.

What are we going to do in Lourdes?

We are working on the programme. However as usual we will have a mass at the Grotto, we will follow the sacramental procession, the light procession, have mass at the underground basilica.

We will assist our malades in every aspect of their lives. We will assign four volunteers to each malade to look after him or her, attending to all his or her needs. But we are also hoping this year to join the Western Association for a day trip to a village in the Pyrenees and to join the British Association to watch the newly produced musical “Bernadette” in Lourdes.