January 27 1925
THE Ulster Hall was filled with a highly interesting gathering last night, when the official film of the Irish National Pilgrimage to Lourdes in October last was shown for the first time in Belfast. This film, which extends to over 5,000 feet, was produced under the direction of the Very Rev John O’Nolan, PP, VF, Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the Pilgrimage, and it forms a splendid pictorial record of every incident of special interest which occurred during the pilgrimage. It is a faithful story of a great national event, and gives vivid and realistic representations of the soul-stirring events at Lourdes.
In his lecture dealing with the cures, Father O’Nolan said: -
“Before we approach the consideration of the cures effected at Lourdes, it might be well to say that there is no record of any promise on the part of the Blessed Virgin that cures would be effected at Lourdes.
“Even Bernadette gave no assurance to that effect. When someone said to her, ‘Do you know of any miraculous cures?’ she quietly replied, ‘They have told me there have been miracles, but I don’t know of any’.
“Again, no special rule can be laid down as to when cures take place, or as to who may be cured.
“Another point to be remembered is, that many invalids return home uncured, and the number of outstanding cures is comparatively few, not probably one per cent of the invalids who go to Lourdes.
“Nevertheless, there is not an invalid who visits Lourdes but returns home improved in his condition, or comforted in his affliction. The cures take place in the most mysterious manner, sometimes when the patient is bathed for the first time, or it may be after several baths.
“They frequently take place during the Blessing of the Sick; they take place in the hospital in the very stillness of the night, or in the morning when the patients are in prayer before the Grotto.
“In dealing with the cures at Lourdes it should be clearly understood that it is not so much the cure in itself but rather the quickness with which it is effected, and the simplicity of the means adopted, that arrest our attention.
“That a compound fracture should be cured is not in itself remarkable, but that such a fracture should be cured instantaneously after a prolonged agony of eight years, is beyond and above all scientific explanation”.
Ever since the Marian apparitions reported by Bernadette Soubirous in the French town of Lourdes in 1858, people cured of multiple diseases and disabilities after visiting the shrine provoked global interest that endures to this day.
