Miracles hardly happen any more. Two of the more recent ones, sightings of the Virgin, took place in Lourdes, France and here in Portugal at Fátima. More coincidence than miracle, we visited each exactly two years apart.
In 1858 a teenaged girl named Bernadette had 18 visions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto in Lourdes. She appeared again as a blinding light in an oak tree in Fátima on May 13, 1917, to three young girls, reappearing on the 13th of June and July. Not only am I a skeptic of the miraculous, but experience tells me that nearly anything a teenage girl reports should be taken with a grain of salt. And while the healing powers of Lourdes seem to work 365 days a year, pilgrims visit Fátima only on the 13th of the summer months when up to 100 thousand people show up. We were there on June 13. Another coincidence?
Knee walking to heaven
The square on pilgrimage days is filled with the faithful taking communion from a bevy of priests before one of the several masses. Some of the penitent (or bigger sinners) scuff around the square on their knees. At other times it is an open field of concrete between the old and the new cathedrals.
