Peter Espeut

Last MondaY here in France, my wife and I walked into a café and asked for a menu. Along with Café au Lait and Cappuccino was an item called 'Jamaica Coffee', so being intrigued, we ordered some. It turned out to be a specialty drink: a cup of coffee laced with rum. Naturally, we asked what kind of coffee it was, and what kind of rum was used. Needless to say, the coffee was nondescript and the rum was generic: neither Jamaican rum nor Jamaican coffee. But the name Jamaica - Brand Jamaica - has selling power, and people will buy something called 'Jamaica Coffee' whether it has any connection with the real thing or not. Maybe we should copyright the word 'Jamaica' to prevent people profiting from our name!

But Velia and I are not here to drink coffee. Here in Lourdes in the French Pyrenees, Mary, the mother of Jesus (and our mother), appeared a number of times in 1858 to a little shepherd girl, Bernadette Soubirous, which drew huge crowds at the time. One of Mary's instructions to Bernadette was to dig at the foot of the huge rock of Massabielle, and when she did that, a spring emerged, which has been a font of healing for hundreds.

Lourdes still draws crowds: about eight million pilgrims during their six-month season (the winter is too bitter for comfort). This is the 150th anniversary of the apparitions, and the 23rd year that a group of Jamaicans organised by Pokar Chandiram has travelled on pilgrimage to Lourdes.

This trip, we are 50-strong, including a few West Indian resident overseas. Our chaplain this year is (former Anglican priest) Fr Anthony Aarons, pastor of Bull Savanna, St Elizabeth, and we have Roman Catholics from Kingston, St Andrew, Clarendon, St Elizabeth and St James. We are all here to do honour to Mary, who points us towards her son.

We come from a profoundly anti-Catholic society, where we are constantly under attack; it is tremendously consoling as my wife and I relax among our confreres in a supportive environment, far away from the religious intolerance of fundamentalist Jamaica.

We are a part of a group of 5,000, which includes over 2,000 handicapped children. Here, being handicapped is not out of place, as a stroll down any street will demonstrate. Indeed, Lourdes specially caters for persons with disabilities in several specialist hospitals, and there is a medical tribunal to certify miracles. On my first few visits, I was impressed by the array of crutches and walkers hung up on the walls, left behind by persons healed in the waters which emerge in the grotto where Mary appeared. There are 10 handicapped kids in our group. As we cater to their bodily and spiritual needs, somehow we too are blessed! Over the years two of the Jamaican young people we have brought here on pilgrimage to bathe in the waters have been healed of terminal carcinoma; there have been smaller, less spectacular miracles among us.

There were tears of anguish during the Stations of the Cross as we ascended the mountain, and tears of joy and many "Alleluias!" as we celebrate the Eucharist every day. Lourdes is a spiritually moving experience, and few are unaffected.

Some of our detractors spread the lie that we worship Mary, or consider her part of the Godhead. Mary cannot save; she has no power of her own, and cannot - and has not - ever worked even one miracle. But she has a powerful son who loves her, and like at the Wedding Feast at Cana, he will often do things because she asks. Our prayers to her are prayers for her to intercede for us with the one who can do the miracles.

And of course there is only one mediator between God and humanity, and she is not - and has never been - a mediator; she is an intercessor, which is an entirely different thing. We pray directly to Jesus too, which is wonderful; but if sometimes Jesus seems a little slow in answering, it does no harm to get a little help from someone close to him who has his ear. She has been given to us as our mother, and even though many reject her, she is still there to intercede for us.

It's a great place to celebrate the week of the resurrection of Jesus!