20 Years of Sharing the Message of Lourdes

Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience ^TM 2004- 2024

Inspired in a Grace

Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience™ was inspired in a grace within the mission of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers early in 2002.  In the fall of 2002, three pilgrims from Kansas City, KS, met the Foundress of Lourdes Volunteers in Lourdes and Nevers, France. They agreed to be the first Host Team to bring the grace of Lourdes back home to their parish community. The Pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Overland Park, Kansas, was born on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes.  With his birthright devotion, he agreed to allow what was to be the first-ever Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience.  Months of prayer, persistence and planning were required. After two years of preparation, the first Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience™ was offered in the fall of 2004 in Kansas, the heartland of America.

Across America the Beautiful and Beyond

Just as our Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience™ was inspired in a grace, it continues to grow in grace.  The Pilgrimage Experience spread from parishes into schools, prisons, nursing homes, conferences and many other places across the country and around the world.  To date, more than 230,000 “pilgrims” experienced Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience^TM in 26 countries and 6 continents.  This year we will have reached all 50 States, as well as 13 Native American Nations.  We grew from one founding guide into a “team” of missionaries.

Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Spain, Uganda, and the United States.

Exceptional Times, Exceptional Graces

• In 2020, shortly after the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Covid-19 Pandemic brought life as we knew it to a halt.  However, having shared the grace of a Lourdes Pilgrimage in a “virtual” way for many years, we were uniquely able to transition to what would become “the new normal” for many people in lockdown. Responding to our plea at the onset of this worldwide pandemic, the Holy See granted an additional plenary indulgence for the faithful who experience the Virtual Pilgrimage via broadcast, live-stream, recorded television and radio program.  Grace upon grace in a difficult time of suffering!  In 2021 and 2022, 3 separate EWTN worldwide broadcasts potentially gathered millions together in the grotto of our hearts, guided by our foundress.  We will never know the numbers, but we know that it has blessed the lives of millions.

• In 2022 our guide teams were back on the road and busier than ever with the first official Bernadette Relic Tour to the United States from April to August of that year. Sharing the Message of Lourdes with the visionary’s relics, our guides logged over 44,700 travel miles—more than 1 ½ times the circumference of the earth!

• We are blessed to share the healing graces of Lourdes Pilgrimage with all those who are unable to make an actual pilgrimage.  As we like to say at Lourdes Volunteers, “We love it when Our Lady introduces us to her friends!”