Although she had already been there with her grandmother ten years earlier, María Cortadellas’ life changed overnight when she made a pilgrimage to Lourdes with the Order of Malta in 2022.
When she heard a story about the Order of Malta, which took place just after the Second World War, she was deeply moved.
MARÍA CORTADELLAS
In the late 1940s, after the war, a high-ranking member of the Order, a Catholic, was contacted by an old friend of his, a Protestant. He told him that his niece, poor thing, was dying. Her parents were also Protestants, but they had the desire to go to Lourdes. Of course, he didn’t really understand much about it, right? So in the end, the three of them went together: the Catholic, the Protestant, and the little girl, to Lourdes.
The young girl was so sick that she had to be taken off the train on a stretcher, but by the end of the trip she was walking by herself.
The great mystery of Lourdes is found in the water: 70 miraculous healings have been officially approved and recognized by the Church. That is why hundreds and thousands of sick pilgrims visit every day. They go to immerse themselves in the baths filled with water from the spring that St. Bernadette discovered in the grotto there thanks to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is estimated that between 4 to 6 million pilgrims travel to that small town in southern France every year to pray before Our Lady of Lourdes, who appeared to young St. Bernadette in 1858.
MARÍA CORTADELLAS
ORIG. SPANISH
It’s a weekend where several thousand of us come together. All united by the same faith. All united, in this case, by the same charism.
And honestly, the atmosphere is unbeatable. There’s a sense of fraternity that’s hard to describe… It’s very beautiful. As a personal experience, I highly recommend it.
But María is not sick; she goes there to serve the sick, which she sees as a dedication to God and to others.
MARÍA CORTADELLAS
The truth is that Lourdes, for me, is that long annual weekend; an oasis, a chance to put what truly matters back at the center. It’s a dose of humility that the Lord gives you. Powerful, truly powerful. And when you go to Lourdes, you go to serve. You know exactly what you’re going for.
Serving at Lourdes not only tea
ches humility, but inspires a deep love for the vulnerable.
MARÍA CORTADELLAS
Serving someone who is completely paralyzed, who can’t feed herself, whom you have to bathe, who is 100% dependent on you—even if her arm itches, you have to scratch it for her because she can’t. And even so, she smiles. Even so, she jokes. Even so, she looks at you with tenderness, and you just think, ‘wow.’
Lourdes was not just a refuge for Maria. It was a journey that transformed her life and turned it completely around.
