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<\/a><\/p>\nEverybody else in Paris was lined up to see Lady Gaga. But we were gaga for another Lady.<\/p>\n
Pilgrimage 2012, Day 10: Lourdes to Paris<\/strong><\/p>\n After stowing our hand luggage and checking out the locations of bathrooms (\u201cUse<\/em> these,\u201d Guida insisted, \u201cbecause even though they are small and the washbasins overflow, there will be nothing this good in Paris\u201d) and bar\/snack car, we settled in. The first third of the journey, which traverses France from pie<\/em> almost to tete<\/em>, \u00a0is at regular speeds over bumpy track, with stops in villages and cities. But after Bourdeaux the track smooths out and the speeds pick up, until the fields outside the windows are a golden blur punctuated with church steeples.<\/p>\n The group I sat with on facing banquettes passed the time sharing food, reviewing memories of the week, and sorting out knotty points of Church doctrine and practice. Once we\u2019d made a trip to the bar car, it was Theology on Tap: relics, apocryphal gospels, secular orders, miracles\u2014everything on the table like the card-playing traveling salesmen at the beginning of The Music Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n And then we were pulling into the Gare de Montparnasse, boarding very cramped buses (\u201cIf you have hand luggage, pile it on the back two seats,\u201d we were told; \u201cIf you have legs, leave them on the curb,\u201d the taller ones among us noted) for the whirlwind half hour tour that, due to scheduling, was all that was left of our half day free in Paris. This was OK with me; I\u2019ve had a whirlwind bus tour of Paris before, on a layover to Rome for Archbishop Schnurr\u2019s pallium ceremony, and it didn\u2019t do much to redeem the taste that Charles de Hell Airport leaves in my mouth. If there are Rome People and Paris People, I\u2019m a Rome Person, though I\u2019m told that if I ever had a chance to just sit at a cafe table by the Seine and watch Paris go by, I\u2019d be a convert.<\/p>\n With God\u2019s grace, though, transformation was just around the corner. We crossed the Seine to the Ile de France, and there we were beneath the bells of Notre Dame, where we were privileged to attend Vespers, followed by the weekly Sunday evening Mass of the cathedral parish, the best-attended of the day. Archbishop Schnurr was to have concelebrated with Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, the Archbishop of Paris, but the cardinal was out of town at the installation of an auxiliary bishop. So Archbishop Schnurr sat in the cathedra but did not wear his miter, and our priests concelebrated (one, bravely, in French!) with one of the cathedral staff. (EDITORIAL NOTE:<\/strong> My friend Michael clarifies that the celebrant was Msgr Michel Aupetit, one of four Vicars-General of the Archdiocese of Paris, and that it\u2019s cathedral custom that no bishop wears a miter unless Cardinal Vingt-Trois is celebrating, in which case all concelebrating bishops wear theirs, too. Thanks, Michael, for the 2 am email on Stuff Only Liturgy Mavens Worry About but Which Some Americans Might Be Interested in Knowing!)<\/p>\n Such a deep sense in that place, not only of Mother Mary and her Son, but of Mother Church and her embrace! Around us, ordinary Parisians and visitors of all nationalities worshiped as people have worshiped here for nearly a millennium. And at the end of Mass, all the priests formed a semicircle around the statue of Notre Dame de Paris, and led us in the prayer that salutes the Lady on whom Lady Gaga has not a patch, the Lady who is the undisputed Queen of this place and of our hearts:<\/p>\n Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae. Vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.<\/em> Salut, Reine, M\u00e8re de Mis\u00e9ricorde, Vie, Douceur, et notre esp\u00e9rance, salut.<\/em> Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,<\/em><\/a>We left Lourdes<\/strong><\/a> early on a Sunday morning, bidding our bus drivers farewell and gathering at the Gare de Lourdes to catch the high-speed train to Paris. We were clustered in little groups throughout several train cars\u2014our guides Guida and Francoise later confessed to putting some time into choosing who would be compatible with whom on the 5-hour journey\u2014and had to master standing on the correct platform numbers, which didn\u2019t correspond to our assigned car numbers because, as Guida tried to explain while herding the cats we are, \u201cthe train is back-to-front!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Alas, not this trip. I\u2019m not sure what the Red Bus folks saw for \u201csights,\u201d but after racing around the Eiffel Tower so fast that all our bus-window pictures look like the Leaning Tour d\u2019Eiffel, and pausing by the Louvre just long enough for our guide to point out how many rental electric cars were lined up out front, we were whisked to the Champs Elysee to pay homage to\u2014I swear\u2014\u201cthe only shops open on a Sunday.\u201d For the next 20 minutes we crawled slowly up the Boulevard while our local guide breathlessly pointed out \u201cOn your left, THE GAP! On your right, BANANA REPUBLIC! Look! Up ahead, it\u2019s TOMMY HILFIGER! Look at all the police and crowds in front of THE VIRGIN MEGASTORE! Lady Gaga is AT THIS MOMENT inside!\u201d As this roll call of franchises found at the Dayton Mall continued, with added special insider knowledge like \u201cThere\u2019s where Tom Cruise eats baguettes sometimes!\u201d and the flagship store of the bakery famous for those French macarons that look like colored chalk and taste like it too, we just collapsed with laughter. The climactic moment? \u201cAnd there, just there, do you see? It\u2019s STARBUCKS!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>It was amazing to be in that place, not as tourists but as Catholics and pilgrims, at home. About to celebrate its 850th year, the cathedral is a vast, dim Gothic space, only faintly lit by its early rose windows and banks of candles. Incense clouds permeate the air. The singing, at Vespers and at Mass where the children\u2019s choir was featured, was Gregorian plainsong in French and Latin, the treble voices piercing the gloom of the vaulted galleries, where you know Quasimodo\u2014Victor Hugo\u2019s hunchbacked orphan, named for the first two words of the Introit on the day he was left on the steps\u2014still walks. (Cardinal Vingt-Trois must feel some sympathy. His own surname comes from an orphaned ancestor who was left on the steps of a convent, and who was named for the day of the month, 23.) Tucked in the parish bulletin, a familiar sight: the collection envelope for Paris\u2019 annual archdiocesan appeal. We\u2019re preparing our 2013 appeal now, and I couldn\u2019t help but spare a thought for our French counterparts.<\/p>\n
\nAd te clamamus, exsules filii Evae.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nVers toi nous \u00e9levons nos cris, pauvres enfants d\u2019\u00c8ve exil\u00e9s.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nour life, our sweetness and our hope.<\/em>
\nTo thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve . . .<\/em><\/p>\n