In the footsteps of Marie Madeleine: Logbook #3

The bells of the Hostellerie de la Sainte-Baume ring out. This Thursday, July 22, pilgrims from all over the world responded to the call of Mary Magdalene.

8 a.m., preparations

Corridors and canteen of the hotel, park and chapel are adorned with many languages ​​of the world. We hear all nationalities and we guess all obediences. How beautiful it is to see beliefs mingle around a woman!

In the silence of the chapel, on his knees, facing a metal box, Brother Patrick-Marie Bozo, prior of Sainte-Baume, is busy meticulously preparing the venerated relic of Mary Magdalene. Some followers, seated in the shade, hope to catch a glimpse of a sacred bone of the saint. There reigns here a perfume of unconditional love. Time has stopped, everyone is praying in the silence of their hearts: on one side the Catholics, on the other, dressed in red, the mystics. All and all are in communion. Today, no one tries to be right.

9:30 am, the procession

The brothers carry on their shoulders the relic of the beloved of Jesus Christ. Leaving the inn, a silence settles before the intoning of an Our Father which will be followed, throughout the pilgrimage, by songs, canticles, reading passages from the Gospels. The forest and the Sainte-Baume massif are invaded by a fervor and a love that speaks like the voice of a single being, in unison. Everyone rushes near the relics to seize their chance to carry them a few meters to the cave where the saint would have lived. What better tribute to the message of Mary Magdalene: Hear the words of Christ by looking at the world with your heart!