Ron Tecson Post# 13 "The Big Picture" 4/21

I was doing my research about Lourdes, France and found an article in the Bulletin of the history of Medicine Journal an article entitled, Seeing Is Believing? The Form and Substance of French Medical Debates over Lourdes. In this article, Jason Szabo reasserted the extent to which the medical community remained divided, along religious lines, over the existence and nature of the cures taking place at Lourdes well into the twentieth century, while analyzing how Catholic physicians were able to create an aura of therapeutic credibility around the cures. Szabo states that recent works on Lourdes have tended to emphasize the positive personal, social, and spiritual aspects of a pilgrimage, while downplaying the role of religious politics in the events at Lourdes. Szabo had successfully presented both sides of the argument, the believers versus the non-believers, by listing down multiple cases of illnesses that are healed through miracles and those cases that are disputed through science by non-believers.
I figured that most people go to Lourdes seeking to be healed miraculously and there is nothing wrong with that except that because they are too focused about this matter, they might miss out the true essence of the Pilgrimage along the way.

Ron Tecson Post # 12 " A trip that changed her life" 4/21

I was reading Ann Matter's article in Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality,entitled Lourdes: A Pilgrim After All. In March of 1997, following almost a year of treatment for cancer, Ann Matter went to Lourdes for the first time. A devout Catholic, Matter did not seriously thought that she would go to a healing shrine like Lourdes but her experience of illness and healing changed her status from non-believer to a believer, from a tourist to a Pilgrim. This article is actually composition of her reflections from her first trip to Lourdes, France. She candidly described everything from the moment she arrived in Lourdes until the last night before her departure. Pilgrimages definitely do change life. It's not a matter of if it will change your life but how much it will change your life. I think its the fact that when we are doing a pilgrimage, we are away from all the distractions that we have in our lives preventing us to meditate and find our purpose and direction in life.

Ron Tecson Post# 1 "Siddharta" 2/04

I read the novel Siddharta by Herman Hesse. Siddharta Gautama is a young man who left his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, Siddharta moves on again.He decided to run away from the crowded and noisy city and heads to the wilderness. Siddharta will later become Buddha or the Enlightened One. One day, Siddharta was admiring the magnificent beauty of the river in the wilderness,"He saw bright pearls rise from depths, bubbles swimming on the mirror, sky blue reflected in them. The river looked at him with a thousand eyes-.....In his heart he heard the newly awakened voice speak and said to him:"Love this river, stay by it, learn from it."" This phrase started the journey of Siddharta to become the Enlightened one. Siddharta achieved his enlightenment not while he was living in the city but in the wilderness where he found peace and heard the sound from the river that changed his life forever. This shows how the interaction between man and nature, awakens the spiritual senses of man. We can not physically see the eyes of the river or hear the voices of the trees, and yet in our hearts we know that they all exist. We must look and listen not with our eyes and ears but by with our hearts, we will be able to interact intimately with nature. Hopefully in doing so, we will be enlightened with the true meaning of life, just like the experience of Buddha.