Lourdes is a holy place ... and an ongoing miracle. I understood it when I first read about this Marian apparition site decades ago and I felt it when I went there on pilgrimage in October 2024. I got to experience Lourdes - in-person - and discovered just how saturated it is with the very PRESENCE OF GOD AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY; it exudes SANCTITY, PEACE, and LOVE.
In particular, I found the Holy Grotto of Apparitions to be where the spiritual power of Lourdes is the most concentrated (my personal opinion). As such, since returning from my pilgrimage, I now view the Lourdes Sanctuary live webcam daily in YouTube when praying the Rosary. It helps me "relive" Lourdes over and over ... and sometimes one can even catch glimpses of unusual "luminosities" in and around the cave, which brings us to this blog.
Just a couple of days ago, while praying my Rosary with the webcam streaming on my TV, I was surprised to see a faint golden light flickering inside of the Grotto - it grew brighter and solidified into the clear form of a doorway or gate. It wasn't a bug on the camera lense, but it may also just be a natural trick of sunlight. However, in all the past years that I've been frequenting the webcam, I've never seen a light formation like it before in that cave so I took pics of my screen. Besides, it really looks like a gate, and its location and timing were coincidental with the start of the Sanctuary's daily evening Rosary at the Grotto, which I thought was significant.
passageway between Heaven and Earth?
I'd like to suppose that I maybe inadvertently witnessed the Gate of Heaven opening up in the Grotto for Our Lady to come down through to be with the pilgrims. It's completely plausible. Plus, I've captured other light phenomena in the past, via the Grotto's webcam, and have a friend who has seen them, too - see here and here.
No doubt about it - Lourdes is holy. Regardless whether the photo above is a genuine sign or not, I can vouch along with countless other pilgrims who've been there that it's a miraculous place where Heaven and Earth unite; indeed, Lourdes is a Gateway to Heaven. And let's not forget - one of Our Lady's glorious Titles in the Litany of Loreto is: "Gate of Heaven".