The word inondations - French for 'flood' - can be found throughout the Lourdes shrine's website.The small town in the South West of France has been devastated after the Gave de Pau River burst its banks, wrecking buildings and places familiar to those who know Lourdes.
Nevertheless many pilgrimages are proceeding, albeit with adapted itineraries, as a result of the huge efforts of their organisers.
Why the determination to proceed?
Wouldn't it be easier to postpone it for a year?
Lourdes is a place of pilgrimage where to return annually rather than to visit on one occasion is the norm.
Travelling with a diocesan pilgrimage can be a hugely enriching experience and there are many regulars who see the week as the high point of the year.
We receive something different on each visit and bring home souvenirs.
These souvenirs are not purchased in the myriad of knick-knack shops on the streets leading into the domaine but can be those of forgiveness, insight, encouragement and friendship.
Some of the gifts are immediately obvious. The sick, often terminally ill, are able to enjoy a visit to Lourdes through the work of volunteer nurses and young carers who look after then during the week.
In contrast to much of western society, the pilgrimage is a moment when the sick are placed at the forefront. It is the Church at its best: humbly serving the weakest among us and living out the Gospel command 'when I was sick, you visited me.'
It is in this environment that the seeds of something greater are sown. The fire of a particular vocation, lit in the heart of school leaver or university student during a first visit to Lourdes, can find its fulfilment years later in adulthood.
Friendships made in Lourdes often find their destiny in marriage. The power to start the vocational process in pilgrims, often young men and women, is a remarkable aspect of Lourdes.
There will be practical challenges in Lourdes this summer, we'll need patience and perhaps there will be more bad weather. But the cost of not going at all would be to miss out on these visible and invisible gifts.