NOTRE-DAME-DE-LA GARDE Home Page An Astonishing Architectural Style... ...And Astonishing Particularities Our Lady of the Guard in numbers "Our Good Mother" from all directions Let's go Inside... A story of abiding tenacity living Faith To Welcome You FORUM A few books

Those who sometimes feel shocked because non-Christian believers or those who are indifferent come to have a candle burned are wrong to be shocked. Isn't this gesture an answer, albeit an awkward one perhaps (but then are we always lucid about our gestures as believers?) to a mysterious call from God? Doesn't this gesture embody the expression of a faith in a welcoming and loving presence? It is important for such a place to exist: a place of reconciliation and peace, of healing of the heart and hope. It is important for such a place to exist to welcome those who believe and those who are seeking, those who know how to pray and those who would like to learn how to. The Sanctuary is dedicated to Our Blessed Mother. The statue which dominates it , as does the one inside, shows Mary presenting us with the Christ Child. This is a perfect translation of Mary's mystery which only takes on meaning in the mystery of Christ. Our Blessed Mother welcomes us to lead us to the only Savior: Christ Jesus whom she herself welcomed in faith in order to pass him on to us. The statue of Our Lady of the Guard is part of a long artistic tradition which represents Mary presenting us with her Son. Daughter of Israel and our sister in humanity, the Virgin Mary is "the servant of her Lord": she serves Christ whose mother she is; she serves all of us, members of the Body of Christ. She is our Mother. The sanctuary of Our Lady of the Guard and its pilgrimages were not the fruit of apparitions as is the case with many other places of pilgrimage. Instead, they began with a man who came to this hill to get away from everything and give himself over to prayer: the humble beginning of a practice which the Christians of Marseilles have developed. The origin of the pilgrimage was not an apparition, but the faith of an entire people.