God’s love found anew as Nebraskans travel to Lourdes

Jolene Jefferies, a parish manager at St. Patrick Parish in Gretna, marvels at the love of God, a love connected by two dates and united by one experience of grace and healing.

Oct. 6, 2023: Jefferies lies waiting in a pre-surgery hospital room, about to undergo triple bypass heart surgery.

Her husband and a friend had just left the room, and Jefferies finds herself alone with Jesus.

She realizes the seriousness of her situation. Decades ago, nearly her entire body had been blasted with radiation to destroy thyroid and lymph node cancers. The radiation was successful but in the long term it caused scarring and damage to multiple organs, including her heart.

Before the 2023 surgery, “I had a brief moment to myself,” Jefferies recalled. “I just prayed to Jesus: ‘I’m not even going to get to see You every day. I’m not going to be at daily Mass. I’m not going to get to pray my daily rosary. I’m not going to get to have Communion while I’m knocked out, for God knows how many days … And I’m going to miss You, Jesus.

‘But you know what? I just want to offer every beat of my heart to save souls, and that can be my perpetual prayer. It’s my perpetual prayer until I die.’”

From that moment on and throughout her hospital stay, she said, she had a deep experience of God’s love. And she knew that she had an urgent mission: to share that love with everyone in her family, with every person she encountered.

Jolene Jefferies ST. PATRICK PARISH

Oct. 6, 2024: Exactly a year later, Jefferies – with her husband, Bruce, and the friend who was with her at the hospital, Chrystal Kozol – boards a plane headed toward Lourdes, France.

Kozol persuaded her friend to make the pilgrimage to Lourdes, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858 and where millions of people have flocked to ever since for healing and grace.

For Jolene and Bruce Jefferies, the pilgrimage was a first. For Kozol, a registered nurse and member of St. James Parish in Omaha, the journey was her sixth, as part of a volunteer organization that helps bring sick people from across the United States to Lourdes.

The three joined about 10 others from the Omaha area – a mix of pilgrims and helpers – on a flight to Minneapolis where they joined a much larger group of Midwesterners for the pilgrimage.

At Lourdes, Jefferies experienced anew God’s profound love for her, in the healing water, at Mass and as part of processions with thousands of other pilgrims – but also in the love of dozens of volunteer caregivers who made the pilgrimage possible, down to the smallest of details.

And those two dates in her life, exactly a year apart, became spiritually linked as times of  being fully immersed in God’s love.

Other members from the Omaha-area group also found grace and healing in their Lourdes journey.

They gathered for dinner at Kozol’s home on Feb. 8 – just days before the Church’s Feb. 11 celebration of Our Lady of Lourdes. It was the first time all the members of the group were able to all be together since the October pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage group from Omaha meets for dinner on Feb. 8. FATHER BEN BOYD

Kozol – who has served as a nurse volunteer with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers since 2017 – said the October group was special.

During her other five trips to Lourdes, Kozol said, she met “all these amazing people from all over the United States, but now I have this little group from Omaha that’s right here, that I can meet for coffee or dinner.”

“We all support one another. We all ask for prayers in our little group text for different things. That’s another grace that comes from this is you really are bonded and support one another in your faith and prayer and in all ways.”

“We’re like this family,” Jefferies said. “When you experience something like that together, you’re forever connected.”

The Nebraskans flew out of Minneapolis with the larger group from the Midwest that included people from Minneapolis, Kansas City and Denver.

Father Ben Boyd – pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in Omaha and St. Bernadette Parish in Omaha – served as a spiritual director on the trip. He said he considered the journey to Lourdes a mission trip to help sick people “to hopefully be healed by Our Lady.”

Father Boyd took with him prayer intentions from his parishioners and students from Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School and St. Bernadette School in Bellevue and St. John Paul II Academy, located at Holy Ghost Parish.

He invited on the trip his sister-in-law, Denise, who had developed problems with her nervous system after contracting COVID-19, and Deacon Randy Park of Christ the King Parish in Omaha, who has an inoperable brain tumor.

“When we first got there, I went right over to the Grotto (of Massabielle at Lourdes), and I just got hit with this wave of peace,” Father Boyd said. “The only way I can describe it is that every time I’d walk in front of the Grotto, my footsteps felt lighter.”

“It is so beautiful there.”

Our Lady of Lourdes, as depicted at the Grotto where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette. JOLENE JEFFERIES

Carol Wingler served as a volunteer registered nurse on the pilgrimage. The visit to Lourdes was a first for her and her husband, Deacon Jay Wingler, both of St. Patrick Parish in Elkhorn. 

Carol Wingler said she wanted more people to know about the pilgrimages to Lourdes through  Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers.

At Lourdes, the weak, sick and infirmed “are presented before Lord, lifted up,” Wingler said.

She called the pilgrims “brave souls,” who traveled great distances, battling various physical, mental and spiritual ailments, opening themselves up to strangers, trusting God and making themselves available to Him.

The volunteers pour love over the pilgrims, emptying themselves for them, Wingler said.

“I’ve been fortunate to minister alongside some of the most gracious, kind and caring people.”

Kozol, a longtime registered nurse, said she got involved with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers because she felt blessed and wanted to serve others in return.

She learned about the volunteer opportunity through an ad in a nursing publication and decided to investigate the hospitality organization founded by Marlene Watkins of Syracuse, New York.

Watkins has led more than 200 pilgrimages to Lourdes for more than 6,000 pilgrims and has written about her experiences in “Everyday Miracles of Lourdes.” She also hosts an Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) miniseries, “My Lourdes Faith Journey.”

Kozol said she became convinced about the hospitality organization’s work.

“I loved the idea of it because it allowed me to serve with my skill set as a nurse, but it also brought in my faith,” she said.

JOLENE JEFFERIES

A pilgrimage to Lourdes can take people thousands of miles away from home. But with the hospitality organization, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals are at the ready the entire time, Kozol said, for any needs, including 24/7 medical care.

They do their homework to make sure that the pilgrims have everything they’ll need, including oxygen, medical equipment and extra supplies of medications. They set up plans for people who need help getting to the bathroom on a plane and schedule medications with the time zone changes in mind.

“There’s so many details,” Kozol said, “and this is why a lot of people can’t just get on a plane and go travel. But with us, when we’re doing all of those details for you, it is possible for people who never thought they could ever do a pilgrimage like this.

“And when they get over there, they’re supported by a whole team of every type of discipline you can imagine: respiratory therapists, physical therapists, doctors, nurses, psychologists. We always have a team of priests and spiritual directors – not like one or two, there are many. You will find one of them who you are drawn to.

“It’s really just beautiful,” she said. “There’s a whole service team where they serve you your meals and just do beautiful things. We call them the A Team because they’re doing all the things in the background to make sure our trip runs smoothly. We hardly even see them or know that they’re there, and they do it with such love.”

People interested in making a pilgrimage to Lourdes cand find information at https://lourdesvolunteers.org/.

Kozal estimated the cost to be about $3,500 per person for the seven-day trip, which includes airfare, two meals a day, accommodations, guided tours, spiritual and medical teams, daily Mass and more. Pilgrims don’t have to wait in lines at Lourdes because appointments are made in advance, “and all the details have been personalized to you,” Kozol said.

JOLENE JEFFERIES

The pilgrims with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers  stay inside the sanctuary portion of Lourdes, so they can go to the Grotto in the middle of the night when nobody else is there to pray.

People who are interested in a pilgrimage with the organization would complete a health history and release form so the organization’s health professionals can talk to a person’s doctor.

If the doctor deemed the travel too unsafe, that person wouldn’t be allowed to go. But don’t underestimate who is allowed, Kozol said.

“We’ve taken some pretty sick people over there,” she said, even people on ventilators or on dialysis and those with debilitating anxiety, depression or trauma.

A family member or caregiver is encouraged to accompany the person on the pilgrimage.

“We try and care for the medical part” for the pilgrims, Kozol said, “because when you’re sick, that medical diagnosis kind of fills your world – all the doctors’ appointments, not feeling good, not being able to do certain things, feeling like you’re a burden on the people around you, all of it.

“So when we’re over there, we really try and take that piece away from them and just let them enjoy the week and be with the Blessed Mother and be with the Lord and let that love fill them up.”

“Of course, we’re praying for a miracle for you,” Kozol said, “but miracles come in all ways. I fully believe that everybody who goes over there receives some kind of grace.”

Jefferies said she received her revelation about love and suffering. “Suffering is the gift of gold,” she said, because God can save many souls through it.

Even though she has suffered through many medical and personal afflictions, Jefferies said she is prepared for more.

“Bring it on,” she said. “I’m ready. I get it now. I am wanting to help Jesus save souls. So to me, it’s a total honor to get afflicted. It’s a total honor.”

Father Boyd said that as he was being immersed in the water at Lourdes, “I was asking for a few things, and I felt like something interiorly happened.”

“I still don’t know exactly what,” he said.

He went straight over to the packed Grotto and thanked Mary for the opportunity, even though he was uncertain if he received anything.

“Then I kind of interiorly heard: ‘Go to the place of Bernadette,” the place where the saint stood when she encountered Our Lady.

The place where St. Bernadette stood when she saw Our Lady of Lourdes. FATHER BEN BOYD

That place wasn’t available because of the crowd, but it suddenly started to rain and the exact spot opened up.

Father Boyd said he took that as a sign from Mary that something did indeed happen to him, that he didn’t need to understand completely, but that she did obtain a grace for him.

Others from the larger Midwest group received more obvious graces, including a woman with a bad knee who had limped but suddenly was jumping and skipping. “She was pretty excited that all of her pain went away,” Father Boyd said.

He said he would like to help bring back to Lourdes a larger group of Nebraskans, from all three dioceses.

And for those unable to make a Lourdes pilgrimage, he would like to create a “virtual pilgrimage” at St. Bernadette and possibly two other parishes in Omaha associated with Lourdes: Our Lady of Lourdes and Immaculate Conception.

A rock from the grotto and water from Lourdes would be brought in, as part of the virtual pilgrimage established through Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers.

The story of Our Lady’s appearance would be told, and participants would do the same “gesture” of having Lourdes water poured over their hands and head and to then drink the water, as Mary had St. Bernadette do. The parishes also could have a candlelit procession as part of the virtual pilgrimage.

Father Boyd said he’d like to see local medical students volunteer with the Lourdes program and have it as part of their education.

Jefferies, meanwhile, is trying to continue to spread the message of Lourdes, which, she said, is about praying for the salvation of souls and loving people.

“Jesus wants us to pray for the salvation of souls and to offer everything we can for that purpose, especially suffering,” Jefferies said. “And you can suffer with joy. That’s what I’m learning from Bernadette.”

“I’m still learning so much about love,” she said. “It’s still so new to me, in terms of loving Christ and then giving that same love to other people, because it’s hard.”

But still she feels compelled.

“That’s what love is,” Jefferies said. “If you really love somebody, you want them to have that love of Christ. So now I’m bold. I don’t care if you think I’m this whack job, I want you to know this love.”

Some of the Nebraska group are pictured at Lourdes. JOLENE JEFFERIES

READ MORE FROM THE CATHOLIC VOICE: