Marian Valley

Australia’s Lourdes - Fr Bill Stevens

Australia is a very young country – alive and vibrant. The Australian bishops, to their great credit, placed our young nation under the patronage of Our Lady Help of Christians. As our national patron, she is very dear to us and provides a great source of inspiration and courage. However, as a young nation, we have very few places where we can experience that expression of our faith as a pilgrim people.

On a very personal note I think I have found one. I suspect it is a well-kept secret that needs to be opened up to all Australians. Marian Valley, in the hinterland of southern Queensland, a half-hour drive from the tourist mecca of the Gold Coast, is the national shrine of Our Lady Help Of Christians. Here in the lush sub-tropical Australian rain forest is a place of quietness, prayer, peace and serenity that has all the ambience of Lourdes in France.

Developed by the monks of St Paul the Hermit within the Archdiocese of Brisbane, here is a place where Australians can find an experience of faith that inspires, confirms and satisfies as a place of pilgrimage. Like Lourdes, the heart of the place is the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.

The magnificient Stations of the Cross remind one of the Way of the Cross that climbs the hill behind Lourdes, and for those who will venture a little into the heart of the rainforest there is a simple shrine, enfolded in the roots of a giant tree, of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. How more Australian can you be!

Further, there are other shrines to pause at and reflect— the Lourdes Grotto, St Therese, St Joseph, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Fatima, Padre Pio, and, at the gates, our own Mary MacKillop. Truly, this is a place of pilgrimage that all Australians can make their own.

The monks have built some small cabins where pilgrims can stay overnight—you can make the Way of the Cross in the subtropical moonlight, and visit the Chapel of Exposition, and know that what we have in our faith fulfils all a poor human being could ever aspire to.

We may not have the opportunity to travel to some of the great places of pilgrimage in our world, but Marian Valley is an Australian site that is truly ours.