Sharing the physical weakness of thousands of his fellow pilgrims at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, Pope John Paul II prayed for comfort for those who suffer, for the protection of every human life and for peace in the world.

Although he was fine for most of the Aug. 14-15 pilgrimage, his initial visit of the weekend to the Massabielle grotto, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous, was emotional and difficult.

Pushed in his wheeled throne to the grotto and helped to his knees, the pope was able to stay erect for less than a minute. He began to slump over, and his private secretaries came to his assistance, lifting him back into his chair.

Although the person needing assistance was special, the scene was repeated thousands of times over the weekend as teen and young adult volunteers known as "hospitaliers" pushed wheelchairs, lifted the sick with gentle care and used blue "chariots" --- similar to rickshaws --- to transport those unable to walk up and down the town's streets.

The text the pope had prepared to read at the grotto was read instead by retired French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a longtime Vatican official.

Father Raymond Zambelli, rector of the shrine, offered the pope water from the grotto's spring, holding the glass up to the pope's lips. He told reporters later that the pope was visibly moved, but also quite tired, which was why Cardinal Etchegaray was asked to read his text.

Greeting the sick, the pope's text said, "With you I share a time of life marked by physical suffering, yet not for that reason any less fruitful in God's wondrous plan."

In his text, the pope said he always has relied on and benefited from the prayer offerings of those who suffer. He asked the sick to join him "in offering to God, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, all the intentions of the church and the world."

Waiting for the pope at the grotto on the shore of the Gave River, French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, head of the French bishops' committee for the pastoral care of the sick, said Pope John Paul's obvious tenderness for those who suffer "is a strong message to new priests and bishops."

The cardinal told reporters that in the pope's recent autobiography, "Get Up, Let Us Go," he said he initially had been very uncomfortable around sick people, never knowing what to say or what he could offer.

The pope not only got over his unease, but discovered how to offer comfort to the sick, "and now the pope himself needs this comfort from the maternal hand of Mary," Cardinal Barbarin said.

Welcoming the pope to his diocese for the Aug. 15 Mass on the feast of Mary's Assumption into heaven, Bishop Jacques Perrier of Tarbes and Lourdes thanked him for being a friend of "the elderly and the disabled, among whom you place yourself."

"We have never heard words of despair or resignation coming from you," the bishop told the pope. "Your courage comes, perhaps, from your people. But your hope comes from God."

The pope's courage was on display about half an hour later when he struggled mightily through his long homily, even gasping "help me" in Polish at one point and muttering, "I must finish."

Every time the pope seemed to run out of breath, the crowd applauded their encouragement, and at one point an aide brought him a cup of water.

The pope drank from the plastic cup and continued his homily.

In his homily, Pope John Paul asked others --- especially women --- for signs of faith and courage.

"Appearing here, Mary entrusted her message to a young girl, as if to emphasize the special mission of women in our own time, tempted as it is by materialism and secularism: to be in today's society a witness of those essential values which are seen only with the eyes of the heart," he said.

"To you, women, falls the task of being sentinels of the invisible," the pope said. "I appeal urgently to all of you, brothers and sisters, to do everything in your power to ensure that life --- each and every life --- will be respected from conception to its natural end."

"Life," Pope John Paul told the crowd estimated at 250,000 people, "is a sacred gift, and no one can presume to be its master."

Although he cut a couple of lines from the homily, he emphatically repeated the phrase calling on people "to ensure that life -- each and every life -- be respected."

The crowd responded with a roaring ovation.

Pope John Paul, like most people who make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, also turned up for the customary 9 p.m. procession in the town in the French Pyrenees.

Sitting on the terrace of the Notre Dame guesthouse overlooking the Gave and the shrine Aug. 14, Pope John Paul had difficulty reading his greeting to the procession participants as darkness fell; but once an aide brought a flashlight and shined it over the pope's shoulder onto the text, the pope continued with relative ease.

The pope said the procession is a reminder that in participating with Mary in a "dialogue between heaven and earth," words are not enough.

Believers, he said, are called to "journey at her side along the pilgrim way of faith, hope and love."

As the pilgrims processed behind Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Mechelen-Brussels, Pope John Paul asked them to "join me in imploring the Virgin Mary to obtain for our world the longed-for gift of peace."

"May forgiveness and brotherly love take root in human hearts," he prayed. "May every weapon be laid down and all hatred and violence be put aside."

Earlier in the day, the pope had returned to the grotto to open another procession, this one featuring the recitation of the rosary using the "mysteries of light," which he offered the church in 2002.

Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche communities for the disabled, offered the meditations on each mystery. Vanier walked ahead of the popemobile as the procession made its way from the grotto, to the baths where the sick seek strength and healing, past the Church of St. Bernadette and to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.

After reciting a long prayer to Mary at the basilica, the pope did not get back into the popemobile, but rather was pushed on his wheeled throne across the Gave River and to the guesthouse where he was staying.

Pope John Paul returned to the grotto for a third time Aug. 15, stopping for what the Vatican had said would be a "private" prayer before returning to Rome.

The faithful crowded around and were delighted that the pope arrived and left not in the popemobile, but simply being pushed on the wheeled throne.

As the pope moved down the path, over the river to the grotto and back, a dozen parents passed their infants and toddlers to members of the pope's security detail.

The agents in turn held the children up for the pope to kiss and bless, then gave them back to their parents.

---CNS