History of the Song, by Adolf Burkhardt:
Helmut Oess, a commissioned army chaplain in Baden, had to accompany a group of soldiers to Lourdes in 1972, among them many (like himself) who were not Catholics. His task was to provide a song which should allude to the goal of the trip, the pilgrimage center at Lourdes, but should also contain the French ideals of "liberté, égalité, fraternité". Additionally, it should not be specifically Catholic. Now, the first stanza alludes to the hoped-for healing quality of Lourdes, the second to equality, the third to liberty, the fourth to fraternity - but giving each an evangelical interpretation.