Mass at Bernadette's Parish Chrurch

This morning we had Mass at the parish church in Lourdes. This Church, where Bernadette was baptized and attended mass, was named St Peter’s when she called it her parish. It was destroyed by fire and rebuilt between 1875 and 1900 and is now locally known as Sacred Heart Parish. The church with its stately steeple, high arched ceilings and beautiful acoustics was filled with our Western region of Malta as well as the Federal region from the east coast of the U.S. The acoustics allowed us to fill our liturgy with the music that we have been blessed with throughout this pilgrimage. Bishop Vann, of Orange County in Southern California, was the principal celebrant. During mass, I thought of this spot, the ground made holy not only from the Eucharist which has been celebrated so many times on it’s altar, but from the saints who prayer here and trusted God here. We know of Bernadette who, in a life led in devotion to Mary and love of God, was canonized a saint. I also think of the countless number of unnamed saints who prayed in these pews and approached this altar, prayed at St Raymond and Nativity, and received the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a reminder that in our daily comings and goings, those faces we see, that we pass by, that we serve or are served by…those are the faces of saints, living or in the making.