The Farewells at Mass and our Dinner Celebration

On Tuesday we celebrated mass in the St Pius X Basilica. This cavernous church which was filled with 25,000 on Sunday today was empty except the 400 people in the chapel at the west end of the church. Archbishop Cordileone was the principle celebrant and along with Bishop Barber of Oakland, and the chaplains of The Order, we gathered to thank God for the gift of this sacred place and one another. The sounds of the songs, prayers and homily echoed off the walls of this partially underground Basilica. Later we would have dinner together and for those to whom Lourdes was a first time gift, and those of us who are drawn back year after year, this mass and the dinner serve to seal our hearts with the grace given to us by our fellow pilgrims and Our Lady's ever present capacity to lead us to the healing of Christ. The picture here is the only one I have from the mass and will have to do for this post. However it serves a purpose in giving an upside down view of our farewell. The center of our efforts, the focus of our ministry, the call to serve is all about the malades. Always, everyone of us in the service of Christ, must seek to decrease so that He may increase as we build a more just world.