With May being the month of Mary, this week saw the return of Mass at the Lourdes Grotto for the boarding students. Portsmouth Abbey is now in its tenth year with the grotto, which was dedicated in May of 2012. With the assistance of the late Hugh Markey ‘40, who long supported the school’s participation in the Ampleforth Lourdes Pilgrimage, the grotto came to fruition and has continued to enhance the campus. One can read more about Hugh Markey in the excellent article on Hugh and Lourdes written by Joe Michaud ‘90 in the Winter 2016 Alumni Bulletin (page 29). The grotto has provided the venue of Good Friday and Easter rosaries, been the launching point for candlelight processions, and served individual petitioners praying there. Prior Michael also celebrated a Mass recorded for last year’s Ampleforth group, which could only hold its pilgrimage virtually, as it will again this year. The Lourdes Grotto has also added a dimension to the experience of Mass, with its lovely spring setting opening up the possibility of an outdoor Mass for the students. The boarding boys gathered there on Tuesday, and the girls Thursday, for Mass celebrated by the Prior.

Fr. Michael used the gathering as an opportunity to remind the group of the privilege of having time together, particularly to share the gift of the Eucharist. commending the graduating students to the thoughts and prayers of their schoolmates. “Now as far as being and becoming what you eat, that gets to the heart of the Eucharist. It is God that we are receiving and making part of us, literally incorporating Divinity into our body. Given that, our reception of the Eucharist should have a significant effect upon us, and it will if we allow it and intend it to.” The Prior reminded the students that the Eucharistic meal offers “a gift to make us into the gifted and unique individuals that each of us is and together are, a living image of Jesus Christ, the God-Man. So, celebrate each other tonight, and celebrate what God has done for you.” (You can read the entire homily here.)