St. Bernadette Parish hosts novena

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press
    
NORTHBOROUGH – “Thousands of voices you can hear … different languages. … I could really feel the presence of Jesus and Mother Mary. … Thousands of volunteers carrying the sick people to Mother Mary.”
Father Sagar Gundiga, associate pastor of St. Gabriel, the Archangel Parish in Upton, was describing his visit to Lourdes, France. He was guest preacher Tuesday at the Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette at St. Bernadette Parish. The novena began Feb. 10 and ends Feb. 18. It celebrates the Blessed Mother’s apparitions to young Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes in the 1800s.
 Tuesday was feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick. So that night the novena included the celebration of the sacrament of the sick – members of the congregation could be anointed for physical, emotional or spiritual ailments – explained Father Ronald G. Falco, St. Bernadette’s pastor.
Father Gundiga blessed the people with holy water from Lourdes, and they were invited to take some home after the service, which also included the Liturgy of the Word, novena prayers, and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
Virginia Boland, St. Bernadette’s religious education administrator, brought the water back from a pilgrimage to Lourdes with her son Father James M. Boland, and his parish, St. Patrick in Rutland, Father Falco explained.
“Members of our staff worked very diligently to put the water in the little vials,” he said, explaining that he wanted the people to take extra for their families and friends. He said he tells parents of college students, “This looks beautiful in the dorm room.”  
Joseph and Dianne Curley, of St. Matthias Parish in Marlborough, who regularly attend the novena, took a vial for each of their four children, one of whom attended St. Bernadette’s for years.
“I got one for each of my brothers,” added Mr. Curley.
Father Falco told of other ways the novena is spread beyond those who are able to attend. He said the parish sends the novena booklet to college students, and an abridged form to the homebound.
“Our ninth- and 10th-graders made novena boxes with the booklet in, so they can say the prayers at home with their families,” he added. “They can’t always get here – they can’t drive.”
The novena is also an outreach to the guest preachers, in hopes that they will in turn inspire those who do attend.
“I try to invite the newly ordained so they have an experience preaching in different parts of the diocese and experience rites like Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and anointing of the sick,” Father Falco said. Some of them are from other countries, so coming to Northborough gives them a chance to see part of the diocese, he added.
Countries included this year are Colombia, Brazil and India, where Father Gundiga is from. Bishop McManus is celebrating Mass at 5 p.m. Feb. 15, with novena prayers to follow. The other nights the novena is at 7 p.m.
“We are really blessed in our diocese,” Father Falco commented, saying that people need to see the new priests who are “deeply in love with the Lord.” He said people should not only pray for vocations but put their prayer into action, inviting their sons, grandsons and neighbors to discern a priestly vocation.
Father Gundiga preached about his vocation, and the part his visit to Lourdes played in his discernment. He told of being inspired by priests in his native India, and of discerning a vocation with the Augustinians of the Assumption at Assumption College in Worcester. But he longed to live among the people, doing pastoral ministry, rather than teaching.
“Assumptionist Fathers asked me to go to Paris to experience the ministries they have,” he said. “The only person I knew was Mother Mary.” He recalled how Jesus and Mary surrendered to God’s plan. He prayed, “Mother Mary and Jesus, please help me to discern well my vocation.”
The Assumptionist provincial asked him to go to Lourdes for a week-long retreat, he said.
“After seven days I came to a decision to become a priest” somewhere in the world, he said. Not long after that he began discerning a vocation with the Worcester Diocese. He was ordained a priest for the diocese last June.
“Mother Mary is coming to each and every one of you,” Father Gundiga told novena participants. “You are the Bernadettes of today,” and are being asked to build a chapel in your hearts.
“Let Jesus come into your life,” he urged. “Let Mother Mary come into your life.”