By Josh McDermid
In a happy coincidence, the first full day of seminary for the second to sixth year students coincided with the Memorial Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. This feast has special significance for the staff and students of Corpus Christi College because our seminary grounds in Carlton contain a grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Built by the Italian community in 1941, which had clustered around the Carlton area, the grotto was the fruit of the ministry of Fr Ugo Modotti SJ from Friuli, Italy, who had been invited to come to the Archdiocese and become parish priest of Carlton by Archbishop Daniel Mannix in the 1930s. Faced with the difficult times of the Great Depression, which were then followed by the Second World War, the grotto became a place of hope for local Italians. In subsequent years, it would also become the site of many Italian families’ photos of weddings, baptisms, birthdays and more.
In one of his first initiatives, our new rector, Fr Cameron Forbes, suggested that for this feast we leave the chapel and instead have Mass in the grotto. The seminarians enthusiastically embraced this idea and prepared for Mass celebrated by Vice-Rector, Fr Brian Nichols.
In his homily, Fr Brian reflected on his own experience of pilgrimage to Lourdes, explaining that to him it is “a beautiful place of faith, courage and hope.” He went on to elaborate about the place of Mary in God’s plan of salvation, reminding us that she was the first disciple, and of the important role she plays in the lives of Catholic Christians, as well as exhorting us to “sit at the feet of the Lord like her.”
Also being the World Day of the Sick, it was a graced opportunity to pray for those experiencing illness in our own families and the wider community. We look forward to this becoming an annual tradition in our seminary.
