In keeping with the Order’s commitment to serve “the poor and sick,” Michigan Area members assisted at the Archdiocese of Detroit’s annual Mass with Anointing of the Sick, held Sunday, February 11 at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit.

The Mass, attended by 29 Dames, Knights, Auxiliaries, and family members, was celebrated by Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, ChC. As in years past, the archbishop invited members of the Michigan Area to participate in the healing Mass, held in connection with the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick.

Members of the Order welcomed those who were being anointed and presented them with vials of Lourdes water, brought back to Detroit after the last Malta Pilgrimage to Lourdes by Ed Jelonek, DO, KM.  A team of grade school students from St. Mary Catholic School in Royal Oak spent many hours portioning the water into individual vials and packaged them with leaflets about the Lourdes apparitions and the Order of Malta. Assisting with distribution of the Lourdes water at Mass were students from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in Detroit.

The archbishop and three priests conducted the anointing, assisted by Lourdes Andaya, MD, DM; Charlie Carter, KM; Andrea Smith, DM; and John Trupiano, KM.

The Gospel reading for Mass was the story of Jesus healing the leper. In his homily, Archbishop Vigneron explained that Jesus’ healing of the leper not only took away the leper’s disease, but also restored him to the life of the community and the practice of the Jewish faith in the Temple.

Similarly, the rite of anointing is about more than addressing physical illness, the archbishop said. By anointing the sick, the Church also reassures them, “You belong to us; this is where you belong,” Archbishop Vigneron said.

Paul O’Leary, KM and Eileen Newell, DM proclaimed the readings at Mass.  Dale Chiara, KM, and Terry Seraceno, DM, brought up the gifts at Offertory. Marcia McBrien, DM; Christopher Rutkowski, KM; and Kathryn Trupiano, DM, served as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. Andy Smith, KM, led the entire congregation in the Daily Prayer of the Order at the conclusion of the Mass.