Indian families in Northwest Arkansas gathered at St. Bernard Church in Bella Vista to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Good Health.
Sept. 8 is the feast of the Nativity of Mary, which is memorialized as the feast of Our Lady of Good Health. The celebration began Aug. 29 and ended on the feast day. The prayers were said in Tamil, Marathi, East Indian, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Konkani, Hindi and English.
Gifted with a statue of Our Lady of Velankanni, also known as Our Lady of Vailankanni (named for a small town in India), by the Machado family, pastor Father Barnabas Maria-Susai led parishioners during the nine-day celebration of St. Mary, who is affectionately known as the Lourdes of the East.
According to tradition, the first apparition happened when a Hindu boy was delivering milk to a customer who lived far from his home. On his journey, he stopped to rest when a beautiful lady carrying a child appeared and asked the boy for some milk, which he gave. When he arrived at his destination, he was sure the customer would be disappointed that the milk would be less than what was promised. When the boy opened the container, it was full of milk.

The celebration of Our Lady of Good Health began Aug. 31 at St. Bernard Church with a novena, a flag posted of Our Lady and praying the rosary. Several Indian families opened up their homes to pray the novena and rosary from Sept. 1-4.
On Sept. 5, a Syrian Rite Mass with the Malayalam community was celebrated at St. Bernard Church by Father Aby Abraham of St. Mary Church in Paragould and Father Paulin Raj Vatakali of St. Stephen Church in Bentonville. The Malayalam families led the rosary and procession with the Our Lady of Good Health statue around the church parking lot after Mass.
On Sept. 6, a Tamil Mass was celebrated by Father Barnabas, Father Jayaraju Sure of St. Raphael Church in Springdale and Father Vatakali, followed by a procession. The next day, the rosary was prayed in four Indian languages, English and Spanish, with the three priests concelebrating Mass. The Knights of Columbus led the final procession, and parishioners enjoyed an Indian dinner in the parish hall.

“The celebration of Our Lady of Good Health, the special Masses, the solemn processions and the wonderful dinner that brought together our parishioners and Indian families was well received by everyone,” Father Maria-Susai said.
On the fourth Saturday of every month at St. Bernard Church, Father Maria-Susai celebrates a Tamil Mass at 7 p.m. Around 23 families usually attend.
On the first Sunday of the month, also in Bella Vista, Father Abraham presides over a Syrian Rite Malayalam Mass at 7 p.m. with 18 families. Both Masses are followed by a potluck dinner. Father Barnabas said he hopes he will be able to add Masses for other Indian languages in the future.