“A charming and touching story that reminds us, with St. Bernadette, that grace is everywhere.” —Robert Ellsberg, author, Blessed Among All Women  The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France appeals to Catholics as few other places do. The famous grotto is a place of healing that attracts some six million pilgrims to Lourdes each year. One of these recent pilgrims was James Martin, an American Jesuit. Fr. Martin went to Lourdes to serve as chaplain for a group of pilgrims sponsored by the Order of Malta, an international Catholic association devoted to charitable works. During his stay, Martin kept an illuminating diary of his trip. His touching and humorous account of the busy and gratifying days that he spent at Lourdes is a vivid description of a place filled with a powerful spiritual presence. “Lourdes is now one of those places where I have met God in a special way,” Martin writes. Through this diary, we are able to share in his journey and feel the presence of God that he encountered there. A charming and touching story that reminds us, with St. Bernadette, that grace is everywhere.” —Robert Ellsberg, author, Blessed Among All Women he shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France appeals to Catholics as few other places do. The famous grotto is a place of healing that attracts some six million pilgrims to Lourdes each year. One of these recent pilgrims was James Martin, an American Jesuit. Fr. Martin went to Lourdes to serve as chaplain for a group of pilgrims sponsored by the Order of Malta, an international Catholic association devoted to charitable works. During his stay, Martin kept an illuminating diary of his trip. His touching and humorous account of the busy and gratifying days that he spent at Lourdes is a vivid description of a place filled with a powerful spiritual presence. “Lourdes is now one of those places where I have met God in a special way,” Martin writes. Through this diary, we are able to share in his journey and feel the presence of God that he encountered there.   JAMES MARTIN, SJ , is associate editor of America magazine. A prolific author, writer, and editor, his books include  My Life with the Saints ,  A Jesuit Off-Broadway, Searching for God at Ground Zero,  and  In Good Company . He is the editor of  Awake My Soul  and  Celebrating Good Liturgy . His articles have appeared in  The New York Times ,  The Philadelphia Inquirer ,  The Tablet , and  Commonweal . Fr. Martin resides in New York City. 1 A Life with the Saints During my second year as a Jesuit novice, I wandered into the community television room one Friday evening to see what video was being served up. Television watching was a popular pastime for novices living on a ­thirty-five-­dollar monthly stipend in our novitiate, located in a poor neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. In typical Jesuit style, our TV room consisted of fifteen individual recliners lined up in front of a large television, an admittedly strange setup that once prompted my ­brother-in-law to ask if, besides vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, we took a vow against sofas, too. “What’s on?” I asked the other novices as I walked into the TV room. “The Song of Bernadette,” said one, glancing up from the TV. “What’s it about?” I asked. Everyone looked up from his recliner, apparently aghast. “You’re kidding, right?” said another novice. “Please tell me you’re kidding.” I shook my head dumbly. One thing I realized soon after joining the Jesuits was how little Catholic culture I had grown up with, or at least absorbed. Though both my parents were good Catholics, our family lived in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood where bar mitzvahs were more common than first Holy Communion parties. My sister and I attended public schools, and the two of us darkened the doors of the parish church only on Sundays and holy days of obligation. As a boy, then, I was about as likely to join something like the Catholic Youth Organization or become an altar server as I was to join the circus. Cub Scouts, which most of my school friends belonged to, and where we carved miniature racing cars for the Pinewood Derby in September, sliced up pumpkins and made ­papier-­mâché masks in October, made bows and arrows in November, fashioned ­construction-paper chains for Christmas trees in December, and learned about the local “Indian” lore for the rest of the year, seemed far more interesting than being an altar boy. As far as I knew, altar servers didn’t get to make their own arrowheads. Later on, as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, I was given ample opportunities and several invitations to join the active Newman Club on campus. That organization, named after the English Catholic convert (and later cardinal) John Henry Newman, was founded to nourish the spiritual lives of Catholic students at non-Catholic universities. For thousands of undergraduates, it is an easy way to connect with other like-­minded Catholics. (Just recently, I found