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Since an Easter-morning fire damaged Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel last month, the community of ���ϲ�����, New England, has attended Mass in an interim chapel in Olivia Music Hall. But in the cool of the evening on Thursday, many of the College’s students set aside studying for their final exams to celebrate Our Lord’s return to the campus’s true domus dei, restored just in time for Saturday’s Commencement.

While repairs pale in comparison to the renovations that transformed the formerly nondenominational chapel to a place of Catholic worship, they were still considerable. Craftsmen added new layers of paint throughout and removed carbon that had accumulated on statues, candlesticks, and other liturgical articles. The floor received a new finish. Meanwhile, smoke-damaged vestments were carefully mended to restore their former brilliance. Those repairs concluded this week, allowing for the Blessed Sacrament to be returned to the tabernacle and the resumption of Masses.

On Thursday evening, students gathered outside Olivia Music Hall, from which Head Chaplain Rev. Greg Markey emerged with the ciborium, which a thurifer incensed constantly. Gathering in procession behind Fr. Markey, students sang Eucharistic hymns, including St. Thomas Aquinas’s own composition, Adoro Te Devote. The chanting lilted above the quiet but constant chiming of bells, rung by an acolyte throughout the journey to the Chapel.

Once inside, Fr. Markey reposed the ciborium in the tabernacle and implored Our Lord that Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel be spared future fire damage. The overwhelming atmosphere among the students was one of relief; even though the Chapel has only been out of commission for a little over a month, many remarked that “it feels like it’s been forever.”

By God’s grace, Our Lord has returned to Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel, where hundreds will gather in gratitude and worship at Saturday’s Baccalaureate Mass.