Sarah Ray’s husband, Casey, was battling brain cancer when she attended her first World Day of the Sick Mass in 2018.
Casey received the Anointing of the Sick at the Mass, held annually at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and organized in collaboration with the Order of Malta. When a member of the order’s Western Chapter suggested they consider joining their annual spiritual healing pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, the couple knew they wanted to go. In fact, they’d been praying to Our Lady of Lourdes for strength.
A year later, Casey made the trip as one of the pilgrimage’s “malades” (the French word for “sick”), accompanied by Sarah. As a memento of their experience, the couple brought home a statue of the Virgin Mary.
In 2022, days before Christmas, Casey Ray died. He had just turned 49, leaving their four children ranging in age from 9 years to 8 months.
The Rays’ faith was tested again on Jan. 7, 2025, when the Eaton Fire approached their Altadena home and prompted an evacuation order from a police bullhorn at 3 a.m. Sarah gathered her children and dog and escaped through the thick smoke.
The home was leveled by the fire hours later. When Sarah returned, she found the Mary statue, about a foot tall and weighing just a couple of pounds, amidst the rubble.
“I wasn’t even looking for it, but then I saw it and I broke down crying,” said Sarah, a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher currently a parishioner at St. Andrew Church in Pasadena. “It felt like Casey was still here. The statue looked ruined in a lot of ways — some of the paint melted, it was discolored. … I realized Our Lady probably felt the same inside.”
Sarah and two of her children were among the 1,500 people at this year’s Mass, held Feb. 7 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels. Many were, like the Rays, victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires who’d been invited by members of the Order of Malta to receive spiritual healing.
“We made a special effort this year to invite those who lost their homes in the fires because even without physical wounds, many carry deep emotional ones,” said Rowena Itchon, Dame of Malta and leader of the order’s LA location. “We wanted them to feel the embrace of a community that is praying for them, to know that the Order of Malta holds them close in spirit, and to be reminded that God walks with them in their healing.”
Per tradition, members of the Order of Malta handed out petition prayer cards that were collected to be delivered to Lourdes this May during the annual pilgrimage. They also distributed small bottles of spring water from the Lourdes Grotto, which has long been associated with healings.
Sarah was pleased to see the Mass include 20 choir members from St. Monica Academy in Montrose, where her two oldest daughters attend, and a third will be soon. During the offertory, Sarah, 8-year-old daughter Anna and 3-year-old son Tyler brought up the Eucharistic gifts to celebrant Archbishop José H. Gomez.
For now, the Rays are living in the home of Sarah’s parents on the other side of Altadena. Sarah looks forward to the day that she can put the fire-damaged Mary statue — currently kept in a closet at her parents’ — in a display case for visitors to see when her new home is rebuilt.
“I find comfort in Our Lady, who was human, not only lost a son and saw him die, but she was a widow — a fact so often overlooked, but I relate to all that so much more now,” Sarah said. “The Holy Family suffered. That shines a light in finding hope for any family — even if your family is not intact how you want it to be, for whatever reason.”
In the meantime, Sarah said that “realizing this is God’s plan, not ours” has brought peace.
“If you focus too much on all you lost and the earthy possessions, it’s just too overwhelming,” Sarah said. “I saw how Casey handled himself in the final months of his life and was completely transformed by his beliefs during cancer. I learned from that and I tell my kids that if Dad found joy, so can we.”
Darby Woods, a real estate agent in the Pacific Palisades who lost her home last January, was among those asked to lead a decade of Hail Marys during the rosary held before the Feb. 7 Mass. The last time she had been at the Cathedral, she was wearing ash-coated evacuation clothes at a special Jan. 9, 2025 Mass with Archbishop Gomez in the immediate aftermath of the fires.
“A year later, I’m here with a whole different mindset and I found it very healing,” said Woods, who has worked to help survivors relocate since the fires.
One of Corpus Christi Church’s “roaming Catholics,” Woods said she feels “more grounded now after so many people helped me.”
“I can see a rebirth and positivity,” Woods said. “I have connected with people from Altadena — it’s not just Westside and Eastside. We’re a family now and that’s been part of my healing journey.”
Dr. Ed Amos, a knight in the Order of Malta who lost his home of 20 years in the Palisades Fire, had a longtime practice as a neurologist at UCLA Medical Center and Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. Amos said that how he copes with a trauma of this magnitude comes as much from his spiritual foundation as it does from an intellectual, emotional, or medical perspective.
“My faith has been strengthened and my resolve has been strengthened,” said Amos, who with his wife, Chris, is currently moving to yet another temporary home since the fire.
“One thing learned about myself through this process — keep in mind I’m a medical doctor whose vocation is to be a caregiver — is I had to learn how to accept help,” said Amos, who was part of the Malta group reviewing malades applicants hoping to be in the next group to Lourdes.
“What do I get out of being a doctor? I give patients hope. It dawned on me that’s what we also get when we take malades to Lourdes. It’s the idea of letting go, and accepting help.
“As a result, I feel grateful, thankful, blessed, all those things.”
