Mary Louise Jackson was born and raised in New Orleans. In early August 2005, she came to Los Angeles to attend a family reunion and stayed an extra month to visit family. Right before returning home, Hurricane Katrina struck, leaving her here permanently. The rest of her family had to be airlifted out of New Orleans.

"I lost everything," said Jackson. "I only have what I had in the suitcase."

But instead of getting bitter and angry, the senior citizen decided to join three other parishioners from St. Brigid Church in South Los Angeles last May on a pilgrimage to help Josephite Father Charles Andrus, a former pastor of St. Brigid, with his new parish of Corpus Christi in New Orleans. The church is located in New Orleans' seventh ward, one of the hardest hit.

Father Andrus --- who served as St. Brigid's pastor for six years and archdiocesan director of the African American Center for Evangelization for two years --- left Los Angeles in 2003. He was assigned to Corpus Christi from Houston several months after the hurricane.

Born and raised near the devastated city, the priest was shocked at the destruction, but his sadness quickly turned to determination. From that determination, Father Andrus designed the Nehemiah-Ezra Pilgrimage.

"I guess it was like when Nehemiah saw that the walls were destroyed, and said, 'We can rebuild,'" Father Andrus said. "That is the spirit of the city now. People are coming to lend support and are encouraging people to hang in there."

Depression and hope
Father Andrus said that about 10 groups have been on the pilgrimage and have helped with about 30 houses in the area. Visitors are housed in a former seminary at the parish that sleeps about 15 people.

"It is a pilgrimage to see what really took place and to be in prayer and help them in any way they can help," Father Andrus said.

Father Andrus said that though people are sitting on folding chairs, there are about 600 worshippers each Sunday at two Masses, though they live elsewhere.

"They are still driving from the west bank and they come in to fix their houses," Father Andrus said. "It is slowly coming back. It is depressing, but there is still hope."

For the St. Brigid parishioners, the four-person trip was such a success that they scheduled another in August, doubling the participants. Still more parishioners wanted to go and a third trip is planned for mid-January, to coincide with Martin Luther King Day.

Josephite Father Robert Kearns, St. Brigid's current pastor, said many of his parishioners are from Louisiana and he felt it was important to show solidarity beyond sending money. He said that he "felt honored" that his parishioners would respond to the call so generously.

"When they came back, I was surprised at their enthusiasm," Father Kearns said. "It was their spirit that prompted me to set another date."

St. Brigid parishioner Mabel De La Rosa decided to go on the trip, though she had no relatives from the area and she had to use vacation time from work. She found the experience so fulfilling that she attended the second and plans to make this month's trip.

"It was very emotional when we first got there," De La Rosa said. "Once you came back, your really felt like you had done something for someone."

'Treated like royalty'
Though parishioner Dana Keller had never been to Louisiana, both of her parents were born there. When she was leaving for the pilgrimage, her grandmother gave her the names of some relatives. Without knowing it or arranging it, the group ended up working on the house of one Keller's family members.

"Everything was pretty much ruined," she said of her relative's house. "It was emotional for her."

Parishioner John Beatty attended the second trip and later went back on his own with his wife, Darrelyn, who is from New Orleans.

"We were treated like royalty," Beatty said. "They wanted us to really relax at night. With the dust and the mold flying around during the day and the heat, they knew we were going to be hot."

St. Brigid's George Davis went to Corpus Christi on a separate trip in September and worked with a group of Josephite seminarians from Nigeria. He said that it took about three days for five men to gut a house.

"It was absolutely emotional," he said. "It is a balancing act. You know in your heart (while you're working) that maybe this house is not salvageable."

According to parishioner Jo Anne Taylor, who also attended both pilgrimages, there was an improvement in the three months between visits. By the second trip, there was electricity on the block, streets lights were working and a couple of businesses were open.

The hurricane displaced St. Brigid parishioner Renee Murray's son, daughter, grandchildren and sister. She said that she knew she had to go on the pilgrimage and help in some way after the parish had taken in her daughter, Dawn Evans, and allowed her and her three children to live in a house next to the church for about a year.

Evans said that she's now found a new family in St. Brigid's parishioners, whom she said have "been a blessing."

"We lost everything, that was the hardest part," she said. "But we've made new memories. Thank God we were here to make new memories."

'We could restore a dream'
Father Richard Martini, pastor of Transfiguration Parish, Los Angeles went on the Nehemiah-Ezra Pilgrimage in April with 11 members of the youth ministry group along with Joanne Dunn, youth ministry director and two chaperones.

"Our hope was to make it a truly spiritual pilgrimage," Father Martini said.

When the group went, the rectory still did not yet have electricity and the students slept on the floor. Father Martini said that the group worked on house that belonged to the woman's mother, who had spent many years saving to buy it. Finally, at 70 years old, she bought her first house 18 months before Katrina hit, destroying it.

"We put on masks and gloves took our crow bars and took out the dry wall and piled it on the curb and a dump truck would come and carry it off," he said. "The kids did a great job. In two days' time, we were able to clean out her closets. When we were finished, you could see from one end of the house through the other."

"We weren't just working on a house, Father Martini continued. "We were helping someone whose dreams were shattered. We could restore a dream. It was a blessing for us."

He said that the experience showed the students that all people are part of the same body and that people in California "were able to reach out to people in New Orleans." He said that the students were able to see the "mystery of how God works through the human community to do rebuilding."

"Maybe," Father Martini said, "that is where the miracle was."

To help the parish, send monetary donations to Corpus Christi Parish, 2022 St. Bernard Ave., New Orleans, LA 70116.