Alice’s Levitation at the Outdoor Mass at St. Joseph’s Church is the defining spectacle of the gathering: before thousands assembled in hope of seeing a miracle, Alice Pagett rises above the altar as the congregation watches. The event transforms public expectation into collective worship, but its apparent signs of healing are unsettled by a simultaneous weakening of those around her and by a pilgrim whose condition worsens. The scene makes the crowd’s faith visible while refusing to let the spectacle resolve into uncomplicated proof of benevolence.

The Gathering and Its Expectations

The Mass follows a report that Alice had told her mother and priest that the Lady wanted to see her again on Sunday the twenty-eighth. By the time Gerry Fenn reaches the church grounds, the village is unusually busy for a cold, wet Sunday: traffic is heavy, people are streaming toward the church, and the entrance path is crowded. The gathering includes pilgrims, believers, and the merely curious. Some arrive with sick relatives, among them a teenager whose involuntary movements suggest chorea and a boy in a wheelchair whose family surrounds him with hopeful attention. Fenn recognizes that these visitors have come with personal hopes of recovery, and he anticipates their disappointment even as the crowd’s excitement begins to affect him.

The scale of the assembly becomes clearer before the Mass. Hours ahead of its scheduled beginning, people fill the field and press toward the benches nearest the altar. The layout reflects the event’s organization as well as its devotional pull: some seating is reserved for Church and civic dignitaries and religious associations, while wheelchairs struggle over churned-up ground and obstruct the aisles. Stewards, ushers, and young priests have been called in to manage the expected congregation. Yet the shared anticipation is not simply a matter of orderly attendance. The increasing numbers bring excitement and apprehension, and the crowd behaves as though the field has already become a sacred space.

The Mass Begins

Monsignor Delgard faces thousands of expectant people, including many sick and disabled pilgrims. He is troubled by the hopes resting on Alice and fears that the earlier events cannot simply be repeated. He doubts whether the Church should take part in what he considers a delusion, but his own prior experience complicates that skepticism: he cannot dismiss Alice as insincere, and he wonders whether his refusal to believe reflects a failure of humility. Bishop Caines watches encouragingly from below the platform, while Southworth turns his attention to the crowd. Delgard begins the service despite his unresolved misgivings.

The congregation falls quiet as Alice climbs the steps to the altar. The hush spreads beyond those close enough to see her clearly; a shared tension seems to pass through the larger assembly. At the same time, the practical systems around the event falter. Television crews lose power, and a police radio outside the gate returns static as an officer tries to call for assistance. These failures coincide with mounting pressure at the entrance, where the crowd is becoming difficult to control. The ceremony is thus framed by two forms of strain: the growing human crush around the field and the failure of the equipment meant to record or manage what is happening.

Alice Rises Above the Altar

Alice passes Delgard and looks toward the oak behind the altar rather than at the priest. Standing before the tree, she lifts her face and raises her hands. Her breathing quickens, then slows and stops. Clouds darken overhead; shortly afterward, the sun breaks through and lights the field, altar, and tree. Alice turns toward the spellbound congregation, trembling. She suddenly gasps, but her smile remains, and she begins to rise into the air. The onlookers respond with a collective gasp: what they had assembled to witness has become a visible event before them.

The levitation is not presented only through the crowd’s view. As Alice approaches the altar, Delgard feels his strength draining and has to grasp the lectern to steady himself. Later he sinks to his knees, unable to rise easily; the altar servers also lose their strength and brace themselves on the platform. Those watching interpret the movement of people onto their knees as worship, and it spreads through the congregation like a wave. Some faces show tears, others adoration. Witnesses do not experience the sight identically: some perceive a radiance around Alice, while others see a small, still figure that seems to shimmer and fade. The event binds the crowd through a common response without giving every observer the same perception.

Pilgrims, Apparent Healings, and Unease

As the congregation kneels, people who had been lying on stretchers or confined to wheelchairs begin to rise. Some stagger toward the altar and gather together, supporting one another. They praise Alice and the Madonna, believing that something is happening to them. Their movement supplies the gathering with its most immediate apparent evidence of healing, and it intensifies the sense that the crowd is witnessing more than a performance. Yet the scene does not confirm these hopes as straightforward cures.

A man with a severely visible facial condition pushes through the gathering, collapses on the altar steps, and cries for help. His condition appears to worsen abruptly, and his appeal ends in a moan. The moment stands in stark contrast to the pilgrims who have just risen: near the same altar, hope of recovery and visible distress coexist. Ben, who remains standing while many others kneel, can see what is happening but cannot understand it. The scene therefore offers no simple division between believers who receive a blessing and skeptics who see nothing; it places apparent healing beside an outcome that resists the crowd’s hopeful interpretation.

The narration also connects the public spectacle with a private struggle inside the church. While the congregation holds its breath and Alice rises, Fenn is trapped in the crypt beneath the building, fighting to free himself from a heavy statue. Nancy Shelbeck leads him away from the crypt and toward the field; as they approach, she notices that the packed gathering is utterly silent. They see Delgard on his knees and Alice suspended above the ground. This cross-cutting makes the event both a public ritual and an experience approached through fear and disorientation: the congregation’s reverent stillness contrasts with Fenn’s desperate escape, while the same scene remains difficult for those present to comprehend. The levitation gathers the crowd into a moment of apparent communion, but the weakness of the clergy and the worsening condition of a petitioner leave its meaning unsettled.