LEWISTON — Bishop Robert P. Deeley will celebrate the White Mass for health care professionals and caregivers at 10 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 8, at the Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul, 122 Ash St.

The special Mass celebrates health-care professionals and caregivers, including doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, lab technicians, therapists, pharmacists and others from all religious denominations. All are welcome to attend.

“Each year, the White Mass provides an occasion for the Christian community to thank all health care professionals for the essential service they provide to the wider community, and to ask God’s blessing upon their work,” said Deeley.

“Those of us who entered into the medical profession do so because we desire to heal,” said Dr. Michael Czerkes, an OB/GYN and NaProTECHNOLOGY specialist at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center. “Blessed Teresa of Calcutta rightly pointed out that we can only cure physical disease and ailments through medicine. Spiritual ailments, like despair or hopelessness, can only be cured with love. I want to encourage all of us in the medical profession to join in the celebration of the White Mass. Let us join together to celebrate this sacrament of love, receive love, and then take that love back to our patients.”

In many dioceses around the country, the White Mass is celebrated on or around Feb. 11, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes and the World Day of Prayer for the sick. Since 1992, the Catholic Church has celebrated the World Day of Prayer for the Sick to remind the faithful to pray intensely for the sick, reflect on and respond to human suffering, and to recognize and honor all persons who work in health care and serve as caregivers.

The White Mass is named for the color of the vestments worn on the day. White is associated with the medical profession.