First Catholic school reopens in New Orleans…first school, actually, since the public schools are still closed.

Mass at St. Louis Cathedral:

As residents, politicians, the military and others who have worked to save New Orleans listened and prayed during the Mass, reporters and photographers from across the country captured tears of sadness, clasped hands and smiles of hope.

"The people of New Orleans are a people of faith, and we can begin to explore the possibilities," Hughes said, hoping that the storm will stir change in the form of "a simple way of life, … less consumer driven."

Hughes said he believes the community will be "more attentive to its soul" and its people will share "respect for all human life."

That too is the hope of Sister Lilianne Flavin, an administrator at Hope House, who recently returned to her Uptown community after weeks in an evacuation center in Gonzales.

Before Mass, she recalled a conversation she had with Don Everard, executive director of Hope House, two weeks before Katrina, in which they discussed the poor and needy in New Orleans.

"We were saying that something has to happen," Flavin said, calling the hurricane a "cleansing force" that could lead to positive change "if we take it seriously."

Happy to be home in the Lower Garden District, where the former St. Thomas public housing development once stood, Flavin smiled at the fact that her home did not flood.

"We were on the better side of town for the first time in our lives," Flavin said.

Don Marshall, executive director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Foundation, said he came to the Mass because he "felt a need to be part of a community again."

Marshall said he is living in the French Quarter, but it is difficult to communicate with anyone since most businesses and other gathering spots are closed.

"I’ve been wondering where everyone’s been," he said.

Marshall predicts the city will become a "better New Orleans" filled with "people who committed to creating an integrated city, finally."

Conversation with fellow New Orleanians outside of the cathedral was music to the ears of New Orleans singer Wanda Rouzan, who lost most of her possessions to floodwaters that washed through her Gentilly home.

Along with a few of her awards and photos, "my nephew pulled out my rosary beads and my cross," Rouzan said.

She’s staying in Florida for now, but Rouzan said she will return home to do "whatever I need to do for my queen city. … The archbishop said it so clearly: If God is there, we will rebuild her right."