Junipero Serra

    Today in the United States we remember Blessed Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest and missionary from Spain  and Mexico who founded the Spanish Missions of California and brought the Faith and established not only Missions but the beginnings of towns and cities throughout the region.  Father Serra dedicated his life to bringing the love of Christ to the hearts of the native populations.  He is remembered as the founder of the Missions from San Diego to north of San Francisco.  There is a statue of him in Statuary Hall in the United States Capital (with some controversy from those who want to rewrite and distort history).

     I mentioned at Mass this morning that this was a uniquely special celebration of his feast, because today we honor him as a Blessed in the Church, but within a few short months, during his September visit to this country, Pope Francis will canonize Father Junipero Serra to the ranks of the saints in a ceremony at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, the first canonization held in the United States.  Father Serra is buried at the Mission of San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, California.

 



     The Collect for the Mass today prayed:

"O God, who by your ineffable mercy

have been pleased through the labors

of your priest Blessed Junipero Serra

to count many American peoples within your Church,

grant by his intercession

that we may so join our hearts to you in love,

as to carry always and everywhere before your people

the image of your Only Begotten Son."