On Saturday my old parish (Saint Barbara in Santa Ana)
organized a pilgrimage to one of the liturgical sites for the “Year of Faith,”
Mission San Juan Capistrano. As, an
answer to Pope Francis' call to prayer for Syria and for world peace, at 3pm the
Hispanic Community boarded nine buses and prayerfully headed to JSerra Catholic
High School where our group of five-hundred people unloaded the buses. Our parish priest organized the group and we
began our one-hour journey to the mission.
As we walked we prayed the rosary, Father read the Joyful Mysteries and
a group of young adults with instruments in hand lead us singing hymns after
each one.
Unloading the buses
Gathering the multitude
Getting my rosary ring ready.
The hour long prayerful procession gave me the opportunity to
publicly declare my zeal for my Catholic faith, for prayer and for God
while receiving indulgences and praying for the world! Each step that I took reminded me of the
great blessing it is to be an American Citizen and be able to march for my faith
peacefully. At the same time, being lost
in a sea of faithful felt like I was in Mexico where it’s typical for pueblitos to have a few pilgrimages
during the span of a year.
The kids getting their instruments ready.
Father giving us instructions
Beginning our Pilgrimage
We were a beautiful sight to see. Curious crowds came out of their homes to see us.
It was a terribly hot day when we met at Santa Barbara
Parish, but just like God provided a cloud of shelter in Exodus, when we started
our pilgrimage beautiful cumulus clouds appeared shading us from the sun and a
cool breeze accompanied them. No one
passed out of heat stroke because God is good.
Arriving at the Basilica
Inside the Basilica
We finally made it to Mission Basilica where Father
celebrated mass while the sun set.
Sun setting as we arrive.
What a great experience!
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