J
JKirkLVNV
Guest
If anyone is able, I highly recommend that they see as many of the missions as possible in California. It’s impossible to do in one trip and do any justice to any of them.
I was in the San Diego/Oceanside area for four days this week (I spent a week in June in CA from San Luis Obispo up to Santa Cruz).
This week, I saw San Diego de Alcala, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Antonio de Pala (which was founded as an asistancia to San Luis Rey and isn’t numbered in the 21 great old missions, but you should see it anyway. Magnificent little old church). All of the missions made a deep impression on me, but on this trip, the San Diego mission and San Juan Capistrano missions were exceptional.
San Diego was the first mission founded by Blessed Junipero Serra (God hasten the day when he is declared a saint). He assigned a friar named Father Jayme to work with the Indians there. This good priest died a matyr during an attack by natives, his dying words being, “Ama Dios, mihijitos!” (“Love God, my children!”). He’s buried under the flower of the sanctuary. There are also, in an Adoration chapel, 300 year old choir stalls from a Carmelite monastery in Spain.
San Juan Capistrano justly deserves it’s title of “Jewel of the Missions” (really, none of them would qualify as “Armpit of the Missions.” They’re all pretty amazing). I have a great devotion to Blessed Junipero Serra and the Serra Chapel there is the only standing church in which he is known to have celebrated Mass (most of the missions had to be rebuilt following earthquakes, secularization, the ruin of neglect). There is a 200-300 year old reredoes behind the altar, covered in gold leaf, a gift from an old Archbishop of Los Angeles. The silver processional cross and torches were brought to the mission by Blessed Junipero himself. The side chapel devoted to Saint Peregrine is blazing hot from all the votives left by those interceding for people with cancer. The names of cancer sufferers are written on the walls. Very moving. The Great Stone Church must have been something to see before its collapse, judging by what’s left of it.
If you’ve time, the Basilica behind the mission is also impressive and ample proof that a new church doesn’t have to look like a washing machine agitator (see the cathedral in San Francisco) or an ugly A-frame (see pics. of our cathedral in Las Vegas). It is built in cruciform shape, with paintings on the wall that are sort of typical of what you see in the missions (almost like stenciling, but more primative, in the case of the missions). As you face the altar, the Tabernacle is just to the right in a kind of niche chapel, which I believe is customary in cathedrals. It is a huge tabernacle! The mysteries of the rosary are stenciled on the wall as well. The pews are in a style that are also customary in the missions, very upright, Spanish colonial. You can see the canopaeum and bell that every basilica receives when the Pope decrees them to be such.
Also, if you love Gregorian chant, one CD for sale in the Mission gift stores is fantastic. It’s by Scola Pacifica. Amazing, though if you have problems with the idea of Protestant and Jewish men singing in a Catholic schola, you’re going to upset yourself.
I was in the San Diego/Oceanside area for four days this week (I spent a week in June in CA from San Luis Obispo up to Santa Cruz).
This week, I saw San Diego de Alcala, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Antonio de Pala (which was founded as an asistancia to San Luis Rey and isn’t numbered in the 21 great old missions, but you should see it anyway. Magnificent little old church). All of the missions made a deep impression on me, but on this trip, the San Diego mission and San Juan Capistrano missions were exceptional.
San Diego was the first mission founded by Blessed Junipero Serra (God hasten the day when he is declared a saint). He assigned a friar named Father Jayme to work with the Indians there. This good priest died a matyr during an attack by natives, his dying words being, “Ama Dios, mihijitos!” (“Love God, my children!”). He’s buried under the flower of the sanctuary. There are also, in an Adoration chapel, 300 year old choir stalls from a Carmelite monastery in Spain.
San Juan Capistrano justly deserves it’s title of “Jewel of the Missions” (really, none of them would qualify as “Armpit of the Missions.” They’re all pretty amazing). I have a great devotion to Blessed Junipero Serra and the Serra Chapel there is the only standing church in which he is known to have celebrated Mass (most of the missions had to be rebuilt following earthquakes, secularization, the ruin of neglect). There is a 200-300 year old reredoes behind the altar, covered in gold leaf, a gift from an old Archbishop of Los Angeles. The silver processional cross and torches were brought to the mission by Blessed Junipero himself. The side chapel devoted to Saint Peregrine is blazing hot from all the votives left by those interceding for people with cancer. The names of cancer sufferers are written on the walls. Very moving. The Great Stone Church must have been something to see before its collapse, judging by what’s left of it.
If you’ve time, the Basilica behind the mission is also impressive and ample proof that a new church doesn’t have to look like a washing machine agitator (see the cathedral in San Francisco) or an ugly A-frame (see pics. of our cathedral in Las Vegas). It is built in cruciform shape, with paintings on the wall that are sort of typical of what you see in the missions (almost like stenciling, but more primative, in the case of the missions). As you face the altar, the Tabernacle is just to the right in a kind of niche chapel, which I believe is customary in cathedrals. It is a huge tabernacle! The mysteries of the rosary are stenciled on the wall as well. The pews are in a style that are also customary in the missions, very upright, Spanish colonial. You can see the canopaeum and bell that every basilica receives when the Pope decrees them to be such.
Also, if you love Gregorian chant, one CD for sale in the Mission gift stores is fantastic. It’s by Scola Pacifica. Amazing, though if you have problems with the idea of Protestant and Jewish men singing in a Catholic schola, you’re going to upset yourself.
