News: July is the month of the Precious Blood of Christ in which we commentate with many feast days along with our nation’s birth and of course this year we celebrate its 250 anniversary. In my recent travels I was fortunate to visit two of the oldest catholic churches in North America. The First was the French church of St. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec with all the charms of the Old city of Quebec. The parish dates back to the 16 hundreds; the other church was St. John the Baptist in old San Juan Puerto Rico established at the time of Columbus. These events caused me to contemplate the presence of the Catholic church in this land and how she predates the English settlements we recognize as the founding of our nation. It also reminded me of a book I read titled “Our Lady Our Land”, which was about the Spanish and French missionary settlements in America. The French up north explored and brought the word of God to the inhabitants by navigating the many rivers. The Spanish brought the horses and established missions in the south. They both had a name for the great river we know as the Mississippi river. The Spanish named it As Spritu Sancto, or The Holy Spirit river. The French called it the Immaculate Conception. The mighty Mississippi divides the United States of America in half, in fact the great majority of its land mass falls within the greater watershed of the great river. I find it comforting to know that Catholics, whether French or Spanish , acknowledged the river with the same name. It was the Parish priest at Lourdes who is quoted with the response to St. Bernadette when she told him the name of the Lady who was appearing to her; “She said, She is the Immaculate Conception.” He said to her, “ How can this be? That is like saying I am the Holy Spirit.” We know that one of Mary’s many titles is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, we also know that the nuptial union as stated in Genesis is that husband and wife become one.” I have concluded from this that Mary’s appearances throughout the world in these latter days is really the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, whether at Guadulupe, or Lourdes or Fatima. The Holy Spirit is renewing the face of the earth through Mary as prophesied in Joel; “I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind in the last days.” Let us take advantage of this great grace and offer to the Father the Precious Blood of his Son in union with the Holy Spirit; through the Great Mother of God, Mary most holy, “for all generations will call me blessed. I would like to extend an invitation to you to attend our First Saturday devotion and cookout this First Saturday which is also the Fourth of July to help celebrate the renewal of Faith in our Land and its birthday.
July 3rd: First Friday Devotion: Mass at 7 pm followed by all night Eucharistic Adoration until 8:am Saturday morning ending with benediction. Come join us. We are always looking for adorers to cover those overnight hours.
July 4th: First Saturday Devotion at the shrine; 9:00a.m Holy Mass, Rosary, Confessions. Followed by our annual 4th of July cookout. The Spanish Rosary Community will hold their monthly First Saturday meeting at the shrine with a rosary, music and fellowship at 3:00 pm.
July 13th: Candlelight procession: We will start with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at 8:00 pm followed by a Rosary procession and end with benediction. I hope you can join us.
July 18th: The Pro-life Mass will be held on Saturday the 18th at 10:30 am. Following Mass there will be a pro-life rosary
