July 1: The Precious Blood and St. Junipero Serra
Feasts in the old and new liturgical calendars
JULY 1: FEAST OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST (OLD CALENDAR)
The blood of lambs sacrificed in Old Testament to atone for the sins of the people prefigured the sacrificial offering of the Blood of the Son of God.
Matthew 26:28: "For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins." Every Mass is the unbloody sacrifice of the New Covenant. We remember this during Mass in many ways, especially in the Agnus Dei, when we pray "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us."
"Don’t hold yourselves cheap, seeing that the creator of all things and of you estimates your value so high, so dear, that he pours out for you every day the most precious blood of his only-begotten Son.” ~St Augustine
“Precious Blood, ocean of divine mercy: Flow upon us! Precious Blood, most pure offering: Procure us every grace! Precious Blood, hope and refuge of sinners: Atone for us! Precious Blood, delight of holy souls: Draw us! Amen.” ~St Catherine of Siena
“O adorable Blood of Jesus, wash our stains, save us from the anger of the avenging angel. Irrigate the Church; make her fruitful with Apostles and miracle-workers, enrich her with souls that are holy, pure and radiant with divine beauty.” ~St Albert the Great
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year:
"It was by his own Blood that the Son of God entered into heaven; this divine Blood continues to be the means whereby we also may be introduced into the eternal alliance. Thus, the old Covenant, founded on the observance of the precepts of Sinai, had likewise by blood consecrated the people and the law, the tabernacle and the vessels it was to contain; but the whole was but a figure.
"'Now,' says St Ambrose, 'it behoves us to tend to truth. Here below, there is the shadow; here below, there is the image; up yonder, there is the truth. In the law was but the shadow; the image is to be found in the Gospel; the truth is in heaven. Formerly a lamb was immolated; now Christ is sacrificed, but only under the signs of the mysteries, whereas in heaven it is without veil."
Read more: https://tinyurl.com/preciousbloodfeast.
The Blood of Christ Trickles Down on Adam’s Skull
The Gospel of Matthew Chapter 27, Verse 51, tells us that when Christ died an earthquake split the Rock of Calvary. Tradition tells us Christ's blood trickled through the crack in the rock onto Adam’s skull, which was buried below the site of the crucifixion. The theological reality signified is that the blood of Christ redeems the entire human race, even our first parents whose original sin brought sin and death into the world.
Most paintings of the Crucifixion portray a skull at the foot of Christ's cross. After Adam’s original sin brought death into the world, Christ’s Crucifixion redeemed the first Adam and his offspring from original sin. The blood of Christ (the second Adam), shed on the cross, redeems fallen mankind from the curse of Adam.
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When I visited the site of Christ’s Crucifixion on Golgotha in Jerusalem’s Old City, I also found the Chapel of Adam, which is located directly beneath the site of the crucifixion.
The name Calvary or Golgotha means “Place of the Skull” Some think it could refer to the shape of the hill, but Jewish tradition holds that the hill got its name because Adam’s skull is buried there. Behind the altar, a section of the Rock of Calvary with a deep vertical crack in it can be seen through a glass panel.
JULY 1: FEAST OF JUNIPERO SERRA (NEW CALENDAR)
GEORGE WASHINGTON AND JUNIPERO SERRA
THE FATHERS OF OUR NATION
FROM THE BRITISH COLONIES ON THE EAST
AND THE SPANISH COLONIES ON THE WEST
FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA
As Archbishop Cordileone tweeted on the Feast of St. Junipero Serra, July 1, 2023. "While they were starting a revolution on the East Coast he was founding the city of San Francisco with Mission Dolores. ¡siempre adelante!"
"Let's remember ALL the great founders of America this 4th of July."—Maggie Gallagher, B16 Institute Executive Director.
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"In Search of America's Catholic Founders: St. Junipero Serra" is a documentary that aired on EWTN, in which Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and others explore St. Junipero's legacy in the light of today's cancel culture and talk about St. Junipero Serra as the founder of America. You can view it here.
https://ondemand.ewtn.com/free/Home/Play/en/ACF22001
The video is an eye-opener about many aspects of St. Junipero Serra’s work, one of which is how close in time the creation of the missions in California on the west was with the Revolutionary War, which was the beginning of the fledgling United States on the east.
One Way the Missions Helped the American Revolution
On June 21, 1779, Spain declared war against Great Britain, thus contributing to the success of the American Revolution, which had begun with the first battles between the patriots and the British at Lexington and Concord in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
In 1789, St. Junipero Serra was tasked with organizing public prayers for the prosperity and success of Catholic armed forces [in the Spanish army]. Another order from Madrid in 1781 instructed the collection of donations to support the war effort:
"[E]ach Spaniard was required to donate two pesos, while every Mission Indian was expected to provide one."
Serra explained in a letter to his superior the difficulty of collecting one peso each from each Indian, "Many do not know what the word means and cannot understand that you need money to make wars. In their own experience they often go to war and are not bothered about money. Still less can they understand that the King of Spain, our Lord, should need a peso from them."
Ultimately the money for the war tax was paid from the priests' own Mass stipends, from the sale of produce from the missions, and from the collection of debts from the soldiers. And through this money, it can be said that Alta California made a contribution to the victory of the United States against the British in the Revolutionary War.
Similarities Between St. Junipero Serra and George Washington
As "The History of Father Junipero Serra and Washington" at Catholic News Agency mentions "George Washington (1732-1799) and Junípero Serra (1713-1784) were contemporaries in ideals as well as in time."
Washington is called the Father of his country, which at the time was about a 10th of the land mass of what eventually became the United States.
There are good grounds for also recognizing that Junipero Serra was a founding Father of this nation, the Father of Alta California, which was the portion of Mexico that eventually became the state of California, the thirty-first member of the American commonwealth.
He was also called the Apostle of California.
"THE handsomely-fashioned bronze likeness of Fray Junípero Serra, located in the Statuary Hall of the nation's capitol, appropriately faces the one depicting George Washington. Surely there was something more than coincidence in the proximity of the two great pioneers, one the "Father of his Country," the other a "Father" of his Church.” "George Washington (1732-1799) and Junípero Serra (17131784) were contemporaries in ideals as well as in time. They worked for a common cause, each in his own sphere.”
In spite of petitions to replace the Serra statue with a statue of astronaut Sally Ride, the Serra statue was still standing in the Statuary Hall as of February 12, 2023, according to “Junipero Serra statues have come down in California. Why does state still have one in US Capitol?”—which is the latest article on the topic I can find.
Archbishop Cordileone’s Defense of St. Junipero Serra
I’ve written several Facebook posts and articles about what Archbishop Cordileone and his Benedict XVI Institute are doing to defend St. Junipero Serra’s reputation against atrocious unjustified slanders. As I described in “Defending St. Junípero Serra, with Holy Water, the Rosary—and the Arts,” the archbishop has been using not only words but religious tools at his disposal, and he has also been using the arts. Religious tools included prayer and fasting. He quickly performed an exorcism after Serra's statue was pulled down in Golden Gate Park, as described in “San Francisco archbishop performs exorcism at site of destroyed St. Junipero Serra statue.”
Sponsoring the arts is the more uncommon means the archbishop has used to defend the legacy of St. Junipero Serra. He commissioned “Missa Sancti Juniperi Serra” from Benedict XVI Institute composer-in-residence, Frank La Rocca. He commissioned a painting “St. Junipero Serra and the American Saints” from Bernadette Carstensen. And he commissioned James Matthew Wilson to write a poem!
On July 1, 2022, St. Junipero's feast, Archbishop celebrated a Solemn Pontifical traditional Latin Mass at which Misa Sancti Juniperi Serra premiered. The Mass was celebrated in the Mission Dolores basilica which is adjacent to the site of the San Francisco mission where the first Mass was celebrated.
The Making and the Premier of Missi Sancti Juniperi Serra
Above is a link to a ZOOM session on The Making of the Missa Sancti Juniperi Serra and below is a link to a video of the Solemn Mass for the Feast of St. Junipero Serra that was celebrated at the Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco with the premiere of La Rocca’s Mass setting “Missa Sancti Juniperi.”
Correcting the Slander of Exploitation
In September 2022, my traveling buddy Stewart Shipley and I drove to Mission Carmel, where St. Junipero Serra is buried. I was happy to revisit the little mission museum and see again the sparse cell where the saint died.
At the museum website, I found a review that's a great corrective to the slander by those who are pulling down his statues: detractors claim Serra kept the conversos (native converts) in slavery and committed cultural genocide.
The reviewer wrote, "Walking through the primitive furnishings and reviewing the very basic library housed in the place, with tools and instruments available a couple of centuries ago illustrates the very primitive conditions in which the inhabitants lived and worked and the sacrifices made by the man that brought European culture and civilization to this part of America.” Instead of making themselves rich and living in comfort, at each mission one or two friars took care of thousands of conversos, performing the immense labors of making sure all were fed, and clothed, and housed, and were taught the faith and how to farm and ranch and build and live in permanent housing and were taught how to worship God in the most beautiful churches they could build.”