Carmel Mission

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California, Carmel Mission, Christianity, Junipero Serra, Mission Carmel, religion

Mission San Carlos Borromeo del río Carmelo, also known as the Carmel Mission or Mission Carmel, was first built in 1797, and is one of the most authentically restored Roman Catholic mission churches in California. Named for Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, Italy, Carmel Mission was first established in Monterrey, California, in 1770, but was relocated to Carmel in 1771. It is the only mission in California that still has the original bell in its bell tower.

Saint Junípero Serra y Ferrer,  O.F.M., was a Roman Catholic priest and friar who founded a mission in Baja California, and went on to found the first nine of 21 missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco. He was canonized by Pope Francis in 2015.

As a Franciscan, myself, I have to admit that I am deeply ashamed by his treatment of the Esselen and Ohlone Indians who lived near the mission. After they were Baptized, they were forcibly moved to the mission and forced into labor where they were taught to be farmers, shepherds, cowboys, blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers, furniture makers, tanners, weavers and candle makers.

Disease, starvation, overwork, and torture killed off most of the members of these tribes, reducing their population from 927 people in 1794 to just 381 in 1823. When Serra was canonized in 2015, Serra’s statue was toppled and splattered with paint, as were the cemetery, the mission doors, a fountain, and a crucifix. “Saint of Genocide” was written on Serra’s tomb, and similar epitaphs were painted elsewhere in the mission courtyard.

Despite its history, Mission Carmel is still what Pope John Paul II commented on his visit there in 1987:

This serene and beautiful place is truly the historical and spiritual heart of California.

The following photos are a few of the many details to be seen at Carmel Mission:

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This Bread I Break

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Dylan Thomas, photography, Poetry

This bread I break was once the oat,
This wine upon a foreign tree
Plunged in its fruit;
Man in the day or wine at night
Laid the crops low, broke the grape’s joy.

Once in this time wine the summer blood
Knocked in the flesh that decked the vine,
Once in this bread
The oat was merry in the wind;
Man broke the sun, pulled the wind down.

This flesh you break, this blood you let
Make desolation in the vein,
Were oat and grape
Born of the sensual root and sap;
My wine you drink, my bread you snap.

~~Dylan Thomas

Sunday

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George Herbert, Jesus, photography, Poetry

O day most calm, most bright
The fruit of this, the next world’s bud,
Th’endorsement of supreme delight,
Writ by a friend, and with his blood;
The couch of time; care’s balm and bay:
The week were dark, but for thy light:
Thy torch doth show the way.

The other days and thou
Make up one man; whose face thou art,
Knocking at heaven with thy brow:
The worky-days are the back-part;
The burden of the week lies there,
Making the whole to stoop and bow,
Till thy release appear.

Man had straight forward gone
To endless death: but thou dost pull
And turn us round to look on one,
Whom, if we were not very dull,
We could not choose to look on still;
Since there is no place so alone,
The which he doth not fill.

Sundays the pillars are,
On which heav’n’s palace arched lies:
The other days fill up the spare
And hollow room with vanities.
They are the fruitful beds and borders
In God’s rich garden: that is bare,
Which parts their ranks and orders.

The Sundays of man’s life,
Threaded together on time’s string,
Make bracelets to adorn the wife
Of the eternal glorious King.
On Sunday heaven’s gate stands ope;
Blessings are plentiful and rife,
More plentiful than hope.

This day my Saviour rose,
And did enclose this light for his:
That, as each beast his manger knows,
Man might not of his fodder miss.
Christ hath took in this piece of ground,
And made a garden there for those
Who want herbs for their wound.

The rest of our Creation
Our great Redeemer did remove
With the same shake, which at his passion
Did th’earth and all things with it move.
As Samson bore the doors away,
Christ’s hands, though nail’d, wrought our salvation,
And did unhinge that day.

The brightness of that day
We sullied by our foul offence:
Wherefore that robe we cast away,
Having a new at his expense,
Whose drops of bloud paid the full price,
That was requir’d to make us gay,
And fit for Paradise.

Thou art a day of mirth:
And where the weekdays trail on ground,
Thy flight is higher, as thy birth.
O let me take thee at the bound,
Leaping with thee from sev’n to sev’n,
Till that we both, being toss’d from earth,
Fly hand in hand to heav’n!

~~George Herbert

The Paschal Homily of Saint John Chrysostomos

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Easter, photography

This sermon is read at the Paschal Divine Liturgy on the Sunday of the Resurrection in Orthodox churches throughout the world. It was written circa 400 AD

Are there any who are devout lovers of God?

Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!

Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary from fasting? Let them now receive their due!

If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their reward. If any have come after the third hour, let them with gratitude join in the feast! Those who arrived after the sixth hour, let them not doubt; for they shall not be shortchanged. Those who have tarried until the ninth hour, let them not hesitate; but let them come too. And those who arrived only at the eleventh hour, let them not be afraid by reason of their delay. For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. The Lord gives rest to those who come at the eleventh hour, even as to those who toiled from the beginning.

To one and all the Lord gives generously. The Lord accepts the offering of every work. The Lord honors every deed and commends their intention. Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!

First and last alike, receive your reward. Rich and poor, rejoice together! Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day!

You who have kept the fast, and you who have not, rejoice, this day, for the table is bountifully spread! Feast royally, for the calf is fatted. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the banquet of faith.

Enjoy the bounty of the Lord’s goodness!

Let no one grieve being poor, for the universal reign has been revealed.

Let no one lament persistent failings, for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free.

The Lord has destroyed death by enduring it.
The Lord has vanquished hell when he descended into it.

The Lord put hell in turmoil even as it tasted of his flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he said, “You, O Hell, were placed in turmoil when he encountering you below.”

Hell was in turmoil having been eclipsed.
Hell was in turmoil having been mocked.
Hell was in turmoil having been destroyed. Hell was in turmoil having been abolished. Hell was in turmoil having been made captive. Hell grasped a corpse, and met God.

Hell seized earth, and encountered heaven.
Hell took what it saw, and was overcome by what it could not see.

O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory?

Christ is risen, and you are cast down!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life is set free!
Christ is risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead.