From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   July 1st - Bl. Junípero Serra   
      
   . . When Father Junípero Serra founded California's first mission in 1769,   
   he   
   was 56 years old and asthmatic, with a chronic sore on his leg that troubled   
   him   
   for the rest of his life, and he suffered frequently from other illnesses,   
   as   
   well. He stood just 5 feet, 2 inches, and, as a journalist later wrote, "He   
   certainly didn't look like the man who would one day be known as the Apostle   
   of   
   California." Yet he endured the hardships of the frontier and pressed   
   forward   
   with remarkable determination to fulfill his purpose: to convert the Native   
   Americans of California to Christianity.   
      
   . . In pursuit of that goal, Father Serra walked thousands of miles between   
   San   
   Diego and Monterey and even Mexico City. He traveled the seas, also; and by   
   the   
   time he died August 28, 1784, in Carmel he had founded nine missions,   
   introduced   
   agriculture and irrigation techniques, and the Spanish language. He had   
   battled   
   governors, bureaucrats and military commanders to secure a system of laws to   
   protect the California Indians from at least some of the injustices   
   inflicted by   
   the Spanish soldiers whose practices often were in conflict with Father   
   Serra's.   
      
   . . Father Serra had been a philosophy professor and distinguished preacher   
   at   
   the Convent of San Francisco in Mallorca, the Spanish island where he was   
   born   
   in 1713. He was 36 years old when he reached the port of Vera Cruz, Mexico,   
   on   
   December 8, 1749, and walked to Mexico City. ( It was during that journey of   
   24   
   days that an insect bite caused the sore on his leg that sometimes became so   
   painful he had difficulty walking. ) He spent 17 years in missionary work in   
   the   
   Sierra Gorda in the present area of North-Central Mexico. In 1767 he became   
   president of the 14 missions in Baja California, originally founded by the   
   Jesuits, then turned over to the Franciscans.   
      
   . . At that time, faced with the threat of Russian colonization from the   
   north,   
   Spain had committed itself to pushing northward into what is now the   
   American   
   state of California. Russian America (Alaska) was only 800 miles away. Spain   
   feared that Russia would push south and gain a firm foothold in Alta   
   California.   
   The Spanish military launched an expedition into California in 1769 under   
   the   
   leadership of Gaspar de Portola. Father Serra set out with them to establish   
   missions.   
      
   . . Serra's blessing of the site of Mission San Diego de Alcala on July 16,   
   1769, marked the beginning of the European settlement of California.   
      
   . . Between the years of 1796 and 1784, Father Serra made six voyages by sea   
   totaling 5,400 miles. He traveled by land the distance between Monterey and   
   San   
   Francisco eight times, Monterey and San Antonio 11 times, His longest   
   journey by   
   land was from Monterey to Mexico City. In total, he traveled well over 5,500   
   miles by land.   
      
   . . Father Serra arrived at Monterey aboard the sailing ship San Antonio on   
   June   
   1, 1770. He celebrated the first Mass on June 3, 1770, on the shore of   
   Monterey   
   Bay, where we now find the city of Monterey.   
      
   . . He returned to San Diego to work on the mission there, then founded   
   Mission   
   San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the year of the American Declaration of   
   Independence.   
      
   . . When Father Serra died in 1784 he had established nine California   
   missions   
   and baptized 6,000 Indians, about 10 percent of the California Native   
   American   
   population. Those nine missions grew to 21. Today, more than 60 percent of   
   the   
   state's nearly 26 million people live in areas surrounding the missions, and   
   El   
   Camino Real, the road that Father Serra traveled on a tour of the missions   
   shortly before this death, established a major artery running much of the   
   length   
   of the state.   
      
   August 28th is the anniversary of the death of Father Serra, and is set   
   aside in   
   special remembrance of his many contributions to the Catholic Church in   
   America.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Pray always and don't doubt that God keeps you in His divine arms and that   
   the   
   time   
   will come when He will teach you His most holy Will.   
   -St. Paul   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself.   
   (John   
   12:32)   
      
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O Mother of God, Queen of angels and hope of men, give ear to one who calls   
   upon   
   thee and has recourse to thy protection. Behold me this day prostrate at thy   
   feet; I, a miserable slave of hell, devote myself entirely to thee. I desire   
   to   
   be forever thy servant. I offer myself to serve and honor thee to the utmost   
   of   
   my power during the whole of my life.   
      
   I know that the service of one so vile and miserable can be no honor to   
   thee,   
   since I have so grievously offended Jesus, thy Son and my Redeemer. But if   
   thou   
   wilt accept one so unworthy for thy servant, and by thy intercession change   
   me,   
   and thus making me worthy, this very mercy will give thee that honor which   
   so   
   miserable a wretch as I can never give thee.   
      
   Receive me, then, and reject me not, O my Mother. The Eternal Word came from   
   heaven on earth to seek for lost sheep, and to save them he became thy Son.   
   And   
   when one of them goes to thee to find Jesus, wilt thou despise it?   
      
   The price of my salvation is already paid; my Savior has already shed his   
   blood,   
   which suffices to save an infinity of worlds. This blood has only to be   
   applied   
   even to such a one as I am. And that is thy office, O Blessed Virgin; to   
   thee   
   does it belong, as I am told by St. Bernard, to dispense the merits of this   
   blood to whom thou pleasest. To thee does it belong, says St. Bonaventure,   
   to   
   save whomsoever thou willest, "whomsoever thou willest will be saved" ("Quem   
   vis, ipse salvus erit").   
      
   Oh, then, help me, my Queen; my Queen, save me. To thee do I this day   
   consecrate   
   my whole soul; do thou save it. O salvation of those who invoke thee, I   
   conclude   
   in the words of the same saint, "O salvation of those who call upon thee, do   
   thou save me" ("O Salus te invocantium!").   
   Amen.   
   -From The Glories Of Mary, by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori:   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)