Issue 24 - September 2022
|
|
Mary, The Cause of Our Joy! |
|
Happily married Mr. and Mrs. Matthew and Christine Loew, married May 21st in Wisconsin. Matthew is originally from St. Mary's, Kansas.
|
|
John and Hallie Chenal are all smiles after the Baptism of their little Emma Christine! |
|
The happy event of the May Crowning of Our Lady at the Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in Massachusetts. Her sweet face encourages us all to renew our Consecration to Her and Her Immaculate Heart! Recall that Sr. Lucia told Fr. Fuentes in 1957: “Father, we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call to penance to come from our bishops in our diocese, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already very often used these means, and the world has not paid attention. That is why now, it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform himself spiritually. Each person must not only save his own soul but also help to save all the souls that God has placed on our path.”
|
|
The Summer 2022 Women's Retreat at the Red Rock Ranch in Soldier, Kansas. Fr. Rafael Arizaga is pictured here saying Mass and at Benediction. |
|
|
|
|
Pictured here holding the candle is a young woman named Amanda who was baptized during retreat - a powerful example of the beautiful fruits of the holy Ignatian Retreats! |
|
The generous-hearted kitchen volunteers during the women's retreat!
|
|
|
The smiling faces of the women at the end of the Retreat,
shining with the spiritual fruits and blessings.
|
|
The Summer 2022 Men's Retreat, also at the Red Rock Ranch followed the week after the Women's. Fr. Rafael Arizaga is again pictured here saying Mass . |
|
The many generous souls on the Men's Retreat.
May the powerful blessings and the strength of soul that are the fruits of the Ignatian Retreats remain with them throughout the year!
|
|
A Visit to the St. Mary's, Kansas Cemetery |
|
Pictured here are Father Hewko with two of the volunteer Retreat helpers - Joseph on the left and Matthew on the right - at the grave of Fr. John of the Cross.
In the background can be seen the church being built by the SSPX there.
|
|
One Mission Stop - Many Blessings |
|
|
|
Little Miguelito was baptized at the Phoenix Mission Chapel in July. Here he is pictured with his mother, godmother, and his two brothers who are standing next to Fr. Hewko, Germano and Sebastiano!
|
|
Young Urban, holding a statue of St. Michael the Archangel, made his First Holy Communion. May his love for the Holy Eucharist ever grow in his heart!
|
|
|
|
|
Young Urban's mother, Faith, kneels for the blessing for expectant mothers.
May St. Gerard Majella protect her and her child that the baby may receive the life-giving waters of Baptism!
|
|
Lookout Mountain in Georgia |
|
Everyone spent an afternoon on Lookout Mountain in Georgia, the scene of a Civil War battle which took place there on November 24, 1863. |
|
Taylor Cline on the same spot on Lookout Mountain that many civil war soldiers had their picture taken.
|
|
|
|
|
Point Park at Lookout Mountain. The site of the Civil War battle is commonly referred to as "The Battle Above the Clouds." |
|
At the New York Peace Monument in Point Park, which was completed in 1907.
It stands at 95 feet tall and can be seen from downtown Chattanooga.
|
|
At the Chickamauga Battlefield site, the 85 foot Wilder Brigade Monument. Everyone climbed the stairs to the top, from which the whole of the Chickamauga park can be seen. Time was taken to pray for the souls of the Civil War soldiers.
|
|
|
|
|
A cannon at the site oft he Chickamauga Battlefield. Behind everyone is the homestead of the Snodgrass family with their seven children. It was turned over to become a surgical hospital for Union soldiers during the Civil War.
|
|
"George Washington Snodgrass lived on the farm with his third wife, Elizabeth, and seven children, ranging in age from 4-year-old Martha Ellen to a crippled adult son, John. Another son, Charles, had left to serve in the Confederate Army.
Years later Julia Kittie Snodgrass, who was 6 at the time of the battle, recalled hearing the fighting at Alexander’s Bridge on September 18. Her father refused to leave his home that day, but as the bullets flew more thickly on the 19th, with some penetrating his roof, he gave in. Around 3 p.m. the family headed northwest and camped in a wooded ravine, where they stayed for about eight days. Though they had little food, they did not lack company. Nearby were other families whose property played prominent roles in the battle.... As the fighting ended on September 20, the refugees heard the strains of a Southern tune being played—which they happily interpreted as confirmation of a Rebel victory.
The Snodgrass House and outbuildings were used to treat the wounded, mostly Union men. When the family returned home, they found it “a gory shambles.” The wounded had been moved, but most of the family’s possessions were gone, bloodstained or in pieces. The damage was so extensive that they were forced to relocate to a campsite near Ringold, Ga. They didn’t return home until after the war." Source
|
|
A fun afternoon visiting the Georgia Aquarium. One of the attendees of the Young Adult Gathering was a marine biologist who gave many helpful insights during the trip to the aquarium! |
|
A Visit to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart |
|
At the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Atlanta, built for the True Mass of All Time in the late 1800's, before it was absorbed into the Conciliar madness.
"The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was founded in 1880. The original church, known as Saints Peter and Paul, was a small wooden building located at the southwest corner of Marietta and Alexander Streets, twelve blocks west of the present location. When the area became too commercial, parishioners made plans to purchase a new site and build a church “at some distance from the business district.”
"In 1897, an Atlanta architect, W. T. Downing, was commissioned to design the new church. In keeping with the then popular devotion to the Sacred Heart, the name of the church was changed to “The Sacred Heart of Jesus.” The architectural style is basically French Romanesque, with some variations and additions. The parish of Sacred Heart was dedicated on May 1, 1898.
"On May 13, 1976, the Church of the Sacred Heart was entered in the National Register of Historic Places, in recognition of its “artistically significant architecture.” On February 22, 2010, Sacred Heart was elevated to the dignity of minor basilica by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and is now known as The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus." Source
|
|
Back at the Home
of the Gathering's Gracious Hosts
|
|
This year's Young Adult Gathering had many blessings, not the least of which was the Baptism of one of the attendees, Kelley! She is pictured here with the kind hosts of this years Young Adult Gathering, Mr. and Mrs. Cline, who were her godparents! |
|
|
|
Mr. and Mrs. Cline with their daughter Rachel and her young daughter, beautiful little Aurelia!
|
|
Our Lady of Battles Pilgrimage 2022 |
|
This year's Boys Camp, formally titled The 2022 Our Lady of Battles Pilgrimage, took place along the California coast in August. There were fourteen boys this year!
The Pilgrims visited eight of the twenty-one Missions founded by the Franciscan Missionaries along the California coast. At each Mission the boys visited, they prayed the Rosary on their knees moving up the main aisles toward the Altars.
|
|
Mission San Diego de Alcalá |
|
First Stop - Mission San Diego de Alcalá
A bit of history...
The Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded on July 16, 1769 by Saint Junípero Serra, a Franciscan priest. The Mission was relocated to the present site in 1774 in order to be closer to the American Indian (Kumeyaay) villages, a reliable source of water and good land for farming.
The first of a chain of 21 missions that stretch northward along the coast of California, Mission San Diego became known as the Mother of the Missions. In 1775, just one year after the first adobe church was completed, the mission was raided by Indians and an open fire ensued and the mission suffered substantial damage. Padre Luis Jayme was killed in this attack when he tried to calm the Indians. Padre Jayme became the first Christian Martyr in California and is buried in the Mission Sanctuary.
Padre Serra returned to the gutted site in 1776 and began to restore the church and mission buildings. This time, however, the Padres built an outer defense wall around the complex to protect the mission in the event from any future attacks. By 1790, most to the reconstruction we completed. The church and other buildings were arranged in a quadrangle around a courtyard.
The year 1797 opened another chapter in the growth of the San Diego Mission. Five hundred and sixty-five Indians received baptism, which brought the number of converts to 1405. The land area grew to 55,000 acres. Vineyards, orchards, and vegetable gardens began to thrive and wheat, barley, corn and beans were harvested.
It is recorded the mission owned 20,000 sheep, 10,000 cattle and 1250 horses.
During an 1813 construction to enlarge the church, buttress wings were added to give earthquake stability to the façade and to provide a more welcoming appearance.
In 1821, when Mexico gained its independence from Spain, Mission San Diego was given to Santiago Arguello. After the U.S. - Mexican War and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the United States Cavalry used the mission as a military presence from 1850-1857. The soldiers made some temporary repairs to the decayed buildings in order make them habitable. In 1862, the Mission lands were restored to the Church by order of President Abraham Lincoln.
The present mission church was named a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in the bicentennial year of 1976. Source
|
|
A Visit to the Cabrillo National Monument |
|
The Pilgrimage stopped at the Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, a memorial to Juan Cabrillo who was the first European to step foot in California in 1542.
"Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition that explored what is now the west coast of the United States. Cabrillo departed from the port of Navidad, Mexico on June 27, 1542.
Three months later he arrived at "a very good enclosed port," which is known today as San Diego Bay. Historians believe he anchored his flagship, the San Salvador, on Point Loma's east shore near the land that becomes Cabrillo National Monument.
|
|
|
Cabrillo later died during the expedition, but his crew continued on, possibly as far north as Oregon, before thrashing winter storms forced them back to Mexico.
Cabrillo National Monument, established in 1913, remembers Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's voyage of exploration. Though the San Salvador stayed only six days in San Diego harbor, this journey and future Spanish journeys to the area would shape southern California’s complex history.
|
|
Father Hewko and the boys in front of Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, California.
The full name of the mission is La Misión de San Luis, Rey de Francia (The Mission of Saint Louis, King of France). It was named for King Louis IX of France. Its nickname is "King of the Missions".
It was founded by padre Fermín Lasuén on June 12, 1798, the eighteenth of the twenty-one Spanish missions built in the Alta California Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
|
|
Mission San Juan Capistrano |
|
The Pilgrimage stopped at Mission San Juan Capistrano! |
|
Mission San Juan Capistrano is a Spanish mission in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California. Founded November 1, 1776 in colonial Las Californias by Spanish Catholic missionaries of the Franciscan Order, it was named for Saint John of Capistrano. The Spanish Colonial Baroque style church was located in the Alta California province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1833, and returned to the Roman Catholic Church by the United States government in 1865. The mission was damaged over the years by a number of natural disasters, but restoration and renovation efforts date from around 1910.
San Juan Capistrano has the distinction of being home to the oldest building in California still in use, a chapel built in 1782. "Father Serra's Church", also known as "Serra's Chapel", is the only extant structure where it has been documented that Junipero Serra celebrated Mass.
|
|
Young Sebastiano
at Mission San Juan Capistrano!
|
|
|
The boys at the grave of Fr. John O' Sullivan at San Juan Capistrano.
Father O'Sullivan was born in Louisville, Kentucky on March 19, 1874. From his given name and place of birth, it can be presumed that he was partially descended from the English Catholic settlers of Maryland who later helped to settle Western Kentucky. He then attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. While there he determined to become a priest, and was accepted by his home Diocese of Louisville. He enrolled in Saint Bernard's Seminary in Rochester, New York, to do his theological studies, graduating in 1904, when he was ordained by the Bishop of Louisville, William George McCloskey.
Within months of his ordination, Father O'Sullivan was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis, and advised that his prognosis was poor. He decided to seek a drier climate in order to cope better with the disease and, with his bishop's permission, moved to the American Southwest. He helped in various parishes in Texas and Arizona. In this way, he came to know the Rev. Alfred Quetu, the Catholic pastor of Prescott, Arizona. The pastor suggested that O'Sullivan might find the abandoned Mission San Juan Capistrano in California might provide him a place for him to exercise his ministry in a manner compatible with his health. O'Sullivan traveled to the Mission, where he fell in love with the site.
O'Sullivan was put in charge of the ruined Mission on July 5, 1910, making him the first priest to be resident at the mission since 1886. He set up a tent in the ruins of the mission, where he lived and began to minister to the local community. With a vision of how the Mission had looked in its heyday, he led restoration efforts at the Mission while he recovered. Working with his own hands, he began the restoration of the church, carving new beams and plastering and repairing the old walls. As the Mission began to regain its former glory, the priest found that his health was improving.
In 1918, the Mission was given parochial status by the Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles, John Joseph Cantwell, with O'Sullivan named as its first pastor in modern times. He was later named a Supernumerary Privy Chamberlain by the Holy See, entitled to be addressed as "Monsignor". O'Sullivan wrote Little Chapters About San Juan Capistrano in 1912, and in 1930 co-authored Capistrano Nights: Tales of a California Mission Town with Charles Francis Saunders and Charles Percy Austin.
O'Sullivan died in Orange, California, in 1933 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of the city. On November 7, 1934, his remains were re-interred in the cemetery of the old Mission, adjacent to the Serra Chapel which he had helped to rebuild, where they rest today. Source
|
|
In this picture, the young Pilgrims are praying the Rosary on their knees going up the main aisle at the Mission San Bonaventura, as they did at every Mission they visited.
|
|
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the Feast of Our Lady's Assumption
in a beautiful park in Santa Rosa, California.
|
|
In the Footsteps of Fr. Junipero Serra |
|
The boys hiking along a five mile trail of Fr. Junipero Serra between Carmel Mission nd San Juan Bautista. Like Fr. Serra, two of the boys make the hike barefoot! |
|
|
Fr. Junipero Serra Cross Park |
|
The Pilgrimage adventurers at the Fr. Serra Cross.
A little history...
The Serra Cross sits on a hill known as "La Loma de la Cruz" in Ventura, California. The site is in Serra Cross Park, a one-acre parcel within the larger Grant Park that overlooks downtown Ventura, the Santa Barbara Channel, and Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands.
This cross was erected at the site at the time of the founding of the Mission San Buenaventura, founded by Fr. Junípero Serra on March 30, 1782. The erection of a cross at a highly visible point was "the first act of the Mission Fathers" seeking to establish a guide-post to those coming to the Mission by land or sea. Father Serra himself erected and blessed the cross on what was thereafter called "La Loma de la Cruz". According to the tradition, the cross was erected even before the Mission itself was built.
|
|
Relics of Fr. Junipero Serra |
|
The Chalice and Chasuble used by Fr. Serra |
|
The relic of the copy of the Caravaca cross worn by Fr. Serra.
"Fr. Junípero Serra brought a copy of the Caravaca Cross with him when he set out from Mallorca, Spain, and it remained with him during his founding of the first nine Missions in California. He kept it with him always and it was buried with him when he died. During the exhumation of Serra’s body in 1943, it was found on his chest and today can be seen in the Carmel Mission Museum". Source
|
|
|
The Our Lady of Queretaro statue at Mission San Carmel. Queretaro was the site in Mexico where Father Junipero Serra founded five Franciscan missions.
|
|
|
Our Lady of Bethlehem
The Flower of the Carmel Mission
|
|
"The life-size statue of Our Lady of Bethlehem is 5’2”, the same height as Padre Serra. She is dressed in a rich but subtle silver embroidered dress and cape and wears over her head an exquisite lace veil; on her ears are delicate gold acorn earrings, examples of the first jewelry made in California. On one arm she tenderly holds the Infant Christ, and in her other hand are a silver rose and a Rosary. Resting on her head is a foot-high silver crown made for her by a naval lieutenant in 1798 in thanksgiving for her protection during a stormy sea voyage.
"Above and surrounding her is a golden halo and rays, a piece that the Spanish most appropriately call an esplendor, a word that could be translated in English as halo or aureole. In the background is a large silk cloth embroidered with flowers in soft delicate colors that Fr. Serra himself ordered from China.
"Nuestra Señora de Belén, Our Lady of Bethlehem, is the oldest Madonna in California and the second oldest in the United States. The statue of Our Lady of Bethlehem was once placed on the main altar of Carmel Mission, over the tabernacle with the crucifix on top. Our Lady of Bethlehem now sits in a small side chapel.
"On July 16, 1769, Fr. Junipero Serra planted the traditional great cross on a hillock overlooking the harbor and said Mass under a canopy of twigs. Spain thus established its presence in present-day California atop Presidio Hill with the official founding of Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Our history books tell us that this Mission, called the Mother of the Missions, is the first of the State’s 21 missions. What they fail to report, however, is that Our Lady of Bethlehem was there from the outset. Into that first humble chapel of Mission San Diego her statue was placed, and here she would reign for one year… The statue of Our Lady of Bethlehem eventually found its way back to Mission San Carlos, which had been moved to Carmel, about five miles south of Monterey." Source
|
|
Isn't it interesting how closely this statue resembles the statue of Our Lady of Quito!
|
|
Mission Santa Barbara is often referred to as the ‘Queen of the Missions,’ it was founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén for the Franciscan order on December 4, 1786, the feast day of Saint Barbara, as the tenth mission of what would later become 21 missions in Alta California. |
|
One of the several outdoor Masses during the Pilgrimage, near the Mission San Juan Bautista!
|
|
|
Two Baptisms in Northern California - young Matthias and young Mathilda. Their godmothers are pictured here with them, who are both Fr. Hewko's sisters, Cathee on the right and Theresa on the left! |
|
Waning Days of Summer Two More Baptisms |
|
In Tannersville, Pennsylvania, little David is baptized, surrounded by his very happy family!
|
|
|
|
|
Young Sean Patrick Boulware was just baptized on September 10th in Oklahoma.
|
|
✠
September 8, 2022
Dear Soldiers of the Church Militant,
This letter is being written on Our Lady’s birthday, September 8, 2022. She is the Morning Star bringing light after four thousand years of darkness since Adam’s Fall. Her Immaculate Conception nine months previous, was the very first glimpse of dawn announcing the shining light of the coming Redemption. Then Her birthday arrived, born a beautiful baby girl from St. Anne, her mother. This day was an immense joy for the Most Holy Trinity, joy to the Person of the Son, Who would be born from Her virginal womb in about fifteen years, joy to the millions of angels, joy to the patriarchs in Limbo and joy to men on earth! Even nature burst in color and laughter at Her birth! “Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory over all the
earth! (Psalm 107:6).
Hunters know the consolation of the crack of dawn, when the animals begin to stir, the glow of light appears and darkness begins to recede. So with the Virgin Mary, Her birth announces the coming victory over darkness when the full shining light of Her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, will be born and accomplish the great work of the Redemption. He will be crucified, die, be buried and rise glorious at His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven.
Our Lord said of Himself, “He who humbles himself shall be exalted,” and He was horribly humiliated, even to the extreme of being “a worm and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people” (Psalm 21: 7). He was spit on, punched, cruelly kicked, mocked, brutally scourged, crowned with thorns, executed between thieves and at last, pale and exhausted, He died.
But He Who said “Who humbles himself shall be exalted,” was also exceedingly exalted by His inexpressible Resurrection from the tomb, His Ascension into Glory and forever offering His Sacred Face, Heart and Wounds to the Father. “Christ Jesus that died, yea that is risen also again; Who is at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34).
As with the Divine Son, so it is with His Blessed Mother! She too, will share intimately with Our Lord’s humiliations and sorrows. To what shall I compare thee? Or to whom shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem?... for great as the sea is thy destruction: who shall heal thee?... All they that passed by the way have clapped their hands at thee: they have hissed, and wagged their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying (pointing to Christ on the Cross): Is this the city of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth?” (Lamentations 2:13, 14).
Having shared in Christ’s humiliations, Our Lady of Sorrows will share completely in His exaltation. She will be exalted above all angels at Her Assumption into Heaven and Coronation by Christ Himself! “True to His words: “Who humbles himself shall be exalted.”
But as the head and neck don’t act separate from the body, so too, with the Mystical Body of Christ! The Head is Christ, the neck, says St. Bernard, is Our Lady, and the Body is His Church. All the saints shared in some way in the humiliations and sufferings of Christ and now share in His glory in Heaven. “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the suffering of Christ, in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church” (Colossians 1:24).
But didn’t Christ suffer everything sufficiently? In His Head yes, but not in His Mystical Body! The Church must still fill up what is lacking for the sufferings of the members of Christ’s Mystical Body. Hence, the desire of Our Lady of Fatima to teach us to offer prayers and sacrifices for sinners so they won’t die unconverted and go to Hell forever. The sufferings of the friends of Christ here on earth can make reparation for sin and help convert poor sinners. This is why Our Lady taught the children of Fatima that simple prayer to say when offering anything up to God: “O, my Jesus, it is for the love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary!”
In this way, when humbled with the Sacred Heart of Jesus we will be exalted with Him and His Beautiful Mother in Heaven! This is His promise! Part of this suffering and humiliation is the sweat and dust from the combat for Catholic Tradition, fidelity to Truth without compromise and rejecting the spirit of the world. Now, as a result of the tyrannically imposed toxic needles, for example, thousands are dying from its
effects. But the children of the Light must reject these because of their intricate involvement in abortion. Hence, they ought to be condemned and Catholics take the crosses that come from refusing them, regardless of what the world says or requires!
In Christ the King,
Fr. David Hewko
|
|
- Correspondence mailing address and Mass Requests and Stipends: Rev. Fr. David Hewko, 16 Dogwood Road South, Hubbardston, MA 01452
-
Donations: Checks can be made out to Sorrowful Heart of Mary Inc., P.O. Box 366017, Atlanta, GA 30336 or electronic donations can be made via PayPal.
-
To subscribe to Fr. Hewko's newsletters, the Sorrowful Heart of Mary Newsletter, and the Mary, the Cause of Our Joy! Newsletter, contact: [email protected].
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
