TO OUR LADY OF CARMELITE IN MONTECITO, CA
Our nation is connected with Mary in a special way. This is the main reason to organize; after a 2-year break caused by the pandemic, another pilgrimage of our JPII Foundation Chapter in PLD California to Our Lady of the Mount Carmel in Montecito. We went there on May 28, 2022.
Thanks to the intercession and protection of Our Lady, great things have been done many times for us, our families and our Homeland. Therefore, with a common prayer in this special place, we wanted to thank Our Lady for Her protection and all the graces that She implores for us every day from Her Son and to prepare spiritually for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the JPII Foundation.
Our pilgrim group met in the morning on May 28, 2022 at the Parish of Our Lady of Jasna Góra in Los Angeles to set off from to Our Lady of the Mount Carmel. Fr Mirosław Frankowski, Parish Priest, Custodian of the Sanctuary of St. JPII and our Chaplain, began the pilgrimage with the Litany to St. JPII which we prayed in front of the monument of our Holy Patron.
Montecito, to which we set off, lies about 2 hours’ drive from Los Angeles in the direction to the north. As always, we went on the road in a rented coach. The journey passed quickly. There was a time to pray together. And, so at 8:40 (as every Sunday in our Church) we sang the Hours, and then we continued to sing Marian songs until we arrived to the destination.
Our Lady of the Mount Carmel is an old, historic church founded in 1856 out of the need of the poor people living there. Initially, it could accommodate only 60 people. In its present form, the Church was expanded in the years 1935-1936 and so now beautifully preserved serves the faithful to this day. It was created from local building material – fired and crushed brick. All metal and wooden elements (among others: altar) were handmade and imported from Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the vestibule of the Church there is a tiny chapel of Our Lady of Guadeloupe and a beautiful historic baptismal font.
It is always worth stopping there on the way to the north of California to pray in silence in this charming Church.
Fr Lawrence Seyer, the current pastor of the parish, made the Church and picnic area available to our group.
A lot of Polish families living in that area also came to Montecito, once they learned about our pilgrimage and Holy Mass. So we went to the Church with a large group, where we first sang the Litany of Loreto to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and then Fr Mirosław Frankowski celebrated a Holy Mass for us in Polish. In his beautiful homily he referred, among others, to Our Lady of Mount Carmel presentation of the scapular in 1251 to St. Simon Stok, and thus to each of us. The scapular is a kind of covenant, a covenant of friendship between us and the Mother of God.
After the Holy Mass we took commemorative photos and then we all went together to eat. The meal time provided us with the opportunity to meet new compatriots – our guests and have joyful conversations.
Two days before the pilgrimage, i.e. on May 26, our parish priest celebrated the 24th anniversary of priestly ordination. So we have prepared a greeting and a song for Him and today we are looking forward to a beautiful 25th anniversary next year.
Another destination during our pilgrimage was the Basilica of San Buenaventura in the city of Ventura. The basilica is part of the mission of San Buenaventura, which was founded in 1792 by the Franciscan Father Junipero Serra. It was our Pope, St. JPII, who beatified Fr. Serra in 1988, and Pope Francis canonized him during his first visit to the United States on September 23, 2015.
We arrived at the Basilica at 3:00 in the afternoon and so we began our stay in it by praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, followed by the Prayer for Peace of St. JPII. After the prayers, there was a time to listen to the history of the Basilica (Krysia Czerwiński prepared it for us), and then for countless commemorative photos. Everyone, of course, wanted to have a photo with our Parish Priest.
From Ventura we set off on a journey back to Los Angeles. And, again there was a time for prayer and joyful singing.
It was a pity to go home. Fr Mirek offered us a beautiful and very spiritually rich day filled with prayer. It has brought us the power of joy and a sense of closeness and community.
We thank our dear Chaplain with all our hearts for the time spent together, for celebrating a beautiful Mass for us and the Word of God, a joyful day full of prayers and inner spiritual strengthening. It will remain in our memory and in our hearts for a long time.
See you next year!
