250th anniversary of Mission San Gabriel marks a jubilee year and new beginning

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Despite a devastating fire and a pandemic, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel will get a lot of attention this year.

The fourth mission in our string of 21 is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its founding by St. Junípero Serra and other Franciscan friars in 1771. It is, according to the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the birthplace of Christian faith in Los Angeles.

The archdiocese kicked off Mission San Gabriel Arcángel’s jubilee year on Wednesday, Sept. 8 with an outdoor prayer service led by Archbishop José H. Gomez, and attended by more than 40 priests and auxiliary bishops, local leaders and representatives of the first peoples of the area, including Anthony Morales, chief of the Gabrielino San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians and Chin Ho Liao, mayor of San Gabriel.

The jubilee year will also include the chance for Roman Catholic faithful to complete pilgrimages at local churches, including Our Lady of Guadalupe in Irwindale and San Lorenzo Ruiz Church in Walnut, aside from “the Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles,” of course, Mission San Gabriel.

The archdiocese hosted “40 Hours of Eucharistic Adoration” Thursday, Sept. 9 through Saturday, Sept. 11 at 22 designated pilgrimage parishes for the faithful to “pray for spiritual renewal in our local Church.” Eucharistic adoration is when a consecrated “host” is exposed for viewing.

Gomez presided at a Jubilee Opening Mass on Saturday Sept. 11, and also was scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 12, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. Each of the pilgrimage churches will celebrate a Mass and opening of a “Holy Door” to mark the beginning of the jubilee year. The symbolism of an open door, according to the archdiocese, represents Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the door” (John 10:1), the entry to new life and a new mission.

Would that part of this new mission be enlivening the district that surrounds Mission San Gabriel (428 S. Mission Drive, San Gabriel). The past two years have seen good businesses close, but many wonderful local businesses remain, including Nomad Ice Pops, Luna’s Mexican Restaurant, Love to Go Café and Pulciano’s Deli and Café. They have weathered so much.

San Gabriel Mission Playhouse has opened its doors, too. I am focused on checking out Blossom Market Hall at 264 S. Mission Drive for its exciting food vendors.

I forget that beautiful historic neighborhoods like this need tending and steady traffic, to survive and endure. This Jubilee Year reminds me to look outside my little world and think of others. (And if I eat some yummy ice pops and try new Caribbean dishes, who am I to complain?)

Did the Franciscan fathers, the Tongva people, the Californios and early pioneers of Alta California even dream of what our Valley would be like in 250 years? Or did they, like us, take one step, breathe in and breathe out, day by day?

The Catholic Church asks everyone to pray more this Jubilee year, and I will try. I remember what Karen Maezen Miller of Sierra Madre — author, wife, mother and Buddhist priest — once said about prayer.

“What matters is the intention, the elicitation of aid beyond my limited means, which is to say, beyond my ability to accomplish or understand,” she said. “I do this because all things are viral, not just bad things. All thoughts, words and actions spread, so I don’t want to be stingy with the good stuff right now.

“It’s never a good time to be stingy with encouragement, a hopeful wish, or what in better times might have actually been your own hand, freely given.”

Anissa V. Rivera, columnist, “Mom’s the Word,” Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Azusa Herald, Glendora Press and West Covina Highlander, San Dimas/La Verne Highlander. Southern California News Group, 605 E. Huntington Drive, Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016. 626-497-4869.

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