A trio of twenty-something young adults and their dog Laika walked more than 800 miles in the footsteps of St. Junipero Serra on a Lenten pilgrimage to pray for California that spanned the 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Vigil.
Hope Waterman, 27, Matthew Geier, 27 and John Paul Hanson, 24, began walking after the 7 a.m. Ash Wednesday Mass at the first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá, and concluded in time for Easter Vigil in Sonoma, where the 21st and farthest north California mission was founded by the Franciscan friars.
“The thing I could do to bring about the radical reconversion of California was to pray to the man who brought the faith to California in the first place and to walk the missions of California as a prayer and penance for the salvation of California,” said Waterman, an emergency medical technician in Wyoming who grew up in California and in Texas. “I decided to do it in Lent and start off on Ash Wednesday.”
It was the vilification of St. Junipero Serra – a saint canonized in 2015 by Pope Francis during his visit to the U.S. – that led Geier to join the 46-day pilgrimage organized by Hope Waterman. “The idea that someone who is a canonized saint in the Catholic Church, that he’s having his name and reputation smeared through the mud by people who did not know that he had such love for the native peoples of California,” motivated Geier he said, noting that Junipero Serra grew up in comfort and was a professor at a university in Mallorca. “He left all of that.”
The 21 missions, beginning with the first one founded by St. Junipero Serra in San Diego in 1769, are integral to the state, Geier said. “It’s to try to restore a proper appreciation for the missions as a foundation of California. This place was such a deeply Catholic place. The whole society of our state has grown up around these missions. “
Because of his commitment to the reputation of St. Junipero Serra and to California’s Catholic heritage, Archbishop Cordileone met with the pilgrims just hours after he learned they had arrived in San Francisco Holy Thursday. He blessed their pilgrimage, their banner and various religious articles, praising the initiative which he called “blazing the trail for what I think we should be doing here, a Camino California.”
For Hanson, Geier and Waterman, it’s been quite a journey: sun, rain, sore feet and a rosary together every night, “unless we fall asleep during the rosary,” noted Hanson. Most nights they camped out, but in a few cases members of the informally organized California Mission Walkers put them up and several nights they stayed in hotels. Gregory Wood, a Catholic psychotherapist and member of the Mission Walkers, connected them with several families. Wood is also coordinator of the St. Serra Walking Pilgrimage, July 23-24, in Southern California.
The three pilgrims walked everywhere, refusing rides because Father Serra walked everywhere. They only stayed indoors at places that would allow dogs.
Full story at Archdiocese of San Francisco.
I did a mission pilgrimage by car a decade ago over a span of two weeks. I prayed the rosary in every mission church or chapel for the reconversion of California. Prayers unanswered. Things got worse in the state; much worse.
My favorite was Mission San Miguel de Arcangel.
Also worth visiting when you reach Sonoma is the mission model museum at Cline Family Cellars, although I think it’s still closed due to Covid.
Nice pilgrimage to make, just don’t expect California to improve because you offer it as a prayer for the reconversion of the state.
God bless you for trying
We always must give our best, when offering our prayers, fasts, sacrifices, good deeds, etc., for a good cause– and leave the outcomes to God. All of our prayers, fasts, sacrifices, good deeds, etc. etc., truly are beneficial, and do great good, for God’s Kingdom. It may be at a later date that the results we most desire, will cone to pass– or, not at all. God uses all of our spiritual works– our prayers, sacrifices, and offerings, etc. — for great good, unseen to us. Everything happens according to God’s Will, and His Divine Will is always perfect. God is in charge of His universe. You might pray for guidance, to better understand God’s Will in this situation. I think one of the hardest things, is when people pray and do all they can, spiritually, along with family members and fellow parishioners, for a spouse or child who suddenly becomes extremely ill– and suddenly dies, despite everything. Everything is in God’s hands, for Divine reasons– and we must all humbly bow to Him.
spoken like a true materialist.
But if you do it outside of Lent then you can have a Sausage McMuffin for breakfast, pepperoni pizza for lunch and a burger for dinner on Fridays. Gotta eat lots of protein for a journey like that.
Didn’t Fr. Serra ride horses?
St. Junipero Serra walked everywhere. He even walked at least once, all the way down to Mexico City, for important Church business.
And on a bad leg too. One of his legs was either infected from an insect bite or injured in some other way. I forget which.
At least we will always have the beautiful Serra Mountain Range named after Fr. Serra no matter what else happens. I wonder if he ever visited them and saw them himself or camped in Yosemite and saw the beautiful valley before the Hetch Hetchy Dam was built.
Go out go out to all the world and share the good news, share the good good news. like my favorite mass song says!
How many bishops or priests in our state have done this? How many have visited all the missions? I bet close to zero.
Don’t they have jobs? Families?
They are people with means and opportunity.
Um.. yeah. Duh.
My experience is that spiritual naivete such as these young people admirably have doesn’t last beyond the mid 40s, at the latest. Many people in their 20s have already given up on God. Look around. Look at the church. Look at the hypocrisy. Life experience and years of experience with the church tend to numb you to the church and churchy things.
Look at what Amazon.com has done in the past 20 years. Look at what Tesla has accomplished in the past 10 years. Look at what Apple and Google and Microsoft have done to better the world and make people’s lives more convenient and productive.
Then look at what the church has done — or rather hasn’t done — over the span of 40 years. The church is in decline. Those companies are growing and improving the world at an exponential rate. The church adds nothing but pretends that it does. People see through that now in our age of technological growth. It was difficult to see in previous centuries.
This offers an interesting comparison and contrast. Why is the church floundering and declining in an age when tech companies are succeeding and growing and providing so much so quickly?
One reason: talent. Tech companies pay top dollar for top employees. What does the church pay? Poverty wages.
Talented people go where they are appreciated and rewarded. They then apply their skills and knowledge to helping the company grow and succeed and they adapt quickly to changing market and social conditions.
Until the church gets better people working for her, the church’s death spiral will continue. Nobody I know wants to work for the church because they won’t have a decent life and won’t be able to provide for their families on a church income.
Oh, I should add… I mean ministry positions. Church lawyers are well-paid, of course. Of course. Think about that.
I’m retired after having worked for the church. Anyone who asks me… I discourage them from aspiring to a career in parish ministry. I’ve persuaded at least four young people to pursue secular careers, and after they have established careers volunteer to help parishes in their available time. I told them you don’t want your and your family’s livelihood dependent upon a low salary and to boot the whims of a man (the pastor) who has no life experience and no understanding of the struggles and life expenses of the laity. It’s not worth it. If I did it over again, I wouldn’t work for the church.
” Those companies are growing and improving the world at an exponential rate. The church adds nothing but pretends that it does. People see through that now in our age of technological growth. It was difficult to see in previous centuries.” Decline, what a very strange post you have made. I really can’t make sense of it, and here’s why: 1. tech companies improving the world? Well in what way? Better TVs, phones, other items of convenience? Sure, I’ll grant you that. That’s the job of tech companies. How about the stifling of free speech? In this regard techies are at the vanguard of fascism. 2. The church adds nothing: the church isn’t a tech company and is not supposed to be a leader in technological progress. It is suppose to be about the salvation of souls and works of mercy in the world. Is that “nothing?” Only to one who embraces a vacuous, vapid and vain set of values. I am sure this is not you, Decline. 3. in previous centuries? The point here appears to be that before technology made our lives better, the best humanity could muster was to listen to the Church on matters of heaven, hell, death and judgment without receiving any real earthly benefit. But the Church has always sought to alleviate the plight of the needy, some times better than others. Your statement is patently false. The worst part of your post is categorizing these three with spiritual naivete. Such a categorization would normally come from one who has lost faith and embraced an empty materialism. I should like to think better of you, Decline. Prayer is always good, no matter how or where it is offered.
But Pope Francis wants a “poor Church for the poor”. That’s laudable in a way, but ‘talent’ points out that there is a downside. On the other hand, Catholic schools don’t pay much better than (maybe not as well as) their government school competitors, but have historically attracted high quality teachers because it’s a better (meaning better-disciplined) work environment. Maybe there’s a lesson there?
There’s nothing poor about the way Pope Francis lives. Looking at his girth, he certainly eats amply. What’s wrong with a financially strong church for the poor? Every Sunday there seems to be a second collection for this or that cause. If the Church could multiply loaves and fish, that would be one thing. But it doesn’t.
In my area, the Catholic schools provide an inferior education. Catholic schools can’t match the resources that a school district can marshal in athletics and performing arts, among other things. Catholic schools often don’t even have Catholics teaching in them.
I used to put back books and volunteer in a public elementary school library and in a Catholic one. The situations were as different as night is from day. In the public school one spent more time putting the books already on the shelves in order than putting back books students had returned. Children were allowed to rummage through the shelves and had no idea how to put the books back in order. At the Catholic school, it was just the opposite.
“money” jumps right in and goes for the girth of Pope Francis. Now, I’m not a huge fan of Francis. I liked JP II and Benedict better. And I do believe that we should have a financially strong Church not only for the financially poor, but for all who need more than just food and clothing, but hope, consolation, the Sacraments and the Gospel.
It’s a shame that in some places Catholic schools are providing an inferior education. The opposite is true in other places. Hopefully Catholic schools aren’t teaching the same content as many public schools are these days about one ethnic group being to blame for all wrongs in the world and the terribly confusing and dangerous gender silliness.
Why is it off-limits to criticize someone who frequently speaks about moderation when it is apparent he is gluttonous?