Name of Church Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Address 4600 E. Brundage Lane, Bakersfield, CA 93307
Phone number (661) 323-3148
Website www.guadalupebakersfield.org
Mass times Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 10 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 1:45 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. (Masses in Spanish except for the 11:45 a.m. which is in English.)
Confessions Visit the nearby parish site at 601 E. California Avenue, Bakersfield for confessions on Thursdays and Fridays at 6 p.m.
Names of priests Administered by the Oblates of St. Joseph. (See https://osjusa.org/). Fr. Shaji Athipozhi, OSJ, pastor. Fr. Gustavo Lopez, OSJ and Fr. Sergio Perez, OSJ, vicars. Fr. Larry Toschi, OSJ, chapel.
School Yes, PK through grade 8. See www.olgsjs.org.
Special parish groups and activities There are many groups at the main parish site: Oblate laity, prayer and life workshop, Legion of Mary, Knights of Columbus, Holy Family Table Ministry.
Fellow parishioners This is a bilingual English-Spanish parish with a large Spanish-speaking population
Parking There is a large lot by the church.
Additional observations This parish has two sites that are several miles apart, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church which dates back to 1925, and the newer shrine/pavilion site which held its first mass in 2010. The shrine has an insulated roof with fans in the summer and heaters in the winter; a church will be built as funds are raised. The shrine features a Holy Spouses Memorial and Mausoleum of the Unborn which offers burial crypts for the remains of miscarried babies and memorial plaques for miscarried and aborted babies whose remains are not available for entombment. The memorial is located adjacent the mass pavilion and an Our Lady of Guadalupe grotto. The memorial’s walls are centered around a life-size statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Joseph, co-patrons of the unborn, holding an unborn baby in their hands. The shrine was the vision of Fr. Larry Toschi, former pastor, and was dedicated by Fresno Bishop Joseph Brennan in 2020. (Read the National Catholic Register story about the shrine: https://www.ncregister.com/features/mourning-the-little-ones-holy-spouses-mausoleum-and-memorial-of-the-unborn-offers-healing-hope. Listen to Fr. Toschi explain the purpose of the shrine:
https://rumble.com/vbuor5-holy-spouses-mausoleum-and-memorial-of-the-unborn.html.)
And after mass, grab the bullet train for a quick round-trip up to Merced. It’s going to be finished any day now, I promise!
Such trains are a lot of fun. My family has enjoyed them in the past. Love you middle name.
Thank you for sharing this. It could make a short pilgrimage for some, maybe especially during Lent. It’s encouraging to see what’s happening there:
https://guadalupebakersfield.org/
Some of the DNA particles of every child a woman has is left behind in her body. Minute particles from the oldest child, and on down, is passed on to children she has later.
In the case of multiple births, siblings also retain traces for each others DNA.
When I said that in a class where I had a set of boy-girl twins, they gave each other funny looks. :)
It also means that some of a second father’s children have particles from the father of the first child a woman had. I think that is one reason why there are discrepancies (not completely matching) in the ancestry tests taken by some twins.
A beautiful memorial, by the way. I mean the Shrine at the church.