Portolá 250 – First Mission Stop at Mission San Diego de Alcalá
The first of the 21 Franciscan missions, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded in 1769 by St. Junípero Serra and its nickname is ‘The Mother of the Missions’. Our pilgrim crew arrived just before the noon Mass with the World Apostolate of Fatima rolling billboard. My colleague, Anthony DeBellis was joined by his son, Michael to support the project of his dad to visit 21 missions in 21 days and to explore together the treasures of our faith and in this case, the first-ever of its kind built in California.
The 22nd successor of Saint Junípero Serra, Father Peter M. Escalante welcomed us with wonderful hospitality and celebrated the Mass with Our Lady of Fatima Pilgrim Statue present. It was inspiring to see standing room only at Mass and many parishioners along with visitors to the mission taking extra time to bask in the presence of this beautiful landmark environment which on this day included Our Lady and special relics that are under the custodianship of Catholic Action for Faith Family. One thing our travel team has come to realize only two days into the journey is we will remember for a lifetime the experience and the gratitude shown for coming and in seeing hearts and lives touched during these visits.
Since the beginning of the year, Mission San Diego de Alcalá has been commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the founding of Mission San Diego de Alcalá and continues with their year. The mission is open to the public from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM daily; to see upcoming events at the mission during their jubilee year including Sept. 16, 17, 18, 19 please visit their Jubilee Calendar of Events page.
Special thanks to the Knights of Columbus for demonstrating faith in action as they worked tirelessly throughout a hot and humid day…. always with a spirit of charity!
Fraternally,
James Aitchison
Mob: 626-627-1318
4th Degree Knight of Columbus
