July 1, 2024

Feast of St. Junipero Serra

St. Junipero Serra, ora pro nobis
“Siempre adelante, nunca atrás” ~ St. Junipero Serra*
July 1st is the Feast of St. Junipero Serra, Spanish Franciscan friar and Missionary. Known as the Apostle of California for his evangelization of the Indian tribes of North America, he is also the patron saint of vocations. In 2015 he became the first saint to be canonized in the United States. In celebration, I’m posting a prayer to St. Junipero Serra. The accompanying photo is a screen capture of the statue of St. Junipero Serra in San Francisco, California being toppled by a violent mob of Marxist vandals during the iconoclastic tantrums allowed to take place by cowardly and ineffectual leaders across these United States in 2020.

Prayer to St. Junipero Serra

O God, who by your ineffable mercy have been pleased through the labors of your priest Saint Junipero Serra to count many American peoples within your Church, grant by his intercession that we may so join our hearts to you in love, as to carry always and everywhere before all people the image of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

* “Always forward, never backward”