Wonderful RelicsFather Anthony's homily talked about the Communion of Saints, referring back to the reading from Hebrews, which mentions the "cloud of witnesses that surrounds us." He talked about how important it is to recognize how those that have gone before us, particularly the Saints, are watching over us. After the conclusion of the Liturgy, he invited all to venerate the six relics. We found out later that he really had seven, but more about that below.
Father Anthony had first class relics (bones from their bodies) of Saint Basil the Great (the patron of his parish), Saint John Chrysostom (an important patriarch of the Byzantine rite), St. Anthony of the Desert (the first hermit), St. Maria Goretti, St. Francis Xavier Seelos (a German who came to the US to evangelize), and Saint Pius X (Pope at the turn of the 20th century who, among many other things, lowered the age to receive communion to 7). He had another relic that he did not take out, because he doesn't have a nice reliquary and because he couldn't find the description that he had made about each at 2 AM the night before. It was only because Tyson, Scott Nunes and I were asking so many questions about the relics (which the rest were partaking in the after Liturgy refreshments) that he took out the last, a relic of St. Anthony of Padua (my son's favorite and Scott's as well, since he is originally from Lisbon, Portugal). It was only after we had finished talking about the relics (and Scott touching everything that he could find, from his camera to a large stack of rosaries to all of them) that Father Anthony started picking up all everything that he found the page that he designed for St. Anthony of Padua stuck to the bottom of the one he made for St. Anthony of the desert. LOL |
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Lunch with Father Anthony
We helped Father Anthony finish cleaning and then went to the hall so that he could be a true pastor and spend time with his parishioners. We talked with many that were interested in knowing where we had come from. One of them, when she found that we had come on pilgrimage, shared with me that she had organized previous pilgrimages for the parish. She volunteered to share information for me, including a cemetery in Santa Clara that has some amazing people buried there. As we talked, it came out that we were headed to lunch somewhere close. Father Anthony, ever the pastor, ended up joining us along with the altar server, Stuart. It ended up being a long, leisurely lunch talking about the faith, about liturgy, and about ecumenism. As I stated earlier, Father Anthony is a fabulous apologists for the Byzantine rite, as any time questions came up about the differences between the two rites, he was able to explain it in terms that made sense to us, without losing any of the deeper Eastern meaning.
Our group did get a little split during lunch, unfortunately. One of the group, Victor Sanchez, appears to suffer from claustrophobia and couldn't stay in the restaurant where we were eating pizza and chicken wings. As we had already ordered, we couldn't just get up and leave with Victor, who couldn't bare the room, some of us stayed with Father Anthony, while Victor, Stevie and Mariah Wilkins ended up at a surfer burger shop that was much more open and inviting for Victor. From what they shared later, it allowed them to have some intense conversations as well (one of the minor reasons I put together these monthly pilgrimages). We would end up splitting once more after lunch as, in addition to Father Anthony and Stuart leaving for their parish, Tyson and Scott headed back to Modesto. Tyson didn't want to miss mass at 5:30 PM back in Modesto for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity and was meeting another friend after. The rest of us stayed under the capable driving of Adam Harker and went to Mission Santa Clara.
Our group did get a little split during lunch, unfortunately. One of the group, Victor Sanchez, appears to suffer from claustrophobia and couldn't stay in the restaurant where we were eating pizza and chicken wings. As we had already ordered, we couldn't just get up and leave with Victor, who couldn't bare the room, some of us stayed with Father Anthony, while Victor, Stevie and Mariah Wilkins ended up at a surfer burger shop that was much more open and inviting for Victor. From what they shared later, it allowed them to have some intense conversations as well (one of the minor reasons I put together these monthly pilgrimages). We would end up splitting once more after lunch as, in addition to Father Anthony and Stuart leaving for their parish, Tyson and Scott headed back to Modesto. Tyson didn't want to miss mass at 5:30 PM back in Modesto for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity and was meeting another friend after. The rest of us stayed under the capable driving of Adam Harker and went to Mission Santa Clara.