Okay… someone tell me what’s going on here! (Trick question. I think I know.)
As you recall, I have a great portable altar from St. Joseph’s Apprentice, and Pelican case to ship it in. HERE
I also now have great reversible travel vestments for that altar, including little frontals.
I’m am also getting ready for an interesting pilgrimage to S. Italy and Sicily in April and May.
So… I’m thinking about this situation, of the portable altar, the case, the shipping. What to do?
Meanwhile, I get out a DVD of… “Hey, I haven’t seen this for a while!”… For Greater Glory. It’s about the Cristeros.
After weighing my options, I call St. Joseph’s Apprentice, and told him to start making a “Wilderness Altar” for me. After all, I won’t need the internal storage space inside my other beautiful altar, because I have the case with the formable foam. That’ll lighten the load and I’ll have more storage space.
I had seen photos of the Wilderness Altar on his site. HERE
During our phone conversation, St. Joseph’s Apprentice told me how meaningful it had been to make that altar (above), which contains a relic of the Mexican boy martyr… Saint José Luis Sánchez del Río.
For Greater Glory… portable altar… St. José Luis Sánchez del Río ….
Then – out of the blue? – I get an email from a priest entitled “Viva Cristo Rey!” With an attached photo of… St. José Luis Sánchez del Río!
Father says that TODAY is the Feast of St. José, who was murdered exactly 90 years ago today: 10 February 1928.
I called up St. Joseph’s Apprentice to tell him that, and he tells me that the first altar he ever made had a link to the… Cristeros.
He explained that he had built a shrine for his brother in law and the local priest came to bless it. Afterward, the priest said he wanted an altar built for an altar stone he had been given by another priest. It was from the Cristeros. That was Altar #1!
So, folks, you tell me what’s going on with this.
I suspect that this project and the upcoming pilgrimage may have the smile of “Joselito”, which is a diminutive of “José… Joseph”, which might be used to describe a certain builder of beautiful portable altars, who was Cristeros inspired.
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I just love little nudges from above like this! The other day you asked for prayers for Father D. I was pondering then how we all work together in prayer to assist each other. It’s so beautiful how our brothers and sisters in Christ assist us not only from here but also from above, praying and helping one another as God allows us to do. I love our catholic family!
I recently read an essay that attributes these lines to George MacDonald: “And if we believe that God is everywhere, why should we not think Him present even in the coincidences that sometimes seem so strange? For if He be in the things that coincide, He must be in the coincidence of those things.”
This reminds me of what Fr. Emmerich Vogt O.P. said at our parish mission a couple years ago, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
Very cool!! He is such great saint! I love having the relics of so many Mexican martyrs at OLGS close by. God is so good to us!
Viva Cristo Rey! Great Wilderness Altar, relic, and movie.
If I recall, some priests took up arms, and the Feminine (not feminist) Brigades performed critical tasks of smuggling weapons, ammunition, and food, and also hiding and tending the wounded (very important to battlefield morale and tactical audacity). From the U.S. the Knights of Columbus provided some assistance, while the KKK sided with the socialist Mexican government. That same socialist government violated a ceasefire and executed several thousand Catholics. I think John Paul II canonized a number of them.
Senex Calvus: Interesting quote, thanks.