In our turbulent time, with many concerned about the actual possibility of a civil war (see the current “Special Report,” or a new movie about precisely this), and with politics so vitriolic and volatile as to beg the devout to focus on more prayer and uplifting matters (such as their Catholicism, which remains a steady portion of the populace), it is opportune to consider the nation’s very foundation.
And for that — as well as for Catholicism as a whole–one can look to the City of Saint Augustine, Florida, which sits right there quietly on an inlet of the Atlantic.
The nation’s “very foundation”?
That’s said because the small (but growing) northern Florida community is the country’s oldest city.
It is also the site of the tallest documented Cross in the world.
It is where the first official Mass was celebrated.
Mendoza sailed across the Atlantic in 1565 alongside Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who was tasked by the King of Spain to remove French settlers and establish a colony in Florida. “He brought Catholicism to America and gave the first Christian mass in the United States,” says Professor David Arbesú of the University of South Florida.
A dynamic, wonderful spot to visit, it has long been the locus for not just physical but also spiritual warfare.
In addition to the continent’s oldest Marian shrine (Our Lady of La Leche), and a cathedral smack in the old downtown, not to mention a large plot of land operated by the devout Sisters of Saint Joseph, the city teems with accounts of spiritual interactions.
We’ll be carrying an article about Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, believed to be the first priest permanently established in the United States. He’s the one who celebrated that Mass (on September 8, 1565) and planted the first Cross, a wooden one, there at the spot, proclaiming America for Jesus.
It’s why we chose to have an upcoming retreat [see here] right across the street from it.
Haunts?
Oh, yes. Some claim St. Augustine is one of the top ten most haunted cities in the U.S. Ghost tours abound. We don’t recommend them.
But grace?
Even more abundant.
Is it now a refuge — in all the swirling turmoil?
We live at a time when Americans are virtually at each others’ throats, on one side preaching love while supporting the horrid death of unborn, welcoming evil gender confusion, negating Adam and Eve with transgenderism, and on the other, declaring the Bible while spewing invectives and touting just that: civil uprising.
Is the city’s past in any way a harbinger?
One notes a 2010 “word of knowledge” (part of a series that began in 1990, as seen here], which said, among other things (including what seemed like an announcement of darkness), “New Mexico I have ordained as a beacon of light and also the place near the water where the cross stands.”
[resources: retreat, St. Augustine and Where The Cross Stands]