California Mission
Pilgrimage(7)
Day Eight: Easter Friday
Mission San Francisco de Asis
The Mission in San Francisco,
sometimes called Mission Dolores, is a great place, but to me, it is in the
worst location. Getting to the Mission
is tough (especially when you are trying to make the morning Mass). The traffic is difficult, and once you
arrive, parking is even worse! The
Mission is located in a rather dirty part of San Francisco, and will probably
require a fair amount of walking up the city’s hilly streets to get there.
We did make it just in time for the
morning Mass, and found that there were exactly four people attending Mass (not
counting the priest). We more than
doubled the crowd (although another family came in a few minutes into the
Mass.) Still, the Mass was beautiful, as
is the church, and the grounds are really very nice. There is even an entrance to the adjacent new
church, which is used for larger celebrations, such as Sunday Mass, for
example. We were just exploring that
church when we had to leave for the sake of a funeral. Another interesting experience at Mission San
Francisco was that we had to tour the Mission grounds while avoiding a film
crew that was working on some sort of documentary.
Inside the new, adjacent church
Mission San Rafael
Finding your way out of the city from
Mission San Francisco can be tough, but once you do, you’ll get to drive on the
Golden Gate Bridge, which is a nice iconic experience if you haven’t done it
before. North of the city of San
Francisco is another urban Mission, San Rafael.
The small Mission chapel is located on
the same grounds as the new church, like San Francisco. The small chapel is beautiful, though, with
nice angelic art. There is a tiny corner
in the gift shop with only a handful of artifacts, but the woman at the gift
shop was very helpful, and this Mission is free to visit.
Mission San Francisco Solano
Our final Mission was San Francisco
Solano, the last Mission to be built, and the only one built under Mexican
rule. This is the other Mission that is
a state park, not an active church. One
of the treats at this Mission is a room with watercolor paintings of all the
Missions, created by Chris Jorgensen in about 1915. There is a little more to see on the grounds,
the chapel being the high point. Down
the street from the Mission is the soldiers’ barracks, which contains some
really nice historical artifacts.
Again, watch out for secular bias. For example, one of the workers made it a
point to share how the Indians were not allowed in the cloister area, as if
that was somehow terribly degrading to them.
Of course, any Catholic should know that a religious community needs
some cloistered area, where the members can get away for prayer and community
life, away from the world outside.
One nice thing about this Mission is
its location. First of all, the drive to
get there is through beautiful wine country vineyards. The Mission is located right off a town
square with a park in the middle and little cafes and shops along the
edges. It is also near other historical
sites, such as the location of the original Bear Flag Revolt.
The Bear Flag, in the museum at the soldiers' barracks
The view of the Sonoma square from the balcony of the soldiers' barracks
