ROBBINS – The faithful at San Juan Diego Mission gathered Sept. 8 for Mass with Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
“We had a church full of happy and proud parishioners,” said Father Javier Castrejon, judicial vicar for the diocese and administrator of the mission. “It was a full house inside the church plus the lobby and part of the church warehouse, around 400 participants.”
Father John Forbes, dean of the Fayetteville Deanery, joined Father Javier, the bishop and congregation to celebrate Mass.
Father Javier said adoration took place before and after each Mass that day, and the Eucharist was held in the centennial monstrance, which is traveling the diocese this year in observance of the 100th anniversary of its founding.
One highlight of the day was singing shared by a children’s choir.
“All of this has been a great blessing … the people were so happy and excited because we had our bishop, who spoke to us with simple words directly from his heart to our hearts that let us see how great God's love is for us and that he works in different ways to heal us,” Father Javier said. “He told us that God's love is like when we eat a tasty taco with spicy chili, that we shed tears while eating it but that we say at the end, ‘this is super delicious.’ Everyone understood this example … we laughed a lot.”
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