Under 10: Chronicle of June 3, 2012

The feast of the Most Holy Trinity started with Morning Prayer, and after breakfast, the morning was dedicated to brief presentations of the individual conferences done by a members of their respected conference. General Definitor Fr. Julio Cesar Bunader says that the purpose of the presentations was to stimulate curiosity of the friars and to hopefully open the door for personal dialogue with friars of other conferences during the week.

In the afternoon, right after lunch, 5 buses took the friars to a shrine dedicated to the Blessed Mother at Zapopan to celebrate mass together. Before the mass, there was a dance preformed by the indigenous people dressed in colourful costumes, and they accompanied a small old statue of the Blessed Mother of Zapopan from the gate of the city to the shrine. The dancers participated in the mass, which was celebrated outdoors by the Minister General Fr. Jose Rodriguez Carballo, by offering of incense and playing their particular musical instruments during the consecration, during the reposition of the Holy Eucharist after communion, and during the veneration the old statue after the Mass.

To most people, this can seem like a spectacle, a show. But the way the dancers preformed their dance, the holiness and serenity of their motions, made everyone aware the extent of their profound veneration of the Blessed Virgin. This traditional dance is passed on from generation to generation, which was seen by the range of the age of the dancers; from old, grey haired men to young adolescent girls.

The surprise and enculturation of the participant of the Chapter did not end there. The Franciscan province of San Francisco e Santiago invited all the Chapter members to a Mexican fiesta inside the convent. There was food, drink, Mariachi music, dance from a group of folkloristic locals, and to end the evening, incredible fireworks.