REST STOP ON THE PADRES' TRAIL

Our Lady of Guadalupe Province 
1204 Stinson Street, SW
Albuquerque, NM  87121
505 831 9199 [email protected]

Old Route 66 runs through Albuquerque, New Mexico, and west past Laguna and through Gallup into Navajo country. That route became part of the “padres’ trail,” taken by the missionaries who came to the Southwest in the last years of the 19^th century and has continued to this day.
            Many of us who’ve made this land of deserts and mountains our home have traveled that padres’ trail—by horse, cart, rail and auto. We still speed along old Route 66 today, through Pueblo lands to the nation of the Diné. It is the “padres’ trail,” and will be here long after we have traveled on.

            Today, a spiritual “rest stop” presents itself on the road.

            The friars who first came from the Province of Saint John the Baptist in Cincinnati, and later formed Our Lady of Guadalupe Province in 1985, gave the name, The Padres’ Trail to the small magazine begun in 1938 at the Franciscan Press at St. Michaels Mission in Navajo land. It was a vehicle to invite friends from around the U.S. to participate and learn about their missionary work.

            That publication evolved over the years, eventually ceasing publication for a time, and then more recently revived, once again inviting friends of the Franciscans of the Southwest to join our mission.
But now we have come to the “rest stop” on the Padres’ Trail.

            This is the final issue, from the Franciscans of the “legacy” Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which—on October 17—will cease to exist. On that day the Order of Friars Minor will establish a new province. Its members will journey on trails from coast to coast in the U.S., and beyond—in Jamaica, Cuba and Puerto Rico. The province will have its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. And, it will bear the name Our Lady of Guadalupe.

            The ministries in the Southwest of the legacy province of OLG will continue, and many of us who have belonged to that province will remain here to preach the Gospel along the old padres’ trails.

            In this issue, we mark the endings and beginnings of our legacy province. The last Provincial Minister, Father Ron Walters, offers his reflection on the reason for joining with friars across the country in a new adventure.

            Our living past Provincial Ministers, Larry Dunham, Gino Correa and Jack Clark Robinson, will add their own observations on pilgrimages which end and which go on.

            The Provincial-elect of the new Our Lady of Guadalupe Province, Father Larry Hayes, shares his hopes for the new entity which he will lead as minister and servant of the friars.

            Other news in this issue chronicle beginnings and endings: a solemn profession of a friar who will carry the mission into the future, and obituaries of two good and faithful servants who shared our mission. Brother Bruce begs on final time for help for the next generation—the students we assist with tuition grants, a pledge to the future of the Church.

            And finally, Father Jose-Luis Peralta, reflects on the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose prayers and patronage will embrace our new province.

            Soon we friars will leave this “rest stop” and continue our pilgrimage!  Accompany us with our prayers as we travel onward.