Fr. Luis Gerardo Belmonte is pastor of our basilica in San Antonio. Here he is in Marylake’s scullery preparing flowers for the double jubilee ceremony of Raphael Kitz and Stephen Sanchez. Father Raphael is celebrating his 50th year as a priest. Fr. Stephen is celebrating his 25th year as a vowed Carmelite friar. The jubilee was celebrated at Marylake during our annual provincial retreat which we host each October. After a month of monsoon proportional rain, the skies cleared for the first three days of the week, then on Thursday (the day we were free to roam the woods of Marylake) the rains returned.

Here’s the finished results of Father Luis’ three flower arrangements for the altar. In addition he made seven arrangements for place settings in the refectory. When this guy starts decorating, you know it’s going to look festive. When our retreat began the chapel was very cold in the morning. On the day of the jubilee we celebrated Mass in the afternoon when it was more comfortable in our big unheated chapel.