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Parish News | Monday, February 24, 2020

Renown musician to lead Lenten mission in the Keys

Composer, Paulist Father Ricky Manalo to preach Feb. 29 through March 3

MIAMI | Holiday visitors to the Keys are often impressed by the light display and decorations at San Pablo Church in Marathon. This year, those dazzling holiday decorations are just a prelude to an amazing Lenten season, headlined by a parish mission led by Father Ricky Manalo, a Paulist priest, liturgical composer and lecturer at Santa Clara University in California.

“We have done a lot of Lenten missions here but we’ve never brought in a speaker and musician,” said Jack Louden, music director at San Pablo.

The timing of the program is important because a significant portion of the area’s population is seasonal. “Once Easter’s over we drop something like a third of the population here,” Louden said.

Father Manalo is the recipient of the 2018 Pastoral Musician of the Year Award by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. His music has been performed during the papal Masses of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. His Mass of Spirit and Grace was the musical setting chosen for Pope Francis' eucharistic celebration in the Sheikh Zared Stadium in Abu Dhabi in 2019.  

The event was the largest gathering of Christians in the history of the Arab peninsula and the first time a Roman Catholic Mass had been celebrated openly in the region.

Father Manalo has been invited to six of the seven continents to lecture, preach, and present workshops and concerts. When not on the road, he lives at Old St. Mary's Cathedral in Chinatown, San Francisco.

The parish mission at San Pablo begins with the weekend Masses on the first Sunday of Lent, Feb. 29 and March 1, followed by evening sessions at 7 p.m. March 2 and 3. Among the topics Father Manalo will discuss are music and worship as well as the origins of Lent and spirituality.

San Pablo parish itself has struggled in rebound mode after Hurricane Irma’s visit in September 2017. The storm packed winds of 185 mph and severely affected the Keys from Key Largo to Key West. At San Pablo, work continues on a new rectory and parish offices, an annex building and fortification of the parish’s seawall.

“Irma did a lot of damage,” Louden said. “We lost a lot of parishioners because of it.”

However, new settlers are moving into the area and parishioners will soon have new buildings to serve as their spiritual harbor.

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