A Parish Festival keeps the Crowds Coming

Ysleta Mission, El Paso, Texas

When the Ysleta Mission Festival Committee at Ysleta Mission in El Paso, Texas holds its annual three-day mission festival during the second weekend of July, the response not only from parishioners but the wider community is enormous; last year, for example, 15,000 people attended the Ysleta Mission Festival.

An Ysleta Mission Festival snapshot

Conventual Franciscan Friar Charles McCarthy is pastor of Ysleta Mission. As a Franciscan he understands the importance of community. St. Francis of Assisi – the Order’s founder – lived with brothers who served one another as well as anyone else who needed help. This idea that one’s community matters continues to be an important part of the Franciscan way of life today; it also really comes to life during the Ysleta Mission Festival.

Friar Charles McCarthy

Plus, since it has been running for nearly one hundred years, one cannot help but have the sense that the Ysleta Mission Festival is a tradition for the people of El Paso. It, after all, celebrates the history and various cultures of El Paso and the South-western United States. These cultures and the history are highlighted through traditional songs, dances, as well as various dishes, that entertain, inform, and satiate the festival-goers. Funds raised at the festival help with the maintenance of Ysleta Mission.

History is integral to Ysleta Mission, which was founded about 330 years ago and has seen a lot of change. Today the Franciscans and parishioners at Ysleta work hard to preserve the mission buildings; and through their faith and actions they also keep the mission alive.

(Sources of all related images on webapge and homepage: www.franciscans.org and http://ysletamission.org.)