Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.
Photo Credit: Karen Pulfer Focht
Preaching Christ Under a Memphis Sky
Made to Preach: What drives friars like Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., to share the Good News to a packed house in Memphis? It’s the same desire you share with us: to make Christ known.
A bit of Heaven seemed to descend on the city of Memphis, Tennessee this past All Saints Day. That was when the Magnificat Foundation hosted the “Magnificat Day of Joy” at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts—a sell-out celebration of prayer, faith, and beauty.
People traveled from all over the nation to experience a one-of-a-kind day of faith that featured liturgies accompanied by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. More than a dozen Dominican friars from the Province of Saint Joseph and the Province of Saint Martin de Porres were on hand to the hear the confessions of some two thousand attendees.
They were joined by the editor in chief of Magnificat, Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., the senior editor, Father Romanus Cessario, O.P., as well as Father Cassian Derbes, O.P., one of the directors of the Magnificat Day.
Dominican Schola
Also gracing the day was a choir of Nashville Dominican Sisters from the Convent of Saint Cecilia.
The entire event was broadcast worldwide via EWTN, and the proceedings concluded with a historic candlelight Eucharistic procession through the streets of downtown Memphis. The Magnificat Foundation had the great privilege of displaying the relics of Saint Therese of Lisieux for veneration during the course of the day, and Saint Therese’s relics were also carried in the procession.
Downtown Memphis: Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P., and other friars process with the relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
Photo Credit: Karen Pulfer Focht
Although the population of Memphis is less than 4% Catholic, you would never have guessed it by the turnout of thousands who gathered in Court Square to hear the preaching of Father Robert Barron at the procession’s conclusion.
The Magnificat Foundation was created in 2010 to carry on the “Magnificat way of life” through days
of prayer, lectures, special events, and charitable works. Ever since the magazine’s inception in 1998, the subscription base of over 250,000 continues to grow, and Magnificat seeks new and effective ways to magnify what is true, good, and beautiful.
