The History of Mass on the Mountain

Mass on the mountain is the second Saturday of October every year. It all began in 2017 four years ago with Father Michael Niemczak who now is a pastor at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Clovis, New Mexico. This young priest loved the outdoors and sharing God‘s nature with his friends, parishioners and the community.
In 2018 Father Michael had gone and Fr Rob Yankovic a forrester of the national forest and lover of nature from Las Vegas said mass in the mountain is like having mass in “God's created Cathedral”, but in 2019 Fr Joel O Burgas stepped in because Fr Rob was in quarantine.

The second Saturday of October is the last weekend of Balloon fiesta and the last weekend the Santa Fe ski lifts would be running. The thought was to get to the mountain by 10 AM in the morning; pray over Santa Fe with morning mass and enjoy bringing in God's fresh smell of aspens.

This year we were joined by the Espanola youth group and Fr Jordan Sanchez associate Pastor with Santa Maria de La Paz, who is a first year priest. We were blessed when he assisted the mass with Father Michael as a Seminarian and now as a first year associate priest under Fr Daniel B. Even though it was a cold day the hearts of the young and the old were warm with the music ministry and the sun piercing through the clouds.

Every year about 70 people join this event at The Lookout pull out just minutes below the Santa Fe ski basin.