Kensha:nel

Piam kan hak/ t'oSta'yokale t'oLesemo t'oshkem t'ona'taxtotsopi

Pesnoho kan hak/ echelelna't'oke sa'yot'oke lh'kat'oke t'at'et'ekaikelt'oke

A;lel kan hak kecheak tax kekayeak t'oke t'at'etalxwal

Xayatspanikan. Xayatspanikan. Xayatspanikan. Xayatspanikan.

Looking across Ts'ókhonthe tchá' towards Khoye (Echo Cliff) with Sta'yokale in the background. Photograph by John Peabody Harrington, March 17, 1932.

                                              Creator

We see You in Sta'yokale, Morro Rock, the Ocean, the Sun, and the Moon.

We hear You through Kingfisher, Eagle, Coyote and Our Songs.

We ask You to protect us and guide us in our work.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.  (spoken in the four directions)

At Mission San Antonio last week after the California Mission Riders rode in...

...Salinan elder Susan Latta prayed "Kensha:nel" at Mass that evening.

Thursday evening's Mass also featured John Warren and the New World Baroque Orchestra performing the compositions of Fray Juan Bautista Sancho, who served at Mission San Antonio de Padua from 1804 until his death in 1830.

Here is Chanticleer performing the Gloria from Sancho's "Misa in Sol."

Writer and California Mission Rider Leslie Dunton-Downer interviewed Susan and fellow Salinan elders Shirley Macagni and Suzanne Pierce Taylor (not shown).

Filmmaker and Mission Rider Gwyneth Horder-Payton; Timothy Bottoms from nearby Lásom (Rancho Salsipuedes).As others of us listened intently.

What struck me most was how this beautiful prayer "Kensha:nel" — which has such a natural affinity with the spirit of St. Francis' own "Canticle of the Creatures" — was being prayed at the mission not by a friar, but by a Salinan woman.