An 8 p.m. Mass at Our Lady of Charity in Coconut Grove on Sunday turned into a jubilant
 rally to maintain faith that Elian Gonzalez will stay in the United States.

 Father Francisco Santana, who prayed with the Miami Gonzalez family nightly, denounced the
 Saturday morning raid as a crime and praised another little boy as a kind of prophet -- Elian's
 little cousin Lazarito Martell.

 The night before the raid, Santana said, Lazarito awoke at midnight with a nightmare, ''My
 cousin's not leaving,'' Santana recalled the boy as saying.

 The priest then plucked the little boy from the front row, where he sat with his parents and
 Elian's great-aunt Caridad Gonzalez. The crowd gave him a standing ovation.

 The boy, who was in the room with Elian when he was taken by federal agents, looked back
 as if perplexed. Then Caridad Gonzalez stood before the congregation, who cheered and burst
 into the Cuban national anthem. Some women took miniature Cuban flags from their purses and
 waved them.

 ''Have faith,'' Santana said. ''Elian is staying and Fidel is leaving.''

 More than 300 people attended the standing-room-only Mass. Some carried prints of
 a painting of Jesus Christ on the cross with his blood dripping down over the island of Cuba.

 WORK STOPPAGE

 Cuban exile leaders reaffirmed their commitment Sunday to persuade fellow Cuban Americans to
 stay home from work Tuesday as part of a general work stoppage designed to send a
 message of revulsion against the federal government for seizing Elian Gonzalez.

 ''The idea is for the streets to be deserted on Tuesday, that Miami give the impression of a
 dead city,'' said Juan Perez-Franco, president of the Brigade 2506, an association of veterans
 who participated in the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

 According to Perez-Franco and other exile leaders such as Ramon Saul Sanchez of the
 Democracy Movement and Jose Basulto of Brothers to the Rescue, the plan is to send a
 message about the power of the exile community to disrupt economic and other activity.

 Leaders said exile organizations plan to meet either today or after Tuesday's strike to
 decide on the next step: a march or rally in Miami to continue protesting.

 BUILDING FIRE

 People protesting the seizing of Elian may have set a building fire at one Little Havana
 tire shop early Sunday, Miami fire officials said.

 The Miami and Miami-Dade County fire departments battled a fire at Formula One
 Tire & Brakes, 4394 SW Eighth St. The blaze started at 4:29 a.m. and was
 extinguished in less than an hour.

 ''The building was engulfed in flames and the fire had vented through the roof,'' said
 Capt. Joe Fernandez of the Miami Fire Department. ''It was an exterior operation
 because the fire had totally engulfed the inside of the building.''

 Fernandez said one area of the building, stacked with tires, was easily accessible
 from the outside of the building. Investigators suspect the fire was started there.

 ''Someone could have lit the tires on fire and it would have spread to the rest of
 the building,'' Fernandez said.

 Herald staff writers Alfonso Chardy and Ivette Yee compiled this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald