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Misa de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe / Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe

Haga clic aquí para ver / descargar la música de esta misa: https://michigancatholics.org/wp-content/uploads/guadalupe-music-12-12-2020.pdf

Click here to view/download the music for this mass: https://michigancatholics.org/wp-content/uploads/guadalupe-music-12-12-2020.pdf

THE STORY OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

From the USCCB Our Lady of Guadalupe Toolkit 2018 (justiceforimmigrants.org)

December 12 is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is Mexico’s patron saint, Patron of the Americas, and a symbol of love and strength for Latin Americans and believers across the world.

In 1531, on the hill of Tepeyac in Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), the Virgin Mary appeared as an indigenous woman to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin.  Juan Diego was an indigenous farmer, and Our Lady of Guadalupe visited him four times between December 9 and December 12. In his native language, she told him, “Let your face and heart not be troubled, don’t be afraid … Am I not here who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and bosom?”

Our Lady of Guadalupe asked for a church to be constructed in her honor in that very place. There, she would be a mother to the people, console them in their troubles, hear their struggles and prayers, and give them her compassion and her peace.

Juan Diego went to the archbishop of Mexico City, Juan de Zumárraga, and told him what had happened. At first, the archbishop did not believe. With the encouragement of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Juan Diego revisited him to ask a second time. The archbishop told Juan Diego to ask the Virgin for a sign to prove that she was the Mother of God.

Our Lady of Guadalupe instructed Juan Diego to go to the hill of Tepeyac to collect roses, even though it was December, when roses did not grow.  He collected the roses in his tilma (cloak) and went to the archbishop. When he opened his tilma the flowers fell to the floor, revealing on the tilma a miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe exactly as she had appeared. The archbishop immediately believed, and construction of Our Lady’s church commenced.

The image of the Virgin on Juan Diego’s tilma is preserved today at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, with up to twenty million believers visiting per year.

The tilma image is rich with symbolism, and it is significant that Our Lady of Guadalupe is mestiza, with both European and indigenous features. She speaks to and represents those who are not from the dominant culture, making her truly the mother of all people.

¡Que viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!