From the Pastor's Desk - December 7 and 8
This week is very much a week dedicated to Mary, our Blessed Mother. Normally on December 8th, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. However, since the 8th falls on a Sunday this year, the feast, which is a day of obligation for us as Catholics, has been moved to Monday, December 9th. Please see the bulletin and our Pastorate website version of the bulletin for the times of our Masses in the Pastorate. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a day when we remember and honor the fact that Mary was spared the stain of original sin in order to give sinless flesh to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Normally on December 9th, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Juan Diego, who was graced to receive apparitions of Our Lady on the Hill of Tepeyac, at the site of modern-day Mexico City in the year 1531. Saint Juan received several apparitions of Mary under the title, “Our Lady of Guadalupe,” from December 9-12. Here, Mary instructed Juan that she wanted a church built on that hill in her honor. She appeared to Juan as a Native American woman expecting a child, and she instructed him to go to the bishop and tell him her request. He did as she instructed, but the bishop wanted confirmation that it was truly Mary who was appearing to him.
On December 12, Juan’s beloved uncle was dying, and he was hurrying to find a priest to give him his final Sacraments. He purposefully went around the other side of the hill from where Mary had been appearing to him, so that he would not be distracted by another visit. Of course, Mary outsmarted him and appeared to him on the opposite side of the hill, announcing that his uncle had been cured, and that the sign for the bishop was in front of him. Juan found Castilian roses, which are impossible to grow in the cold of Central Mexico in December. He wrapped them in his tilma, which is a garment made of cactus fibers, with much the same texture as a burlap bag, and proceeded to take the roses to the bishop.
This type of roses was the Spanish bishop’s favorite flower, and when he saw them in the cold of a Central Mexican winter, he was awestruck. Yet even more miraculous was that the image of how Mary appeared to Juan, was now imprinted into his tilma. An average tilma has a life span of no more than 20 or 25 years before it disintegrates. Yet this tilma is still in tact nearly 500 years later, and can be seen today in the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
The greatest miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast is celebrated December 12th, is the vast number of souls who converted to Christ through her. Prior to Mary’s apparitions at Guadalupe, Spanish priests had had minimal success at evangelizing the Aztecs of Mexico. Yet after Mary appeared as one of them, multitudes of Aztecs abandoned their pagan practices and became faithful disciples of Mary’s Son. Even the symbols on Mary’s turquoise cloak when she appeared as Our Lady of Guadalupe, represented things that were good and beautiful to the Aztec people. This contributed to so many of the Aztecs believing in Mary and in the God that she leads all of us to.
One of the not so holy and brutal practices of the Aztecs of that time was child sacrifice, as a form of offering to their gods. After the arrival of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the massive conversions that took place over the next few years, child sacrifice was virtually abolished in Mexico. This is why the Pro-Life Movement often uses Our Lady of Guadalupe as a symbol, because of the lives of so many children that she saved.
Both the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe are feasts about Mary’s motherhood. Mary is indeed the mother of Jesus, yet she’s our mother too. When Jesus gave Mary to St. John the Evangelist at the foot of the cross and said, “behold your mother,” and then said to Mary, “Woman, behold your son,” he was giving Mary as a mother not only to John, but to the entire Church which he represented as an Apostle.
Like all Christian mothers, Mary prays for her children. Let’s thank Jesus for giving us his own mother to be our heavenly mom.
Advent Blessings,
Father Rich
Normally on December 9th, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Juan Diego, who was graced to receive apparitions of Our Lady on the Hill of Tepeyac, at the site of modern-day Mexico City in the year 1531. Saint Juan received several apparitions of Mary under the title, “Our Lady of Guadalupe,” from December 9-12. Here, Mary instructed Juan that she wanted a church built on that hill in her honor. She appeared to Juan as a Native American woman expecting a child, and she instructed him to go to the bishop and tell him her request. He did as she instructed, but the bishop wanted confirmation that it was truly Mary who was appearing to him.
On December 12, Juan’s beloved uncle was dying, and he was hurrying to find a priest to give him his final Sacraments. He purposefully went around the other side of the hill from where Mary had been appearing to him, so that he would not be distracted by another visit. Of course, Mary outsmarted him and appeared to him on the opposite side of the hill, announcing that his uncle had been cured, and that the sign for the bishop was in front of him. Juan found Castilian roses, which are impossible to grow in the cold of Central Mexico in December. He wrapped them in his tilma, which is a garment made of cactus fibers, with much the same texture as a burlap bag, and proceeded to take the roses to the bishop.
This type of roses was the Spanish bishop’s favorite flower, and when he saw them in the cold of a Central Mexican winter, he was awestruck. Yet even more miraculous was that the image of how Mary appeared to Juan, was now imprinted into his tilma. An average tilma has a life span of no more than 20 or 25 years before it disintegrates. Yet this tilma is still in tact nearly 500 years later, and can be seen today in the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
The greatest miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast is celebrated December 12th, is the vast number of souls who converted to Christ through her. Prior to Mary’s apparitions at Guadalupe, Spanish priests had had minimal success at evangelizing the Aztecs of Mexico. Yet after Mary appeared as one of them, multitudes of Aztecs abandoned their pagan practices and became faithful disciples of Mary’s Son. Even the symbols on Mary’s turquoise cloak when she appeared as Our Lady of Guadalupe, represented things that were good and beautiful to the Aztec people. This contributed to so many of the Aztecs believing in Mary and in the God that she leads all of us to.
One of the not so holy and brutal practices of the Aztecs of that time was child sacrifice, as a form of offering to their gods. After the arrival of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the massive conversions that took place over the next few years, child sacrifice was virtually abolished in Mexico. This is why the Pro-Life Movement often uses Our Lady of Guadalupe as a symbol, because of the lives of so many children that she saved.
Both the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe are feasts about Mary’s motherhood. Mary is indeed the mother of Jesus, yet she’s our mother too. When Jesus gave Mary to St. John the Evangelist at the foot of the cross and said, “behold your mother,” and then said to Mary, “Woman, behold your son,” he was giving Mary as a mother not only to John, but to the entire Church which he represented as an Apostle.
Like all Christian mothers, Mary prays for her children. Let’s thank Jesus for giving us his own mother to be our heavenly mom.
Advent Blessings,
Father Rich