The Guadalupe Event

Saint John Paul II's trips to Mexico are featured in our exhibit. 

With the celebration of the feast of Saint Juan Diego yesterday, and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Friday, this is a big week for the Church in Mexico.

Saint John Paul II canonized Juan Diego when he was on his 2002 pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. In his homily for the canonization, the Holy Father said:

“The Guadalupe Event,” as the Mexican Episcopate has pointed out, “meant the beginning of evangelization with a vitality that surpassed all expectations. Christ's message, through his Mother, took up the central elements of the indigenous culture, purified them and gave them the definitive sense of salvation.” Consequently Guadalupe and Juan Diego have a deep ecclesial and missionary meaning and are a model of perfectly inculturated evangelization. 

Let us pray with St. John Paul II, that “The Guadalupe Event” continues to feed the New Evangelization in Mexico.

St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us!

Prayer At Basilica Of Guadalupe

O Mother, help us to be faithful stewards of the great mysteries of God. Help us to teach the truth proclaimed by your Son and to spread love, which is the chief commandment and the first fruit of the Holy Spirit. Help us to strengthen our brethren in faith, help us to awaken hope in eternal life. Help us to guard the great treasures stored in the souls of the People of God entrusted to us.

We offer you the whole of this People of God. We offer you the Church in Mexico and in the whole continent. We offer it to you as your own, You have entered so deeply into the hearts of the faithful through that sign of your presence constituted by your image in the Shrine of Guadalupe; be at home in these hearts, for the future also. Be at home in our families, our parishes, missions, dioceses, and in all the peoples.

Do this through the Holy Church, for she, in imitation of you, Mother, wishes in her turn to be a good mother and to care for souls in all their needs, by proclaiming the Gospel, administering the Sacraments, safeguarding family life with the sacrament of Matrimony, gathering all into the Eucharistic community by means of the Holy Sacrament of the altar, and by being lovingly with them from the cradle until they enter eternity.

O Mother, awaken in the younger generation readiness for the exclusive service of God. Implore for us abundant local vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us!

O Mother! You know the paths followed by the first evangelizers of the New World, from Guanahani Island and Hispaniola to the Amazon forests and the Andean peaks, reaching to Tierra del Fuego in the south and to the Great Lakes and mountains of the north. Accompany the Church which is working in the nations of America, so that she may always preach the Gospel and renew her missionary spirit. Encourage all who devote their lives to the cause of Jesus and the spread of his kingdom. O gentle Lady of Tepeyac, Mother of indigenous peoples and Afro-Americans, for immigrants and refugees, for the young deprived of opportunity, for the old, for those who suffer any kind of poverty or marginalization.

…Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace! Save the nations and peoples of this continent. Teach everyone, political leaders and citizens, to live in true freedom and to act according to the requirements of justice and respect for human rights, so that peace may thus be established once and for all.

To you, O Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, belong all the love, honor, glory and endless praise of your American sons and daughters!

                -Homily of Blessed John Paul II, Apostolic Journey to America, 1999

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the model for the New Evangelization! As the Church celebrates her feast today, ask for her intercession during this Year of Faith, especially as American church leaders conclude their Ecclesia in America conference in Rome. 

Defend the Real Kingdom

Last week, the Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, encouraged fellow Christians to be strong in defending the faith in the public square. He said:

Knowledge of Christ the King will help us to avoid confusing his kingdom with any social regime, and it will also help us to be aware of our dignity and our commitments as living members of that Kingdom that Christ Jesus came to establish two thousand years ago.

…As subjects of Christ the King, we should take up the torch of the Gospel in our hands and witness with our lives to the truth proclaimed by Jesus.

But we Christians should be listeners of the Gospel before becoming its spokesmen, as Jesus Himself reminds us: 'He who is of the truth hears my voice.'

As the Church prepares for the coming of Christ, let us join together in our search for Christ’s truth and let us be strong for each other in defending it.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us!

The Role of the Laity

Last week, the Vatican released a message Pope Benedict XVI sent to the 6^th Assembly of the International Catholic Action Forum. In this message, he reminded the laity that they are “co-responsible” for the Church’s mission, not merely “collaborators” with the clergy.  Lay people are therefore called to work in communion with Church leaders, and they are called to take formation very seriously. He said:

Feel the commitment to work for the Church’s mission to be your own…through prayer, through study, through active participation in ecclesial life, through an attentive and positive gaze at the world, in the continual search for the signs of the times.

Society needs courageous witnesses, he went on to say, so that people in darkness may see the light of the Gospel and find hope.

An example of this courageous witness can be seen in St. Juan Diego, who was canonized by Blessed John Paul II in 2002. Juan Diego was the poor, native of Mexico who reported the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe—an apparition that significantly inspired hope and the spread of Catholicism in Mexico, and one that still inspires people today.

In an address given to the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (CALL) last week, Supreme Knight of the Knight of Columbus, Carl Anderson, encouraged his listeners to be like Juan Diego:

Sadness and Joy in America

This past Sunday, six people were killed and others critically wounded when a gunman opened fire during a worship service at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Bishop Denis Madden, auxiliary bishop of Baltimore and chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, asked the American Church to pray in solidarity with the Sikh community. He said:

The U.S. bishops stand with the Sikh community and reject all violence, particularly violence inflicted out of religious intolerance. We are especially saddened that this horrendous act was carried out in a house of worship against people joined together as a family to worship God. Our prayers are with everyone touched by this, especially those who’ve lost family members and loved ones.

Many of the faithful came together this weekend in Los Angeles for the Guadalupe Celebration, which was co-sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Read here for more on the joyous event. And as we reflect on the beauty and consolation the Blessed Mother brings into our lives, let us also remember to ask her to comfort our brothers and sisters in the Sikh community.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us!