As tradition has it, Our Lady of Guadalupe was honoured on the Sunday nearest to 12th December gathering around her at St. Saviour, as well as Franciscan seminarians, some South American and Filipino priests and faithful.
Our lady of Guadalupe, declared “Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas” in 2000 by Pope John Paul II, has been in the hearts of all South Americans for about 300 years, but also in the hearts of Filipinos since 1935, when Pius XI extended her patronage to their country.
It was the Custody Vicar, Friar Artemio Vitores who presided the celebration. In his homily, he stressed the tenderness which the Virgin Mary showed to Juan Diego, to whom she appeared on several occasions. The vicar also insisted on the importance that these apparitions had in evangelizing the Americas recalling, naturally, the role that the Franciscans played in this evangelization. Father Artemio Vitores asked in particular for this message not to be interpreted as testimony of the past but, on the contrary, he invited the assembly to bring it up to date and incarnate it in the present.
There was no procession this year at the end of the joyful Mass animated by the students’ guitars. A few drops of rain made the sand brought from the desert by the storm fall to the ground, making the road of the convent dangerous.
Nevertheless, the assembly was able to share some South American – and in particular Mexican – specialities to the sound of music from that part of the world.
Mab
Our lady of Guadalupe, declared “Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas” in 2000 by Pope John Paul II, has been in the hearts of all South Americans for about 300 years, but also in the hearts of Filipinos since 1935, when Pius XI extended her patronage to their country.
It was the Custody Vicar, Friar Artemio Vitores who presided the celebration. In his homily, he stressed the tenderness which the Virgin Mary showed to Juan Diego, to whom she appeared on several occasions. The vicar also insisted on the importance that these apparitions had in evangelizing the Americas recalling, naturally, the role that the Franciscans played in this evangelization. Father Artemio Vitores asked in particular for this message not to be interpreted as testimony of the past but, on the contrary, he invited the assembly to bring it up to date and incarnate it in the present.
There was no procession this year at the end of the joyful Mass animated by the students’ guitars. A few drops of rain made the sand brought from the desert by the storm fall to the ground, making the road of the convent dangerous.
Nevertheless, the assembly was able to share some South American – and in particular Mexican – specialities to the sound of music from that part of the world.
Mab