BRIDGETON – Calling it “one of my favorite days of the year,” Bishop Joseph Williams celebrated Mass on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with hundreds of the area’s faithful.
“It’s a beautiful story, and the people we get to serve fit into that story in a beautiful way,” Bishop Williams said of Our Lady of Guadalupe during the liturgy Dec. 12 at Saint Teresa of Ávila Church, Holy Cross Parish. The Mass, concelebrated by Father Matthew Weber, pastor, and parochial vicar Father Ruben Valdes Arias, culminated two days of festivities honoring the Blessed Mother.
Among the devotions was a skit by a young adult group depicting the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to Saint Juan Diego – highlighting when on Dec. 12, 1531, roses, then out of season, fell from Juan Diego’s tilma (cloak) and revealed the imprinted image of Our Lady.
Alexandra Barrientos, 19, a parishioner and member of the young adult acting group, said it was an honor to portray Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“I don’t have the words to describe the beautiful feelings that I felt being part of this play,” she said.
In his homily, which was preached in Spanish, the Bishop spoke on the roses that fell from Juan Diego’s tilma.
“I’ll share a little story from Minneapolis, Minnesota,” Bishop Williams said. “I think we just had the fifth-largest snowfall in our history. One of the priests of our diocese, a newly ordained priest, thinks that we’re going to have to cancel the Guadalupe Mass. As he’s thinking these thoughts, he’s dialoguing with Our Lady, and he’s asking her, ‘What do you want me to tell these people?’ He hears her say in his heart, ‘Tell them that they are my flowers.’
“It was an inspiration because he realized that after two or three feet of snow, many Minnesotans are hunkered down, but the Latinos are venturing forth into the snow. They’re coming to see their mother, to love their mother, to honor their mother. He realized they are miraculous flowers – they shouldn’t be blooming; they’re from tropical climates; they should not be blooming in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. So in the homily, and with a lot of emotion, he said, ‘You are the miraculous flowers of Our Lady of Guadalupe in our midst, and you’re a sign that God is blessing this country, that there is an evangelization. That’s part of what those flowers meant.’”
Bishop Williams said that there was a mission for Juan Diego that Latinos need to hear these days, too.
“They don’t feel to be as beautiful or as heaven-sent as we know they are,” Bishop Williams said. “I just want them to know the Church is walking with them, praying, advocating and, God-willing, protecting them in this challenging time.”
Holy Cross parishioner Miguel Alavez said it was a trip to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico that formed his devotion to Mary.
“That’s where I had my spiritual awakening,” he said.
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