celebrating la Morenita

photo credits here

Even before the sun breaks through the horizon on December 12, the burst of firecrackers ring throughout Mexico to announce the greatest national fiesta of the year—the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

At la Villa de Guadalupe, the National Sanctuary near Tepeyac Hill, pilgrims begin to arrive days earlier to camp out on the Plaza surrounding the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Many travel for days to get there, entering la Villa on their knees as a sign of their devotion and gratitude for la Virgen Morenita’s protection. By nighttime on December 11, millions have already gathered and the monumental atrium leading to the Basilica is standing room only. Much like a family member holding a beloved’s picture close to the heart, the pilgrims carry images of their Mother Guadalupe on their backs, banners and bodies.

For these faithful pilgrims, the chants, ballads and traditional dances that are part of Guadalupe’s liturgical celebrations are well known, having been passed down from generation to generation. 

During the annual dance at Guadalupe Plaza, detailed ballads chanted by elder Indians have chronicled for hundreds of years every aspect of the Guadalupe story: the miracle of the roses; Juan Diego’s account; and the progression and care for the sacred image. Initially communicated only orally, the story of Guadalupe was first recorded through Aztec pictographic chronicles called mapas. The first authored document, “el Nican Mopohua,” was written in 1556 in the official language of the Aztec empire, Náhuatl.

Celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe always culminates with the reenactment of the familiar story. In 1531, just a few decades after Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, the Mother of God appeared three times to a humble Chichimeca Aztec baptized as Juan Diego. Our Lady asked him to be her special messenger and provided proof of their encounters for a skeptical bishop in the form of two signs: a cloak full of fresh roses in December and a miraculous image of herself on Juan Diego’s tilma, or shawl.

Yet the 483-year-old Guadalupe apparition is not only one of earliest Marian apparitions. It is also the only time in history that Our Lady has shared her portrait.

[from my article -- "Our Lady of Guadalupe" -- published

 in the December 2014 issue of St. Anthony Messenger Magazine]

¡Viva Cristo Rey!

I’ve been recalling off and on throughout the day my favorite memory of the feast of Christ the King—¡Cristo Rey!

I was a fifth grade student at Academia San Jorge in Santurce, Puerto Rico. And the students from our school were in charge of the banners prepared in honor of that Sunday’s Solemn Mass celebration. 

What I will never forget is the sight of students from every grade, from Kindergarten to High School, processing into San Jorge church for Mass—each holding a banner with a flag from a different country. It had all the elegance and pageantry of a royal ceremony, Caribbean style, of course.

Following the flags, held high above the rest, was a banner with the image of Cristo Rey, which was hung high at the front of the church, right behind the communion rail.

Nothing could have provided me with a better visual of what it means to declare Jesus Christ as the King of the Universe!

Iglesia San Jorge, Santurce, Puerto Rico

“While nations insult the beloved name of our Redeemer by suppressing all mention of it in their conferences and parliaments, we must all the more loudly proclaim his kingly dignity and power, all the more universally affirm his rights… 

Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ. It will call to their minds the thought of the last judgment, wherein Christ, who has been cast out of public life, despised, neglected and ignored, will most severely avenge these insults; for his kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles, both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing for the young a sound moral education… 

If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God.”

 ~Pope Pius XI 

in QUAS PRIMAS 

(On the Feast of Christ the King) Encyclical, 

dated 11 December 1925

Video featuring a song and photos in honor of the Cristeros, Mexican martyrs of Mexico (1926-1929) known for their "¡Viva Cristo Rey!" cry as they faced execution:

my nativities, No. Cuatro

Country side, Perú

Bangladesh, from Ten Thousand Villages

I found this gem from Mexico at el mercado 

in downtown San Antonio

my nativities, No. Tres

souvenir from our 30th anniversary trip to 

Riviera Maya, Mexico

another miniature one, made of clay,

Venezuela

gift from our longtime friend, Sr. Mary K.

made of olive wood from Bethlehem, the Holy Land

Knowing the Way

Monarch butterflies are astonishing creatures. Every Spring, tens of millions of monarchs leave their Winter refuge deep in central Mexico to journey to the southern states in the U.S., where each butterfly proceeds to lay hundreds of eggs. That generation, and sometimes the following generation of monarchs, then continues trekking across North America through June—arriving as far north as Canada’s prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

At the end of summer, the monarch butterflies turn around and flutter 3,000 miles south, back to Mexico’s Michoacán Forest for the Winter.

monarch sightings Fall 2012

This time of year, their journey takes them right through central Oklahoma. Even though the hot and dry summer has diminished the number of migrating monarchs this year, I have been delighted to watch the winged beauties dancing through and even roosting on the oak trees in our backyard this week.

I love the fact that scientists cannot explain their circular journey. They simply don’t know how these subsequent generations of monarchs can orient themselves and navigate each year towards a place they've never been before.

Pondering this miracle in nature, I can’t help but think of our wondrous God, “who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them”—a God who, like tending to the details of every single monarch, fills me with daily nourishment and gladness of heart.

monarchs traveling through Oklahoma 2012

By the way, if you want to become a “citizen scientist” and assist in the tracking of monarchs, drop by: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/