Pastor’s Desk – December 14, 2025

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

 This Second Week of Advent, now coming to an end, includes the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. As you can see from the inside of the church, the spirit of the feast is still with us, and never quite leaves us. In addition to the temporary shrine, I believe her permanent image at the front wall of our church is the only image added since the construction of the “new” St. Vincent de Paul Church in 1926.

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe commemorates the appearances of the Blessed Virgin to a native Mexican man, Juan Diego, who had become a convert to the Catholic faith. On December 9, 1531, Our Lady appeared to Juan on Tepeyac Hill, which is now part of Mexico City. She appeared to him again on December 12 and urged Juan Diego to take her message to the local bishop. To offer proof that the visions were genuine, Mary told Juan Diego to gather the flowers he found blooming there in mid-December. When Juan Diego appeared before the Bishop, he opened his cloak and the gathered flowers came cascading down. On the emptied cloak was the famous image of the Blessed Mother, the very same cloth and image now on display in the Basilica of OLG.

In 1754, Pope Benedict XIV set today, December 12, as the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 2002, Pope John Paul II traveled to Mexico City to canonize Juan Diego near the site where the visions occurred centuries before, making him the earliest born saint of the Americas.

After a series of shrines was built on the site to display the miraculous image, the first basilica was completed in 1709. When the original basilica became unsafe because of sinking foundations, a new basilica was completed in 1976. Since the new basilica is circular in shape, the image is now visible from nearly any place inside. It normally seats 10,000 people, but can be configured to seat 40,000, not including 9 smaller chapels which seat 200 each. As many as 24 Masses are celebrated there daily. I once was honored to concelebrate Mass at the main altar in 1988. It is the second most heavily visited Catholic holy place in the world, right after St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

The historical, social and spiritual significance of devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, the U.S. and much of Latin America cannot be overstated, uniting native mysticism with Catholic faith. In the image, she is supported by an angel whose wings are also symbolic of one of the major gods of the native religion. Until she appeared, theirs was a European church transplanted in Mexico – with European images, religious practices, and clergy – and colonial overlords. She came out of nowhere as a “mestiza” – a virgin of mixed European and indigenous race – and so freed a whole new people to see itself as beloved children of God, now under the protection of one like themselves.

 Happy Gaudete Sunday!

 Blessings, Fr Bill Donahue