Pray for migrants, refugees and immigrants

       December 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe: "The Catholic bishops of the United States are encouraging Catholics to observe this Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a day of solidarity with immigrants."

       As we celebrate this feast today I remember that I am the product of immigrants. My great grandparents all came from Europe in the late 1800s in hopes of finding a better life. They didn’t speak English and didn’t have much money. I wonder if they were welcomed by those already here or if they were maligned for their efforts to give their children and grandchildren more than they had. What is different today as many in our country want to separate families by sending parents back to their home countries, and make it harder and harder for those coming to the United States to become legal members of our society? Where would I be if my ancestors had faced similar treatment?

 

       As some of you may know, there were ICE (Immigration, Customs and Enforcement) raids on Dec. 6 in Covington, Newport, Florence, Walton and Verona. ICE agents did NOT target felons as was stated in the media. People going to work at places like Amazon were arrested. ICE entered homes without warrants. Local police agencies were not informed.

       Our Lady of Guadalupe, we ask that you take the needs of all who live in poverty and are vulnerable in our society to the Divine Maker. May they experience the Divine Love tangibly in their daily lives, and may all who work for justice on behalf of the poor grow in fortitude and humility. May each of us support those who need us as they seek a safer life for their families. 

          Sr. Nancy Kordenbrock, OSB

Journeying With Mary in Advent

         Pope Francis stated in a talk on November 29,2016 : "God reveals his mysteries not to the wise and the learned but to those who are humble and childlike. Advent is a time to journey to meet the Lord."

         On December 12,the Feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe; our chaplain,  Fr. John Cahill, commented on the Gospel of Mary journeying to visit her cousin, Elizabeth also with child. Then he went on the discuss the journey of Mary at Guadalupe  in Mexico and in Spain. Which was unknown to most of us. Fascinated with this information. I gleaned from the internet much of the following. 

         Frequently Advent is equated with 'waiting'. However this waiting is not only sitting in silence but actively reaching out to others also on this journey of joyful expectation of the coming of our Lord. Mary of above all others was acutely aware of this.

         Most of us know the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe of Mexico declared Patroness of all the American continent. In the 16th century a poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name of Juan Diego. At age 57, a humble man, he was journeying to a nearby barrio to attend mass in honor of Our Lady when he heard a beautiful music as of many birds warbling. Then a radiant cloud appeared and within it stood a young native maiden dressed as an Aztec princess. She spoke to him in his own language asking him to go to the Bishop and ask him to build a chapel on this site.

Our Lady of Guadalupe
Mexico

          The bishop was s Franciscan named Juan de Zummarraga. He asked Juan Diego to have the Lady send him a sign to let him know she was not just a figment of imagination supposedly.  At the same time an uncle of Juan Diego became seriously ill. In caring for his uncle and unsure of how he as a poor man could ask the of The Lady he tried to avoid her.

         However the Lady did find him and journeyed there. She let him know that his uncle would recover and provided him with unseasonable roses which filled his cape [tilma].  When he presented these to the bishop an image of Mary appeared exactly as she had appeared on the hillside on December 9th,1531. Then the bishop asked the name of the Lady, he heard in the native language Coatlaxopeuh [that translates to 'she who crushes the serpent' and pronounced Quatlasupe. The Spanish bishop assumed it was Guadalupe as he knew of the shrine of our Lady of Guadalupe there.

Nuesta Senora of Quadalupe
Spain

         Now for the rest of the story of Mary's journey in Spain. In Extremadura,Spain there is a royal Monastery of Guadalupe in which is kept a famed statue of Nuestra Senora of Quadalupe. Local legend has it that a statue  of a Black Madonna supposedly carved by St Luke and later given to St Leander,archbishop of Seville. Many cures and miracles were attributed to intercession of this Black Madonna.

          In 712 as the Moors were overtaking the local territory, a group of priests fled with the statue and buried it in the hills near the Guadalupe River. In the 14th Century as a poor, humble cowboy named Gil Cordero was searching for a lost animal, a beautiful Lady appeared to him and asked him to get the local priests to dig at this site. Here was found the Statue of the Beautiful Black Madonna in perfect Condition. 

         A shrine was built and Alfonso XI the King endowed a Hieronymite monastery. In the 16th century, Mary became the patron of all Spain's New World territories. Columbus was particularly devoted to her and, after a terrible tempest on his first voyage, made a pilgrimage of thanks to the shrine. For four centuries royalty was closely aligned with the monastery. It became one of the wealthiest ecclesiastical establishments in the country.

          Today the monastery is cared for by nine Franciscan monks and remains one of Spain's most important pilgrimage sites. In 1955 Pope Pius XII declared it to be a minor Papal Basilica.  Pope John Paul II also visited there in his journeying.

         May our advent journeying continue with Our Lady  at our side.

         Sr. Joan Gripshover, OSB

Our Lady of Guadalupe

       On Monday, the 12^th of December I participated in the Mass at our local Spanish parish for the Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe. Who is Our Lady of Guadalupe? “She is one of us” responded my Mexican-American friend. This really piqued my reflection on this Feastday of Mary.  The features of Our Lady of Guadalupe reflect her identity with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas which for me is a visual reminder that we are all sisters and brothers not because of ethnic origins, but because we are rooted in the soil of our sister- countries.

       Mary is our mother, our sister, our friend. Our Lady, the Mother of God, is one of us, walking with us on our journey, sharing our burdens and our joys, attending the births of our babies and of our hopes, rejoicing in our celebrations, sitting at the bedsides of the sick and elderly, weeping at graves of our loved ones and of our dreams. For me the relationship with Mary is personal. I see her as taking my concerns to God with an understanding beyond my limited words. She just “knows” and it is enough to just trust that she is holding my heart in her own.

       The Church guides us to see that we also have a communal relationship with Mary by praying that “all who invoke the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, may seek with ever more lively faith the progress of people in the ways of justice and peace.” Indeed, the Virgin of Guadalupe makes us one by being one of us. How can we fail to share each others’ sorrows and joys, to work for justice and seek peace and happiness for everyone in our family?

                        Sr. Dorothy Schuette, O.S.B.