Viva Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as we prepare to celebrate the great Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I offer some thoughts about her coming to St. Juan Diego in Mexico 494 years ago, thoughts that are applicable to our lives today.

• Our Lady came at an unexpected time and place to Juan Diego, as he was off to Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin on a Saturday. This tells us that God will send her into our daily life when we least expect and most need her.
• St. Juan Diego, who was chosen to be Our Lady’s messenger, was a lowly and humble man who was not important in the eyes of the world but was a beloved son of God and of Mary. For us, our identity is not about wealth, influence, control and power. Rather, our identity is about who we are before God, sons and daughters of the Most High and His Immaculate Mother.
• Our Lady brought a message of comfort, consolation and love. She said, “Am I not here who am your Mother?” She says the same to us each day in our prayer and through encounters with others. She is simply fulfilling what Our Lord established from the Cross when He said, “Woman, behold your son…Behold your Mother.”
• When she came to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill, she asked that a church be built there, where she could bestow her love, compassion, help and protection to all who inhabited Mexico and all others who love her. She calls us all to the Church, the Body of her Son, so that we, today, in the 21^st Century, can encounter Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and can experience her intercession, protection and love.
• God sent Our Lady to Mexico many years ago so that she could remain with His people and bring them to Christ, her Son. She remains in Mexico and in every land where people, her children, turn to her, offer their love to her, and ask for her help. She holds us in the fold of her garment, in the crossing of her arms. She never abandons us.

In a world that is filled with violence, hostility, and division, let us turn to Our Lady of Guadalupe and ask her to send us roses, as she did to St. Juan Diego, so that her roses of grace may help us to grow in holiness as we love God and one another.
 
Viva Our Lady of Guadalupe!
 
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh