Today’s Feast of St. Juan Diego acts as a prelude to the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe this weekend. The Feast of Our Lady is usually celebrated on December 12, but this year we are obligated to celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent instead. (Here at Holy Cross Parish we will celebrate Our Lady on December 11.)
St. Juan Diego was an Aztec peasant who witnessed multiple apparitions of the Virgin Mary and later became the first canonized indigenous American saint. These combined Feasts offer us a time for hope and healing, especially for Native Americans. They also help us recognize the importance of Our Lady of Guadalupe in bringing Christ to the New World.
St. Juan Diego was a convert to Catholicism. He witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City 1531. The apparitions and its miraculous Marian image led to mass conversions of native American communities to Catholicism. Strong devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe has continued for native communities, Mexicans, and across the Americas and the world. After St. Juan Diego first witnessed Mary’s appearance, the local bishop requested proof of the vision. On the hilltop where the apparitions took place, St. Juan Diego discovered roses growing, despite it being winter. He wrapped them in his tilma and took them to the bishop. Upon presenting the roses to the bishop, the tilma had been miraculously imprinted with an image of Our Lady. The tilma and image are preserved to this day at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City.
Let us pray. “Saint Juan Diego, you are our first American indigenous saint. Please pray that God the Father would protect all migrants through his Son, Jesus Christ. Ask the Father to pour out the love of the Holy Spirit upon all who are isolated, alone, and separated by choice or necessity from their native lands. We ask especially for migrant women and children who are particularly vulnerable. Give them your protection and shield them from harm. We ask you to ask Our Lady, who appeared to you as your Mother and Mother of all in our land, to wrap her mantle of protection around all people throughout the Americas. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.”
