Borrego Celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe
Last updated 12/15/2024 at 8:15am
As it does every year, St. Richard's Catholic Church in Borrego Springs celebrates the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of Mexico. The actual feast day is December 12 but the parish celebrated on Saturday, December 14.
The feast has a number of parts, a major one being a procession with the Blessed Sacrament and an image of the Guadalupe Virgin carried from the church all around the path along Country Club Drive, up Sunset Drive by the library and back to St. Richard's on Church Lane. The pastor of St. Richard's, Fr. Tony Stanonik, carried the Sacrament and was accompanied by a long procession of the faithful. These included St. Barnabas' clergy Frs David Madsen and Michael Plekon, a number of singers who led hymns, the recitation of the rosary and other prayers throughout the process.
A number of children vested and served as in the procession, holding a canopy over the Sacrament. After the procession, a bi-lingual Mass was celebrated in the church, with much singing and communion. And then the fiesta began going well into the evening. Many dishes were available and there were performances by the Aztec dancers and musicians who walked in the procession. There was also dancing for the public.
The celebration commemorates the appearance of the Virgin Mary on the hill of Tepeyac, near present day Mexico City in December of 1531. She appeared to Juan Diego, an indigenous worker. He saw a luminous figure on the hill and then coming closer an indigenous woman told him she was the mother of all the people there. She told him to build a shrine there and sent him to the archbishop, Juan de Zumarraga, who dismissed both the vision and request and asked for further proof.
Juan Diego returned to the Lady who told him to gather flowers on the hilltop and bring them to the archbishop in his smock or tilma. He did, despite it being winter and when the archbishop saw these Castilian roses, never seen in the New World, he realized this was extraordinary. When Juan Diego's smock had an image of this indigenous woman imprinted upon it, the archbishop allowed a church to be built.
This smock is the centerpiece of the basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico, a new cathedral being completed in 1976.
The Virgin was declared the patron of all of New Spain and she became the symbol of the Mexican struggle for independence. Today she remains a sign of the presence of God among the people, a witness to God's solidarity with indigenous people and all who seek justice and peace. She is particularly relevant as an image of God's preesence today.