A Special Service This Week

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A Special Service This Week

Brother Sixtus Roslevich, O.S.B.
- A short but special program was held recently in the Abbey Church, on Monday, December 13. While regularly the memorial of St. Lucy as in this year’s ordo, a meditation devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe was offered, her feast on the 12^th having been suppressed due its coinciding with Gaudete Sunday. The feast commemorates the appearance of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill, north of present-day Mexico City, in December 1531. The service attracted a number of participants, who gathered with Mr. Daniel McQuillan and Mr. Chris Fisher in the pews, centered on an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as miraculously imprinted inside the tilma, or serape, of St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, canonized on July 31, 2002. It was the culmination of a novena many in the group had offered to Our Lady.
  
  Our Lady of Guadalupe in the sanctuary
  
  Having heard that Mr. McQuillan made a pilgrimage to Guadalupe, and knowing of his deep devotion to Our Lady, I asked for more details. He e-mailed immediately and I think it only fair to include his short but moving response.
  
  “In 2013, I was a stressed-out 3rd-year college seminarian. It was springtime, and I was months away from applying to major seminary. I was totally unsure of what to do: leave seminary or stay. I reluctantly went on a pilgrimage to Guadalupe with the intention of my discernment. I had prayed and prayed that Our Lady direct me. Well, the moment I stepped foot in the basilica and looked up at the tilma, something deep in me said ‘Go.’ I knew it meant leave. I felt an overwhelming peace. It was a one-of-a-kind, unique religious experience. To this day, I am grateful to la Virgen de Guadalupe for everything she’s been to me.”
  
  Mr. McQuillan’s experience resonated deeply with me. Thirty years prior to his visit, I had taken a taxi out of Mexico City’s Zona Rosa to attend Easter Sunday Mass at the Guadalupe Basilica, on April 3, 1983. I was a 30-year-old guy on spring break, heading to Acapulco mainly to snorkel. But that day on Tepeyac Hill turned out to be a “unique religious experience” for me, as well. I believe it opened the gate on the path, finally, to begin to seriously consider my religious vocation which was still two decades off in the misty future. I saw entire local families going to Mass that afternoon, their little girls in beautiful frilly dress-up dresses, all of them approaching the plaza on their knees. I had never witnessed anything like that before. And to be inside the basilica participating in a Mass with the Virgin’s image as a backdrop for the altar was incredible. I had similar feelings years later at Fatima in Portugal.
  
  Sanctuary arrangement by Br. Benedict Maria
  
  Mr. McQuillan has shared with us the following words which were part of his handout for the service in church on December 13. We include them here for your own edification, along with the words spoken to St. Juan Diego by Our Lady. Merry Christmas.
  
  “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”
  
  (Written by Sister Migdalia Flores, D.C.)
  
  On December 12th, the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I find the story of these apparitions the most humble and down to earth. The narration says that, on December 9, 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared to a native Mexican peasant called Juan Diego on the mountain of Tepeyac while he was on his way to church. She appeared to him four times and once to his sick uncle. These apparitions took place in a time of oppression for the Indians. They were being rejected by the conquerors of that time. All of their beliefs of the ancient gods had been destroyed and Christianity was imposed.
  
  Mary appeared very simply and with the traits of a native Mexican of the time. She even spoke to him in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec empire. It presents Mary in her true identity, a servant and close to those suffering and in need. The way she spoke to him was sweet, kind, and consoling. She would say, “Little Juan, the smallest of my sons….” Juan also replied to her with the same confidence. She identified herself as the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the true God. She gave Juan Diego a mission to tell the bishop to build a church where she can show her love, compassion, assistance, and protection to the people of that country and to all that would invoke and trust in her.
  
  Juan Diego had a sick uncle who was close to death. He was on his way to get a priest when the Virgin Mary stopped him again and reminded Juan Diego of his mission. She said, “Don’t worry about your uncle. Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” At that time, she also appeared to his uncle and healed him. Juan Diego asked the Virgin Mary for a sign to take to the bishop. She told him to cut roses from the Tepeyac and take them to him. It was not the season for roses but Juan Diego obeyed and found roses as she had said. When he went to the bishop and opened his cloak, the image of Our Lady had been miraculously engraved on it.
  
  Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us and those who are poor and oppressed.
  
  Framed image a gift of Deacon Dr. Timothy Flanigan '75
  
  Words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego.
  
  “Do not fear this sickness nor any other sickness, nor any sharp and hurtful thing. Am I not here, I, who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.”