The Guadalupe Feast Approaches

I'm pushing seventy years of age and have never felt national tension and ugliness as we are experiencing today—even through Vietnam and the impeachment proceedings of two presidents. I listen to some Christians and wonder, "Do I  even know you?"

St. Paul writes: "But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Corinthians 2:16). Do we get this—the mind of Christ? Do we wonder what it means?

The Virgin Mary appeared four times to Juan Diego, a conquered Aztec Christian, between December 9 and 12 in 1531. Her image, imprinted on his grass cloak, hangs in the great church in Mexico City (which is North America). Pope John Paul II made Guadalupe his first pilgrimage outside of Rome in 1979. The place and the apparition are that important. 

Here is her litany. We might put aside our other devotionals and pray this prayer often between now and Christmas. Why? Because we want to have the mind of the one whose birth we celebrate then. The Litany is not sentimental; it can cut like a two-edged sword, (Hebrews 4:12), if we allow it. Still, even after praying it for some days, we might find the mind of our favorite radio talk-show-guy more alluring. We can be that dug in. Sometimes I'm asked, "What's your politics?"  Here it is...

Mother of the unborn, pray for us.
Mother of orphans,
Mother of the rejected,
Mother of the unrecognized,
Mother of the powerless,
Mother of the oppressed,
Mother of migrants,
Mother of the marginalized,
Mother of the destitute,
Mother of foreigners,
Mother of immigrants,
Mother of the homeless,
Mother of those considered gift-less,
Mother of those who see no value in their lives,
Mother of those who have no political influence,
Mother of those who have no reason to hope,
Mother of consolation,
Mother of those who say "yes" to Jesus.
Mother of Providence,

From becoming oppressive, deliver us.
From becoming cynical,
From denying options to the poor,
From becoming opportunists,
From becoming deaf to the voices of prophets,
From becoming blind to injustice,
From becoming complacent,
From becoming ungrateful servants,
From becoming arrogant,
From becoming elitists,

Model of love and compassion, may we imitate you.
Model of hope and new life,
Model of evangelization,
Model of simplicity,
Model of justice for the poor,
Enabler of the downtrodden,
Example of receptivity,
Example of humility,
Example of sensitivity,
Bridge builder of cultures,
Respecter of diversity,

Virgen Morena, Dark Virgin, Mother of God, Lady of Guadalupe, we commit ourselves to follow your example, to be life-givers and to be receptive to new life. We will be faithful followers in our love towards the poor, in your desire to give dignity to all people and to  treat all the abandoned with tenderness. Let us live with constant confidence that we need not fear when we acknowledge you as our Mother, Mother of God. Grant that we may participate in your plan for new life and give us faith in the daily miracles that you and your Son, Jesus, work in our lives. Amen.

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is next Thursday,
 December 12.

Intercessions for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

A little angel with colored wings lifts up the Lady on Juan Diego's tilma./ We ask for our families/ and all who live in the Americas/ to be lifted up/ in faith,/ hope and love./ We pray to the Lord.

Let us not forget Maria,/ Juan Diego's wife./ We pray for the women of the world who have others in their care./ And for women who suffer abuse,/ exploitation,/ indignity or insufficiency./ We pray to the Lord.

Millions of people travel to Mexico each year to venerate the tilma of Our Lady at Tepeyac./ We pray to honor each other deeply/ as Mary's Child,/ who has come among us at Bethlehem,/ gives each human person a new dignity./ We pray to the Lord.

It is a difficult climb to the chapel at the top of Mount Tepeyac./ We pray for those for whom life seems all uphill,/ asking for them,/ new resolve,/ strength and support./ We pray to the Lord.

The face of the Virgin Mary on the tilma is indigenous and very beautiful./ We ask to see the divine in each  human face:/ in the faces of newcomers,/ and those who do not reflect the world's idea of beauty;/ faces marred by tears,/ fear or hard toil./ We pray to the Lord.

The Guadalupe account is filled with bird song and flowers./ We ask forgiveness where we have destroyed our paradise-world,/ spoiling its balance by greed and foolishness./ We ask for the intelligence and will to protect what remains./ We pray to the Lord.

The Virgin of Guadalupe wears a high belt/ suggesting her pregnancy./ We ask that every child would be wanted,/ welcomed and loved - holding most deeply in our prayer/ the children in the womb with special needs and challenges./ We pray to the Lord.

Guadalupe Triduum ~ Day Two

On Juan Diego's tilma/ the Lady stands in front of the sun/ which was worshipped as a god by the Aztecs./ We pray to be freed of anything we have allowed to supersede or replace God./ We pray to the Lord.

The Lady on Juan Diego's tilma is taking a step./ We pray to be Christians in motion,/ persons who carry a message of life and hope to those who are alone,/ insecure,/ afraid or exploited./ We pray to the Lord.

The Lady of Juan Diego's tilma stands on a crescent moon./ It is the moon in its beginning phase./ We pray to begin again when we have forgotten or failed God,/ ourselves or others./ We pray to the Lord.

The colors of the tilma are vibrant and fresh./ We pray not to cast every person,/ problem or human dilemma in terms of black and white,/ but to see the world and God's presence in it,/ in their colors/ and even colors which change./ We pray to the Lord.

The roses of Tepeyac were rich in fragrance./ We pray to leave the fragrance of Christ wherever we go:/ his gentle kindness,/ his capacity to lift others up,/ his patience with weakness./ We pray to the Lord.

Juan Diego and his people were indigenous to Mexico:/ a defeated people./ We call to mind those we know and care for/ who perhaps are defeated by addiction,/ age,/ depression,/ sickness or sorrow/ asking for their consolation and strength./ We pray to the Lord.

In the miracle of the roses,/ flowers bloom in winter./ We ask to be a people of hope:/ persons who believe still in God/ who can bring beauty,/ reconciliation and life out of what is seemingly dead or without promise./ We pray to the Lord.

Guadalupe Triduum ~ Day One

When I was a boy I grew wonderful tomatoes in my garden, but I didn't eat them. Go figure! Every night at dinner my father would say, "Son, you don't know what you're missing." I got over that and love tomatoes now. 

So as the Church gets ready for the December 12th feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe: Do you know the story of The Guadalupe? If not, "You don't know what you're missing." So here's a link to the oldest written account. Nican Mopohua What a great way to step into the Jubilee Year of Mercy! And spread the word about this wonder even to the children you know. Heaven's great kindness!

And then here are some intercessions we might pray to help us get ready. 

~ ~ ~

The Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas:/ North,/ Central and South./ We pray for this hemisphere/ and ask for the conversion of hearts where persons suffer indignities,/ violence and injustice./ We pray to the Lord.

The Lady of Guadalupe called Juan Diego the littlest of her sons./ We pray to remember that each human person is God's child/ and to love people with the mind of Christ./ We pray to the Lord.

Juan Diego delayed meeting the Lady for their second appointment/ because his uncle, Juan Bernadino, was dying./ We pray for hearts to see as essential/ the taking care of those in frailty,/ suffering or need./ We pray to the Lord.

While the Lady asked for a chapel to be built on the top of Tepeyac,/ we ask God all the more to change us into living stones that build up the Church to God's Glory/ and the love of our neighbor./ We pray to the Lord.

The Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego/not elevated above him,/ but barefoot and standing on the ground./ We ask for the virtue of humility/ by which we see ourselves truthfully,/ in our vulnerability,/ insecurity and powerlessness./ We pray to the Lord.

On Juan Diego's tilma/ the Lady stands in the posture of prayer./ In the dark time of the year/ we pray to be enlightened/ as to how we might pray more deeply from the heart./ We pray to the Lord.

We entrust the sick,/ the friendless and the needy  to the Guadalupe's care,/ and pray that the dead may experience the most tender mercy of Jesus/ who pardons,/ heals and makes whole./ We pray to the Lord.

Day Nine - God's Wild Imagining: Roses in Winter!

THE GUADALUPE STORY CONTAINS PLENTY OF TROUBLE: Juan Diego's people are defeated, Bishop Zumarraga is disbelieving and keeps putting off Juan Diego, the bishop's household is fed up with Juan Diego and spies follow him, Uncle Juan Bernadino is sick to death, Juan is demoralized at his apparent failure. And so the ending of the story: roses blooming in winter and the wondrous image on the tilma, might cause us to think, "Ah, after all the problems and challenges, the story ends happily ever after."

But not so fast - this is heaven's story, not Dorothy, the Tinman, Lion and Scarecrow running through the sleep inducing poppy field; the refreshing snow leading them through their troubles. We need to go much deeper than that.

In folklore when flowers bloom out of season (roses in winter) it is often a symbol of bad luck. Indeed, flowers out of season symbolize death - the danger of the abnormal. When we encounter God's normal - we perceive and fear it as abnormal - indeed, it means the death of our normal: our business as usual, our tradition, our tried and true, our we've always done it that way, our it was good enough for them; it's good enough for me, our my country take it or leave it, our orthodoxy, our to die for politics, our well that's just the way I am.

So yes, of course, Pope Francis speaking plainly about a new economy is going to shake up the world and bring him ridicule and new enemies. And his purifying the Church is going to arouse the ire of those who benefit from dishonesty within the Church. God's abnormal ways pose a deadly threat, a danger, to our ways.


The Guadalupe speaks Juan Diego's native language, not Spanish. Would we dare to imagine asking indigenous peoples, whose languages and cultures are becoming extinct, how we might solve global problems.

The Guadalupe chooses as her ambassador, the littlest one. Imagine the United Nations Security Council giving to the world's smallest and poorest countries on rotation, the same vote as the "super powers."

The Guadalupe doesn't present herself as a gift  for the conquerors but for "all my people." Imagine a global project to eradicate Smokey Mountain in the Philippines and other places like it. See: Sorting Through the Mess of Child Labor Red Flag Magazine. 

The Lady arranged the roses in Juan Diego's tilma (the feminine touch). The pope speaks of the feminine genius - but there is no forum for women to share their genius with the Church comparable to that of men.

The Lady stands on the ground - with us, not above us. Imagine affording the barefoot people of the planet the same importance and investment we give to sports, space exploration, war preparations, fashion, entertainment and Black Friday.

Day Eight ~ Third Intercessions in the Guadalupe Novena

A little angel with colored wings lifts up the Lady of Juan Diego's tilma./ We ask for our families/ and all who live in the Americas/ to be lifted up by heaven/ to faith,/ hope and love./ We pray to the Lord.

Let us not forget Maria,/ Juan Diego's wife./ We pray for the women of the western hemisphere and all the world/ who have others in their care./ We pray for women who suffer abuse,/indignity or insufficiency./ We pray to the Lord.

Millions of people travel each year to Mexico/ to venerate the tilma of Our Lady at Tepeyac./ We pray to honor each other as well - / - as Mary's Divine Child/ who has come to us at Bethlehem,/ gives each human person new dignity./ We pray to the Lord.

It is a difficult climb to the chapel at the top of Mount Tepeyac./ We pray for those for whom life seems all uphill,/ asking for them, new resolve,/ strength and support./ We pray to the Lord.

The face of the Virgin Mary on the tilma is indigenous and very beautiful./ We ask to see the Divine in each human face:/ in the faces of newcomers,/ and those who do not reflect the world's idea of beauty,/ the faces marred by tears,/ fear and hard toil./ We pray to the Lord.

The Guadalupe account is filled with bird song and flowers./ We pray to be seized by the beauty of holiness - living in goodness,/ humility,/ integrity/ and the heart-desire to see the beauty of God's face./ We pray to the Lord.

The Virgin of Guadalupe wears a high belt/ suggesting her pregnancy./ We ask that every child would be wanted,/ welcomed and loved - holding most deeply in our prayer/ the children in the  womb with special needs and challenges./ We pray to the Lord.

Day Seven in the Guadalupe Novena ~ Her Pregnancy

THE TILMA OF THE LADY OF GUADALUPE is filled with numerous pieces, all of which are pointers or symbols: her eyes, movement, the colors, the arrangement of the mantle's stars, the crescent moon and sun-rays, the flowered gown, her inclined head. 

It is said that the high placement and color of the ribbon-belt suggests her pregnancy. Some have even said the fact that her dress is belted instead of loose, indicates her pregnancy. Perhaps her bowed head is in recognition of the divine presence within her womb. 

Human beings begin life on the planet within an almost magical watery world. Pictures reveal that we seem to be happy there. Because of her goodness, Mary's womb has been described as a heaven on earth out of which Jesus-God has come into our world.

As a young teacher, decades ago, I was at an end of the school year luncheon in a New York City restaurant. The room was filled with the soft and pleasant sounds of people conversing, silverware, dishes and glasses, waiters moving around - maybe there was music. Two teachers to my right started to talk, defending abortion, and I said (calmly and in a conversational tone), "Nah, I think that's really wrong." With that, everything at the table stopped. People put down their silverware and all heads turned to me. I don't remember how it ended. It didn't escalate and I have no recall of how we moved back into normal conversation. What did it suggest? There's going to be a fight? Let's see how he gets himself out of this one? Does anyone really believe this? Oh good, I"m glad someone is brave enough to say that? 

Of late the folks at MSNBC have undertaken an advertising campaign, perhaps hoping to draw new viewers. These are the themes:

• We all want to live in a nation that's better tomorrow that it is today. 
• But for the past twenty years we've been re-cycling the same conversations. 
• Enough with the arguments, it's time to advance the issues. 
• It's time for new questions. 
• It's time to lean forward.
• It's time to celebrate the best ideas. 
• We give the story few places to hide.

I don't know, is the Reverend Al Sharpton the religious face of MSNBC? When people address him they call him, Rev. I think that Rev. Sharpton personifies the aspects of the station's media campaign - he is a vociferous advocate of human rights. That's not to be taken away from him. We should hope for clerics who are promoters of the dignity of the human person, as Pope John Paul II would have said. 

But I've noticed that whenever Rev. Sharpton makes a list of persons to be be defended, towards the end of the list he includes women and their right to abortion, citing rape and incest victims. In other words: Abortion has to be protected as a right because rape and incest happen. But that's not how you start a debate or defend an argument - by citing the statistics which represent the fewest cases. Rev. Al defends everyone except the pre-born child.

This month, the nation remembers the first anniversary of the murder of 20 children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Another 7 adults were killed that day by the same gunman. Immediately after the killing, President Obama addressed an auditorium of grieving parents, family, local people and school staff. He said:

"The majority of those who died today were children - beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them - birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own...we will have to change...If there's even one step we can take to save one child then we surely have an obligation to try."

But isn't this what abortion does - it steals away a future. Isn't the President making a simply-stated but profound argument as to why we have to stop aborting. And while he indicates, birthdays, graduations, weddings and having their own children - there are other, less thought of  life-events stolen away: learning to tie a shoe, getting new teeth, mastering an instrument, the making of friendships, their contributions to the creation of thought and beauty - all the things that make for a human life. Abortion is the theft of a future.

When people questioned Mother Teresa about picking new-born infants out of street garbage piles in Calcutta, they would sometimes say, "Why do you do it; she/he's going to die anyway?" Mother Teresa would say, "Even if she lives for five minutes, then for five minutes she would know she was loved." What about that?

Or in a documentary film we see Mother Teresa holding a baby girl who fits in her hand. The interviewer asks, 'Do you think this one will make it?" Mother Teresa says, "I think so, I see life in her." Well The New York Times followed up on this baby girl and decades later discovered that she had been adopted, went to an Ivy League college and had just graduated with an admirable degree. She had been given her future.

Down Syndrome kids are almost extinct, as their presence in the womb is detectable and abortion usually follows. But folks with Down Syndrome  give more hugs and smiles in a day than most of us give in a (proverbial) lifetime! Isn't that part of their stolen-away future - the gift of the bright-love they give the world? 

I wonder if the Rev. Al Sharpton really does believe these things but jumps to defending abortion rights citing  incest and rape cases in order to keep  viewers, advertisers and the corporate leadership satisfied and calm?

President Obama was talking about gun regulation when he talked about the 20 children at Sandy Hook being robbed of their future and the nation needing to try harder to save even "one child." I'd suggest that the protective awareness and concern he's speaking of needs to be pushed back further - into the womb - which we could argue ought to be the safest place on the planet.

Guadalupe-Mother of the pre-born, show us the way.

Day Six ~ Second Intercessions During the Guadalupe Novena

On Juan Diego's tilma/ the Lady stands in front of the sun/ which was worshiped as a god by the Aztecs./ We pray to be freed of anything we have allowed to supersede or replace God./ We pray to the Lord. 

The Lady on the tilma is walking towards us./ We pray to be Christians in motion,/ persons who carry a message of life and hope to those who are alone,/ afraid or unknowing./We pray to the Lord.

The Lady on the tilma stands on a crescent moon./ It is the moon in its beginning phase./ We pray to begin again when we have forgotten or failed God,/ ourselves or each other./ We pray to the Lord.

The colors of the tilma are vibrant and fresh./ We pray not to cast every person,/ moral problem or human dilemma in terms of black and white,/ but to see the world's concerns and God's world-presence/ in colors which even change./ We pray to the Lord.

The roses of Tepeyac were rich in fragrance./ We pray to leave the fragrance of Christ wherever we go:/ his gentle kindness,/ his capacity to lift others up,/ his patience with weakness./ We pray to the Lord.

Juan Diego and his people were indigenous to Mexico:/ a defeated people./ We call to mind those we know and care for/ who perhaps are defeated by addiction,/ age,/ prolonged sickness or sorrow/ praying for their consolation and strength./ We pray to the Lord.

In the miracle of the roses,/ flowers bloom in winter./ We ask to be a people of hope:/ persons who believe in God/ who brings beauty,/ reconciliation and life out of what is seemingly dead or without promise./ We pray to the Lord.

Day Five ~ Washington D.C.

I FIRST VISITED THIS CHAPEL in the late 1960's having joined a Franciscan Pilgrimage out of New York City to Washington, D.C. It is a side chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. At that time, this National Shrine was the seventh largest church in the world! I don't remember being taken on a tour of the great building but rather coming across this delightfully intimate chapel on my own. Everything about it said, "Don't stand on the threshold; come inside." 

In returning to D.C. a few weeks ago I had arranged to offer Mass here, fulfilling a boyhood dream. My sister accompanied me as we had both participated in the Shared Hope International conference on the Sex Trafficking of Minors. How fitting that these two events should have come together here as in the story of the Guadalupe appearances to Juan Diego, he addresses her as "my little girl." America's children, mostly girls, are being kidnapped, groomed and prostituted by the many thousands, and as a national people we are too often ignoring it, believing the problem exists on other continents. It is reported that girls as young as 3,4 and 5 are caught in this new form of slavery.

In preparation for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Feast of the Child of Bethlehem we might visit this site: Shared Hope International . Let's invite our believing to be turned into new knowledge and some kind of response-action. 

While my sister waited in the chapel for me to return from the sacristy after the Mass she sat on the side bench over which is a long line of candle bearing mosaic-pilgrims on their way to venerate the Guadalupe. She composed this strong poem there.

In the third stanza could the "armies of the dead" be the clergy who, and the self-protective policies which have so offended and failed the children of the Church?

Guadalupe Roses

See the Aztec Goddess, in so few words,

rise like maize above the frozen Tepeyec hills,

glow in mosaic, red yellow pink blue,

the arc of spectrum we all know, but that

had never been seen before in Mexico──

until she showered down upon Juan Dieguito

love in the form of Castilian roses.

See the beautiful women of so few words,

their handsome men and children, of fewer still,

with lowered eyes, whisper among themselves,

the breath of roses never forgotten.

For those who scope upon them in subways and hotels,

where they change our bedding, serve us food,

or in our homes where they cut our lawns,

see only the utility of forms, blind to the stamina of roses.

See the black demon of empty words

run back into its hole down the hill,

by the cathedral facing the northern shore

limned with corpses, guns, death by alcohol,

drugs, rape, forced servitude and prostitution,

where the churches are full of the armies of the dead

who cannot inhale the sweet breath of roses.

See the beauty of the bud, glow with life interior,

yet, there are those who seek to disturb

the peaceful minds of others, whose envy

fails to penetrate, their longing still unheard──

to become the lord's of unspeakable things,

everything that's ever wished for, won,

except for those heart-minds, like tilmas worn,

blanketed in the multi-colored flame of roses.

                                                            Karen Morris─

                                                            Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe,

                                                            Basilica of the National Shrine, Washington, DC

                                                            November 10, 2013

Castilian Rose

Day Four ~ Intercessions During the Guadalupe Countdown

The Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas: North, Central and South./ We pray for this part of the world/ asking for the conversion of hearts where persons suffer indignities and injustice./ We pray to the Lord.

The Lady of Guadalupe called Juan Diego the littlest of her sons./ We pray to remember that each human person is God's child/ and to love people with the mind of Christ./ We pray to the Lord.

Juan Diego delayed meeting the Lady for their second appointment because his uncle, Juan Bernadino, was dying./ We pray for persons who care for others in frailty or suffering-need./ We pray to the Lord.

While the Lady asked for a chapel to be built on the top of Tepeyac, we ask God all the more to change us into living stones that build up the Church to God's Glory/ and the love of our neighbor./ We pray to the Lord.

When the Lady appeared to Juan Diego/ she stood barefoot on the ground./ We ask for the virtue of humility/ by which we might see ourselves truthfully,/ in our vulnerability and powerlessness./ We pray to the Lord.

On Juan Diego's tilma/ the Lady stands in the posture of prayer./ In the dark time of the year/ we pray to be enlightened/ that we might pray more deeply and from the heart./ We pray to the Lord.

We entrust the sick,/ the friendless and the needy to the Guadalupe's care,/ and pray that those who have died may experience the most tender mercy of Jesus/ who pardons, heals and makes whole./ We pray to the Lord.

Day Three ~ Guadalupe Novena Countdown ~ Juan Diego and the Bishop

THE EDITORIAL OF THE NOVEMBER 16, 2013 issue of The Tablet, the newspaper of the Brooklyn Diocese, reflected upon what's being called The Francis Effect: the impact the new pope is having on people around the world. It seems that while the pope is warmly received in so many circles, some are criticizing him for a (perceived) desire to revive the spirit of the earliest Church when the community was without evolved hierarchical structures. 

The editorial cites Vittorio Messori, who wrote in Milan's daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera that, "Historically, charismatic movements which refused to change into hierarchical structures were swiftly reduced to irrelevance." I expect  that is so, but we might well consider the converse: that the Church, where the hierarchical structures are overstated, runs the risk of forgetting and losing the charisms (spiritual gifts and qualities) of the founder. This sad fact is played out repeatedly throughout the history of the Church. Pope John Paul II recognized this and was unafraid to declare it while in the year 2000 he repeatedly apologized before the world for the historical sins of the Church. Some high ranking prelates thought he was mistaken in doing this. 

Pope Francis understands. He says that the Church can lose the fragrance of the gospel. I wonder if there are many Catholics who even understand what that might mean. He has instructed bishops to change course in emphasis and style. In the same issue of The Tablet, Cardinal Dolan reflected on a meeting he recently had with Pope Francis. Cardinal Dolan said of the pope: "He made a special point of saying that he wants pastoral bishops, not bishops who profess or follow a particular ideology." This pope often calls for the end of clericalism (when a priest thinks the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to him) and for the clergy to get out of their churches to be with people and serve them where they are.

All of this to say, that as the account of Juan Diego and the Lady of Guadalupe unfolds, Juan Diego has to meet a bishop.

It is said that in the age of the European countries establishing colonies around the world, notably in Africa and Central and South America, that the clergy hitched a ride. But from the start there is a problem, as the clergy have associated themselves with the defeating powers. It's hard to convince people of the beauty of Jesus when you arrive with colonizing disease bearers, thieves, exploiters, abusers, cultural destroyers.

In the Guadalupe account we notice that the Lady didn't reveal herself to the Spanish Governor nor to Bishop Zumarraga, but to Juan Diego who was effectively on the bottom of the pile. Juan Diego was of no consequence in the culture of the day. He's wasn't a slave and he wasn't in the army, but the story tells us that he still had to show up for roll call. And so the first thing the Lady accomplished in speaking his language, in conversing with him while standing barefoot on the ground, in resembling his people, was to  give him his dignity back. She made him her viceroy!

And as is true in almost all the accounts of Marian Apparitions throughout history, the seer (the see-er) is disbelieved. But seers are almost always children or poor - or poor children. Indeed, Juan Diego is worse than disbelieved, he is reviled. The language coming out of the Bishop's household regarding Juan Diego is telling: They held him in suspicion. They observed and spied on him. They became disgusted and angered with him. They said Juan Diego was a deceiver, a fake, a dreamer, a liar. They schemed, should he return after being sent away, that they would arrest and punish him harshly.

Often the Church simply doesn't share the joy. The pope has said we have become obsessed with certain sexual and morale issues and in doing so something of the essential gospel message is lost. Participating in an international conference in Washington, D.C. recently, in the course of nearly three days, nearly every person with whom I spoke told me some sad story of their having "left the Catholic Church." In one diocese I know of, the word hemorrhaging is used to describe the exiting of Catholics to Evangelical Churches where the transforming Jesus of the Gospels is proclaimed. In the telling of their stories, often it's disclosed that people feel the Catholic Church has simply lost joy.

Pope Benedict XVI said of the Church in the First World that it is exhausted. I wonder at times if our Church hasn't become a kind of an empty shell or an antique, substituting liturgical theater, charade, sentiment, power, religious distraction, lies and talking in the vacuum of specialized and arcane language, as a substitute for the real thing, which is Christ. One priest I know told me years ago that we have lost our Christic-Center.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Waiting after Katrina

Perhaps nothing else reveals the loss of the heavenly or spiritual thrust in the Guadalupe story as this - that repeatedly, Juan Diego is made to wait. The poor always wait. They wait in clinics. They wait for buses. They wait on long lines. They have no letters of recommendation or badges to flash to open access, no names to drop or tips to speed things along for them. They're in no position to bribe their way - no this-for-that negotiating power.

"On arrival, he (Juan Diego) endeavored to see him (the bishop); he pleaded with the servants to announce him; and after a long wait, he was called and advised that the bishop had ordered his admission."  

And again: "On the hour Juan Diego left for the palace of the bishop. Again with much difficulty he was able to see him."

Then, as always happens in the stories of apparitions from heaven, the Church takes charge of the site and the story itself - as if to tame, manage and massage the message. In truth we are told that the bishop fell to his knees before the mystical image on Juan Diego's tilma and shed sorrowful tears for his disbelief and procrastination, but then we read:

"When he rose to his feet, he untied from Juan Diego's neck the cloth on which appeared the image of the Lady from heaven. Then he took it to be placed in his chapel." The tilma didn't belong to him. But the tilma was enshrined and has become the most visited Catholic shrine in the world. But does the presence of the tilma change us? Does it change the Church?

The Guadalupe Account proposes something new for the Church - beginning with the top: a Church that's eager to listen, where no one of us lords it over another, where service is pre-eminent, where the poor are moved up front so the rest of us can help, where the things of heaven give us joy, where suspicion is reduced, where we respect the messages others carry.

And when I suggest that the poor be moved up front I am not speaking of stepping aside so someone can get to the soup kitchen door - I"m talking about the rich countries and the poor countries. Maybe before Christmas we could read Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation Evangelli Gaudium where he calls the First World to a new attentiveness and response in these things. For the price of one bomb we could build 34 schools in the poorest parts of the world.

In the mid 1980's, when AIDS was out of control and people were getting sick and dying quickly and in large numbers, the gay community in New York rallied and took even strangers into their homes, people who had lost their families, their jobs, their apartments, their savings - and be-friended and nursed them until they died. When I shared this in a Sunday sermon and suggested that perhaps Catholics had something to learn from that community, the only ones who objected were the  pious never-miss-Mass folks. It's confounding how a religious person can appear to have so much insight and truth and underneath have so little.

Bishop Zumarraga was chaplain to the Empire's Governor. There was a lot of power and prominence built into that relationship. Yet it was Juan Diego (the littlest one) who carried the message and the picture from heaven. That's pure Gospel!

Day Two ~ Guadalupe Novena Countdown ~ Daybreak

Lets' not be just admirers of the Guadalupe story, but see how even the details of the account play in our own lives today.

The account of the First Apparition of the Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego begins: On a Saturday just before dawn, he was on his way to pursue divine worship and to engage in his own errands. As he reached the base of the hill  known as Tepeyac, came the break of day, and he heard singing atop the hill, resembling the singing of varied beautiful birds. 

The words before dawn indicate that Juan Diego had set out in the dark, and as he reached the bottom of the Tepeyac hill, day break occurred. We're not just being told the time of day but symbolically, in the coming of light, there is signified the coming of understanding. I would suggest that as the conversation unfolds between Juan Diego and the Lady, that he will come to understand not only who She is, but perhaps even more importantly, who he and his people are.

We might also imagine that Bishop Juan de Zumarraga will come to some new understanding of who these non-Spaniards are. Pray that as She appears in the dawn-light of understanding that anyone who draws near to Her will understand as God understands: that each human person is irrevocably soul-endowed and heaven-born.

In the early morning too, our perceptions are heightened. Perhaps it is because we are rested and ready for what's new. Daybreak transforms what's familiar and gives the senses new depth. Moments before the apparition takes place, Juan Diego even asks, "Am I awakening?" 

But Juan Diego's heightened perception wasn't simply of his outer environment; he was waking up spiritually and psychologically. Maybe in those dawn moments he started to grow up in some new human way. We must remember, Juan Diego was a man whose race had been defeated. The possibilities for new understandings were tremendous. Defeated, crushed, degraded - even enslaved, Juan Diego might be asking, "Who am I, who are we now?"

"We are always beginning again," Dorothy Day said. To appreciate the Guadalupe story is to appreciate this daybreak aspect - that of new beginning, new understanding. There is an Easter echo in all of this too, isn't there: And on the first day of the week at dawn the women came to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared." (Luke 24: 1,2)

• A relationship is healed and amends are made.
• An opportunity is presented to learn something new.
• The first creative thoughts of the day are acknowledged.
• Perhaps some insight was revealed, even in the night's dreaming.
• A marriage comes to a place of new relational depth - even born of sorrow.
• There is the resolve to begin again after some failure or setback.
• A mistaken or fruitless approach, method or way of thinking is abandoned.
• Health is restored or not - and we grow in new understandings.
• A reprieve is given.
• One sets out in new sobriety.
• Pride or fear is put down and growth can occur.
• Sadness, perhaps as deep as depression, is pushed back.
• We stop rationalizing, procrastinating and justifying and start to live in the truth.

Name the dawn - the coming out-of-night to break-of-day.

Day One ~ Guadalupe Novena Countdown

ALL NARRATIVES OF the 1531 Guadalupe Apparitions are traced to the Nican Mopohua, written in Nahuatl, the ancient language of the Aztecs. The original has disappeared but a copy exists from 1649. The account begins with the words, "Ten years after the seizure of the city of Mexico, war came to an end and there was peace amongst the people." 

This is a reference to the defeat of the Aztec Empire by Cortes. And so the peace is the peace of a crushed people: defeated, killed, enslaved, oppressed. Even Christianity was foisted on them. It is in this context of annihilation that the Lady appears. Mary is not just being sweet to Juan Diego in the dialogue, but rather she addresses him and involves him in her work as one who, with his people, has been utterly degraded. It is essential to understand this if the Guadalupe is not to be reduced to one more tame devotion.

In the tenth year,
in the quiet of defeat
you appeared
Virgencita,
striding into the cemetery
of Mexico
where you uncovered your
littlest son,
who in accepting
colonial degradation
called himself
the dog's tail,
a bit of rope,
the bottom rung,
a leaf.

In his reduction
you elevated him,
your agent now,
to the chaplain of
the aggressors -
   orders from the
   barefoot!

Stride now little girl
into our political divide
and up to the ecclesial chasms,
the air space of drones
the outer space of satellites -
   the advance men
   of wars yet to be declared.

Stride now, my Lady and Child,
into the demilitarized zones,
the no man's lands,
the Guantanamos and
Abu Ghraibs,
the deepest undergrounds
  of exploitation and
  torture.

Mother in motion,
exit the outer world
of cartoon piety,
historical debate,
of scientific proof,
and stride into the inner world
where there's no golden mist,
no song of tzinizcan,
where weedy thoughts
   await the transformation
   of your sparkling
   turquoise and gold.

• The Virgin-Guadalupe called Juan Diego her littlest son.
• Virgencita: Juan Diego employs the diminutive in addressing the vision - the language of intimacy.
• Chaplain to the aggressors: that would be the local Spanish bishop.
• a leaf - commonly used as toilet paper.
• The barefoot: Just short of slavery, Juan Diego was at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.
• The tilma image shows Mary walking - see her left leg. Where does she need to stride today? But let's think beyond Mary wanting to correct the sex lives of people.
• Scientific proof. The Church has allowed the tilma to be subjected to countless scientific tests to prove its authenticity. I think this is foolish. "For those who have faith no proof is necessary. For those without faith, no proof would suffice."
• The Lady appeared first in a golden mist.
• The tzinizcan was a beautiful song bird. We might wonder if it has gone extinct.
• In the account of the first apparition the desert weeds glittered like precious stones.
• When heaven opens to us, there is always beauty.