Cathedral celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe

Friday, Dec. 18, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY – As nightfall came and temperatures plummeted on Dec. 11, people started gathering at the Cathedral of the Madeleine to commemorate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The celebration welcomed everyone, regardless of culture or place of origin.

Father Martin Diaz, pastor of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, and Father Roberto Montoro, parochial vicar, led the traditional procession, which this year included the image of Our Lady carried on a trailer filled with children dressed as angels. The image was guarded by St. Juan Diego, represented by a cathedral parishioner.

“I have never been in a celebration like this,” said Nicholas Walton, who arrived at the cathedral accompanied by more than a dozen Catholics from other parishes.

Walton said that over the years he had heard about the celebration and was curious about it, but it was not till this year that he and his group attended.

“We thought that what better way of keeping the inclusiveness that Our Lord Jesus has always shown us, than to come here and participate, even when we don’t understand what’s being said – we don’t speak Spanish. We prepared ourselves reading about the celebration and about the Virgin of Guadalupe,” said Walton.

In 1531 Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec Indian, on Tepeyac Hill in central Mexico. Speaking in Juan Diego’s native tongue, the lady said, “My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people may experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know my mother’s heart in this place. Here I will see their tears; I will console them and they will be at peace. So run now to Tenochtitlan and tell the bishop all that you have seen and heard.”

Juan Diego, who was canonized in 2002, reported what he had seen to his bishop, who said he would consider the request of the lady. Juan Diego, feeling unworthy to persuade someone as important as a bishop, returned to Tepeyac Hill. Mary was waiting for him. He implored her to send someone else.

“My little son, there are many I could send. But you are the one I have chosen,” she responded, and sent him to the bishop again. He went, and the bishop asked him to ask the lady to provide a sign as proof of her identity. 

Juan Diego carried the message to the Virgin, who was again waiting for him at the hill. 

“My little son, am I not your Mother?” she answered. “Do not fear. The bishop shall have his sign. Come back to this place tomorrow. Only peace, my little son.”

However, the next day Juan Diego stayed with his uncle, who had become ill. After two days, with his uncle near death, he went to fetch a priest. Passing Tepeyac Hill, he found Our Lady waiting for him.

“Your uncle will not die at this time,” she told him. “There is no reason for you to engage a priest, for his health is restored at this moment. He is quite well. Go to the top of the hill and cut the flowers that are growing there. Bring them then to me.”

Although it wasn’t the season for flowers, Juan Diego went to the top of the hill, where he found Castilian roses in full bloom. He cut them and carried them back to the lady in his cloak, called a tilma. The Virgin Mary rearranged the roses and told him that they were the sign she was sending to the bishop.

Once again meeting with the bishop, Juan Diego told the story. When he opened his tilma, the flowers fell out, and there on the cloak was a image of the Blessed Virgin Mary precisely as Juan had described her.

During the celebration at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Fr. Diaz told the people that they should follow St. Juan Diego’s example: They should not be afraid, “and now less than ever in this year of the Jubilee of Mercy … We need to not be afraid and be merciful and love our brothers and sisters,” he said.