On our Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(A Look Back To Our Pilgrimage to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in 2005)

“Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother.’ And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home.” Jn 19:27

Several community members were blessed with the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the Shrine of our Lady of Guadalupe and other Marian shrines in Mexico several years ago. Like the apostle John prior to the Lord’s crucifixion, our discipleship prior to the pilgrimage was entirely focused on Jesus. We were unable to make room for Mary in our lives, believing that it is better to go directly to God. Our devotion to the Blessed Mother was as perfunctory as our un-mindful recitation of the rosary.

The Lord Jesus Christ gave His mother to the Church knowing that if we knew her like He did, we would love and honor her like He did. As His first, most faithful and model disciple, we have everything to gain from emulating her life of prayer, reflection, obedience and service. Looking back, we now realize that our pilgrimage was the Lord’s way of bringing us to a deeper relationship with His mother.

As we traveled to various Marian shrines in an air-conditioned bus, we came across hundreds, if not thousands of pilgrims, or peregrinos in Spanish, on their way to the Guadalupe shrine on foot and with nothing but sleeping and sparse food supplies. They were two or three days of walking away from the shrine. At night, we saw them encamped by roadsides, with only flashlights to illumine themselves.

In Mexico City, we were thrust into a sea of peregrinos from all over the world. Millions of them ascended to the Guadalupe shrine, which consisted of the Basilica, chapels and grottos built around Mt. Tepeyac, where four of the five Marian apparitions to San Juan Diego occurred in 1531. (URL: http://www.sancta.org/). It seemed as if every province, city, town, parish and school in Mexico had a delegation of peregrinos to represent them in Guadalupe.

The scene at the shrine reminded us of big town fiestas in the Philippines, with their fill of marching bands, cultural dances, singers, vendors, and tourists. Masses were scheduled around the clock at the Basilica, which teemed with people morning, noon and night. A steady stream of peregrinos, some walking on their knees, passed in the front of the main altar and through the automatic walkways where San Juan Diego’s tilma (shroud) bearing Our Lady of Guadalupe’s image can be viewed more closely. Simultaneous masses for special pilgrim groups were at the dozen or so chapels at the balcony of the Basilica.

On the eve of the feast, a nationally televised program to honor the Blessed Mother was held throughout the night in the Basilica. Every well-known Mexican singer, musician, artist and celebrity serenaded Our Lady, many of them speaking to her as though they were face to face with their own mother. It was clear that the peregrinos and the Mexican people were deeply in love with the Blessed Mother.

Our Newark pilgrims had their intimate moments with Our Lady as well. One was given a vision of a radiant light emanating from the face of Our Lady of Ocotlan. (URL: http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/ocotlan.htm) Several others were healed through the intercession of Our Lady from past emotional and spiritual hurts. Many received a fresh anointing for prayer. Others discovered gushing wellsprings that will nurture their newly-discovered devotions to the Blessed Mother.

The Lord used the huge crowds, which could have been distracting to the serious peregrino, and our quiet moments of prayer, to convey the first but lasting lesson of the pilgrimage: God’s love empowers our love relationship with the Blessed Mother. Our Newark pilgrims took Our Lady home, to begin a love relationship that will grow deeper over time, thanks to her Son who so graciously gave her to us.