As the Church prepares for the birth of Christ throughout Advent, it celebrates one of the most influential events in its history.
The apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Aztec convert, St. Juan Diego, near Mexico City in 1531 culminated with the miraculous image of the pregnant virgin on a cloak called a tilma.
This image, imprinted on the fabric, led to the mass conversion of approximately 9 million people in just over 7 years and remains as a powerful national symbol and religious icon today.
Commemorating this feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, hundreds of devotees packed St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Chipping Norton to honour the Blessed Virgin with a Mass celebrated in both English and Spanish on 12 December.
The liturgy was enriched by the veneration of a replica of the miraculous image, brought from the shrine in Mexico, and beautified by the singing of traditional hymns dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe by a number of families from the parish.
Moorebank parishioner and musician Enrique Rosales, who was among those who played for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, felt it was a “profound honour and a true blessing for us”.
“Through her loving intercession, we offer our music to the Lord with grateful hearts, knowing that she has always walked with us,” he said.
“She reminds us that we are all her children, loved and cared for without exception.
“Our Lady of Guadalupe breaks borders, crosses cultures, and unites us as one family in Christ.
“For us, playing on this feast day is more than music—it is an act of prayer, thanksgiving, and devotion, a way to honour the Mother who continually leads us closer to her Son.”
During the homily, assistant priest of St Joseph’s Moorebank and St Christopher’s Holsworthy Fr David Romero CRS spoke on the quiet manner in which God delivers His universal truth, opting for the small and particular rather than a “loud, global announcement”.
God’s love to take what seems small, fragile, local, even insignificant, to reveal the eternal can be seen in the Marian apparition.
“These are not broadcast messages to the whole planet, but they are always local, concrete, and particular,” said Fr David, who concelebrated the Mass with parish priest Fr Mathew Velliyamkandathil CRS.
“Each one is addressed to a place, a language, a culture, a moment in history, sometimes even to a single person.
“From that tiny point on the map, a light for all peoples began to shine and that is exactly what God did at Tepeyac, a hilltop on the outskirts of Mexico City.
“He chose not the powerful, not the well-educated, not the influential but a quiet, humble Indigenous man, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, who could not have imagined he would become the bearer of a message for continents.”
Fr David drew attention to the tender, simple words of Our Lady spoken to Juan Diego, not in Latin, not in Spanish, but in his native Nahuatl which is the language of his heart.
These words ‘Am I not here, I who am your mother?’ reveal a timeless truth that touches upon the universality of motherhood, the Church’s preferential love for the poor and the Simple and the Universal Message of Salvation in Christ.
“At Tepeyac, Mary reminds us that she is not a distant queen but a mother who bends low, who walks with us, who speaks our language, whatever it may be,” Fr David said.
“Juan Diego was not a bishop, but … through him she taught the Church that the Gospel blooms wherever the humble open their hearts.
“The tilma of Guadalupe is full of symbols of life, hope, new creation, and divine presence that spoke directly to the Indigenous peoples of Mexico.
“Mary wove the Gospel into their culture revealing that Christ is the Saviour, the centre, the One she carries, the One she shows us and her whole purpose is to point the world to Him.”
Following the Mass, parishioners were invited to continue the celebration with a multicultural meal put on by a number of families within the parish community.