The following comes from an August 5 story posted on the Catholic News Agency website. An August 6 story in the Los Angeles Times said “the 90,000-seat stadium was only about half full.”
The Virgin Mary will accompany the Church in the New Evangelization, just as she did during the first preaching of the Gospel in the Americas, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez told around 100,000 devotees at the Aug. 5 Guadalupe Celebration.
“Our Lady of Guadalupe is calling us today, my brothers and sisters,” the archbishop said in his keynote address to one of the largest Catholic gatherings in U.S. history at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. “She is calling us to greater faith, to greater love, to greater hope.”
“She is calling us to dedicate our lives to the loving plan of God. To everything for his glory,” he said, stressing the Virgin Mary’s message to honor God “in our homes, in our families, in our neighborhoods and communities, in our political life.”
“Let’s ask Our Lady of Guadalupe – the bright star of the first evangelization and the Mother of the New Evangelization – to help us all to be better instruments of the love of God, so that everyone in our world may come to love him,” the archbishop told the coliseum crowd.
Sunday’s event, co-sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was one of the city’s largest Catholic celebrations in recent memory. It is the Knights’ second such gathering, following the 2009 Guadalupe Festival in Arizona.
From 3 p.m. onward, the Los Angeles stadium was filled with prayer, music, and talks in honor of Jesus Christ and his mother, who appeared to Saint Juan Diego in 1531 to herald the evangelization of the world’s Western Hemisphere.
Speakers at the Guadalupe Celebration included Supreme Knight Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus, and Monsignor Eduardo Chavez, who oversaw the canonization cause of St. Juan Diego.
On display at the celebration, for veneration by the faithful, was the only U.S.-based relic of the Tilma of Guadalupe – the saint’s garment that was imprinted with a miraculous image of the Virgin.
Though that image has become an unmistakable part of Hispanic culture, its meaning transcends ethnic and geographical boundaries, as Archbishop Gomez stressed in his keynote address.
“Our Lady of Guadalupe is not only the Mother of the people of Mexico,” the Los Angeles Church leader observed. “She is the Mother of all the peoples of the Americas! She is the New Eve. She is the Mother of all the living!”
….Present-day believers, in Mexico and elsewhere, “received the gift of faith because our ancestors kept our faith alive and passed it on to us – through generations and generations, even in the darkest times,” Archbishop Gomez observed.
To illustrate this devotion to the faith, and the international nature of the Guadalupe message, he told the story of Blessed Maria Ines Teresa Arias.
Beatified last April in Mexico City, the 20th century blessed fled Mexico during the time of the Cristero War – “when it was a crime to believe in Jesus Christ and to want to worship him,” Archbishop Gomez noted.
Having joined the Poor Clare sisters in Mexico City, Maria Ines came to the U.S. in 1929, receiving her habit as a novice in Los Angeles. On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1930, she had a mystical experience in which she heard the Virgin Mary promise to accompany her in doing God’s work.
Though she returned to Mexico in 1931, “she heard her missionary calling here,” the L.A. archbishop recalled.
Bl. Maria Ines founded the Poor Clare Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, sending women to proclaim the Gospel through consecrated life in 14 countries.
She charged her sisters “to carry the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, so that she – through her maternal tenderness – would bring her Divine Son to live in the hearts of those who hunger for God without knowing it.”
Archbishop Gomez addressed that same advice to the crowd at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, encouraging Guadalupe Celebration participants to deepen their faith and pass it on to others.
“Jesus Christ wants to make use of us. Just as he made use of St. Juan Diego. Just as he made use of Blessed María Ines,” he reflected. “He wants us to be apostles and missionaries. And Our Lady of Guadalupe will accompany us in all our endeavors.”
“My brothers and sisters, now it is our turn. The mission of Tepeyac continues today. It continues in you and me! Our Lady of Guadalupe is counting on us now!”
To read entire story, click here.
Archbishop Gomez sounds like a MMP priest! Our Lady told Fr. Gobbi that the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart would begin from Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Great John Paul II went to the Mexico shrine more than any other shrine of Our Mothers in the world. Thank you Archbishop Gomez, it is exciting, and your words are very poignant, and timely.
I was there. It was great. There were about 60-70,000 respectful faithful in attendance.
So not the 100,000 claimed by CNA?
My family and I were there too and it was a wonderful day in celebration of our Lady. We had stand-by tickets and were able to get in so we said a prayer for those who didn’t show up and gave us a chance to attend. While it was crowed there were still plenty of seats. Archbishop Gomez was outstanding in speaking to both the english and spanish crowd. Mr. Anderson’s speach was also a crowd pleaser in both languages. The music was lively and moving even what we didn’t understand. The announcers were also excellent and enthusiastic. All in all, a great family day for all who attended.
Just wanted to add a thank you California Catholic Daily. I really enjoy the site. God Bless you all.
In my opinion this was not even close to being a prayerful event. The pagan Aztec drummers, horn blower and dancers were a real turnoff. I really find it hard to believe that our Lady was honored by such a pagan performance. Didn’t the Aztecs beat the drums to hypnotize the crowds and to drown out the screams of the victims whose hearts were being cut out? My understanding of the Guadalupe story was that once the Aztecs converted to Christianity the drums ceased to beat since the drums were used for the purpose of human sacrifice. Another observation I made was that during the rosary they brought out a few celebrities to say a Hail Mary or Santa Maria. I noticed that when a celebrity said the Santa Maria the louder the response was from the crowd. I use to appreciate Our Lady of Guadalupe, but after this event I am convinced more than ever that she is nothing more than a cultural icon to most people. From now on my devotion to her will be strictly in the privacy of my own home.
I hate to be too critical but, while the idea was great and the program reasonably well executed, if one didn’t speak Spanish the bulk of the program was lost. The play was all in Spanish (easy enough to follow but not understand), the Msgr. from Mexico spoke three times and his last 20 minute sermon was all Spanish, with most of us having no idea at all what he was saying. It must have been good as those who understood him cheered like crazy. The rest of us just baked in the sun.
I was assured by numerous Knights of Columbus that this event was designed to bring Our Lady of Guadalupe to EVERYONE, beyond the Hispanics. I was assured that the entire event was going to be in English. For this reason they enthusiastically encouraged me to attend. I was looking forward to it. Carol, you are absolutely right. The play was entirely in Spanish as well as a great portion of the rest of the program. Most of the English was used in the pre-program entertainment. Archbishop Gomez gave his speech in both Spanish and English, but he did not translate from one language to the other. He simply continued his speech changing up the language he was using. It was perfect for those such as himself who are fluent in both Spanish and English. The reason I am being critical is not because the event was completely horrible, but because it failed on all levels to deliver what was vehemently promised. I can not see how non-Hispanics gained a deeper appreciation for OLOG as a result of this event.
“90,000-seat stadium” … “only about half full” … “around 100,000 devotees” … “about 60-70,000 respectful” … “stand-by tickets”.
According to the coliseum website history page “bringing the total capacity to 93,607 for football games.”
How do we get event leaders to report the number of tickets that were surrendered at the entrance gates to gain admittance?