The following comes from a Dec. 6 story in the Riverside Press Enterprise.
Thousands of people walked to the top of Riverside’s Mount Rubidoux on Saturday to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe, and more processions and other events are planned throughout the Inland area during the next few days.
Many of the walks, festivals and special Masses will take place on Friday the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe and one of the most important religious dates of the year for Latino Catholics, especially those of Mexican ancestry. It commemorates the day in 1531 when, according to Catholic Church teaching, a brown-skinned Virgin Mary appeared to a poor indigenous man named Juan Diego on a hillside in what is today Mexico City.
“We feel close to God” during the procession, said Trino Tellez, 45, a Mexican immigrant who has participated in the event for 13 years and helped coordinate it this year.
Tellez said the procession reminds him and other Mexicans of Virgin of Guadalupe events in their homeland.
“We want people to feel like they’re in Mexico,” he said.
It was the 16th year for the 2.5-mile Mount Rubidoux procession, which set off from Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine on Riverside’s East Side.
What is believed to be the longest Our Lady of Guadalupe procession in the country will begin early Friday at Our Lady of Solitude Catholic Church in Palm Springs and end 32 miles later outside Our Lady of Soledad Catholic Church in Coachella, where Bishop Gerald Barnes is scheduled to celebrate a 7 p.m. Mass.
Every year, thousands of people walk all or part of the route. Some travel from the Riverside-San Bernardino area to participate.
Jesús Mora, coordinator of the event and one of its founders, said the procession unifies Catholics.
“Our faith in the Virgin of Guadalupe keeps us together,” Mora said.
The event will begin Friday with a rosary at 3 a.m. at Our Lady of Solitude, followed by a Mass and Mañanitas, songs in honor of the Virgin, before the procession leaves the church at 6 a.m.
Shorter processions will take place at parishes throughout the Inland area, especially those with a large number of Latino worshippers.
To read the original story, click here.
The Patron of the *United States of America* is
“The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY”
The feast day is a Holy Day of Obligation and celebrated on Dec 8th of each year.
https://www.nationalshrine.com/site/c.osJRKVPBJnH/b.4719297/k.BF65/Home.htm
In 1847 at the petition of the Bishops of the United States, Pope BL Pius IX named the Blessed Virgin Mary patroness of the United States under her title of the Immaculate Conception.
It was a beautiful feast day. Afterwards everyone prayed the rosary. Our novena begins. Its all about saving souls!
AND Our Lady of Guadalupe is Patroness of the Americas, the whole hemisphere.
So there.
And the moon was beneath the feet of this hemisphere, literally, when our astronauts landed on the moon in the early 1960’s. Praise God!
Both the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe are important to the United States. In the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe she appeared a Middle Eastern Jew as she was, and as Tracy pointed out. Nevertheless, since the Lord Jesus glorified her body as His now is, she can appear any ethnic group and has done so to the people of different nations — the Church.
She also looks very Mestizo, too, a combination of Spanish and Indian. God, I have no doubt, planned it that way, so people could see themselves in her.
This procession in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe looks very inspiring! There is a young Latino priest of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, who badly needs her help! Fr. Michael Rodriguez is an excellent priest, very true to the Faith, and he is in big trouble with the Bishop of El Paso, for his desire to say only the beautiful Tridentine Latin Mass, and teach only the true, traditional doctrines of the Catholic Faith! He was banished for awhile to a small mission parish in a deserted area, for his deep interest in the Tridentine Mass, and for speaking out against the immorality of the Death Culture. Well, the people of the small mission parish have deeply appreciated him— and many of their children have developed a very deep religious faith, with some interested in religious vocations! His Bishop has given Fr. Rodriguez a six-month sabbatical, to determine what he will do, with his priestly vocation. A total heart-breaker! May Our Lady of Guadalupe help him!
The laity are STARVING for devotional practices. Before Vatican II practically every parish had novenas, Benediction, Holy Hours, devotions and processions (not parades). Because most of these events no longer take place, the people search for other areas to get fulfilled. What has taken the place of these pious practices is sports, shopping malls, television and the internet. These false gods are turning people into atheists. When the Church leaves a void, the devil quickly finds his niche, and uses it to snare people away from God.
Glory to God!
This is a beautiful tradition I am pleased to see taking root in this country. May I add a suggestion: start an outreach to non-Latino Catholics and welcome them their participation. Let this become a means of unity for all Catholics, not just Latino Catholics.
It is a beautiful Tradition. Thank you Tom. I agree. God bless you. : )
Oh yes Linda Marie, Father Michael Rodriquez is indeed a great and holy priest of the Roman Catholic Church and is devoted to the TRUE MASS OF ALL TIMES the Traditional Latin Mass. For this reason and this reason only, he is persecuted and sent into exile by his own Bishop of El Paso Mark Seitz. Now 40 years ago before the disaster called Vatican II a priest like Father Rodriquez would have been held up in high esteem for his devotion to the Holy Mass and teaching the TRUTH, forward 40 years after the destruction of Vatican II and behold a good and holy priest is persecuted for doing what a Roman Catholic priest is ordained to do it is a sick sick time for the Church and this current occupant in the Vatican is adding to the destruction. So pray pray pray for the good Father he should go to the F.S.S.P. Institute of Christ the King or the S.S.P.X. where he would be welcomed with open arms with all of thier YOUNG priests who offer THE TRUE MASS OF ALL TIMES, remember BERGOGLIO and the fellow MODERNTISTS will have to answer to Jesus Christ for their evil deeds.
Every year several of our Local OF Mass Parish has novenas, Benediction, Holy Hours etc. It is mostly a Hispanic/Filipino area. I appreciate how they have 24 hours 7days a week adoration. People sign up one hour at a time, even in the wee hours of the night. There is always a person with our Lord.
My best friend in Virginia, her parish does the same thing. We are truly blessed, we have holy devout priests in both the EF and OF parishes near by and some not so near by but worth the drive!
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is patroness of the United States. Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of all the Americas. The icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe was aboard one of the ships at the Battle of Lepanto.
Thank you Anne T. for pointing this out. Our Lady of Guadalupe was dressed in the traditional costume of the Jews in her day. She was not wearing an “Aztec” costume, as is so often falsely repeated. However, the star formation on her dress did correspond to the night sky, which the Aztecs did indeed identified with, as well as the dazzling sun behind her figure. Experts believe that the image of our Lady is identical with how she truly looked and dressed when she walked this earth. When I look at the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I do not see an “Indian” face. I do however, see a marked similarity between the face on the tilma and other ancient icons of the image of Mary.
Actually, Tracy, the original icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe has the features of the Shephardim — the Shephardic Jewish people of Spain. Many Latin American people have the last name “Perez”, which is a Shephardic name. The name is often spelled “Peres” in the Old Testament in the English Bibles.
Correction: Sephardim and Sephardic
Like so much of the main stream media, the Press Enterprise is a ghost of its former self. A quick Google search (Guadalupe procession mile) would have turned up a number of annual processions that are waaaayyyy longer — San Francisco’s is 11 miles, Oakland’s is 7.5, for example. Poor reporting; great devotion.