Advent Reflection - Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Mary traveled with haste to visit Elizabeth, to be with her, to help her. Together, Mary and Elizabeth honored God: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” Recently, I saw a meme, a captioned picture of a Marian Holy Card with the title, “Our Lady of Chickens.” The caption read: “You can’t just call Mary the Mother of whatever you want.” At first, I laughed a bit, but then, after digging just a little bit, I found out that the card was created in 1942. We want our Blessed Mother to be a part of our everyday lives.

The caption is from 2022, but the image is from 1942. Our blessed Mother is a great gift to us. She is Christ’s mother, but our own as well. Some 1500 years after Christ’s resurrection and some 400 years before the Our Lady of Chickens holy card, the Empress of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe, visited her people in what is modern-day Mexico, to be with them, to help them.

Less than 40 years after the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, in the midst of profound change and turmoil, in the middle of violence and plunder, our Blessed Mother, as Our Lady of Guadalupe, came to her people as she came to Elizabeth. It was an unexpected gift. It was met with disbelief by the local bishop and there were plenty of skeptics among the people. Mary came there to let the people know that they had a mother, a loving advocate that would care for them and bring them hope. And the people responded.

Today, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is the most visited Marian Shrine in the world. Our mother has come to us, and we also go to her. She leads us and all her children to her son, Jesus Christ.