Everyday Guadalupe

Although I may be a fallen away Catholic, I am a practicing Guadalupana. She is my go-to intercessor whenever there is a request for prayers or when I need a little personal grace. Years ago, she replaced the Virgens of my youth, Lourdes and Fatima, perhaps because of her outsized presence in the cultures of the Southwestern states that I have called home—California, Texas and now, New Mexico. 

 A legacy of Mexican immigrants who have been settling on this side of the border for generations, the image of the dark-skinned Virgen her brightly colored cloak is ubiquitous. In formal church chapels and private niches, dangling from rear-view mirrors or in artful tattoos, she is the Empress of the Americas, the Patroness of Mexico, and, for many like me, a personal protectress. 

Over the years, I have lit candles before countless altars in her honor and visited the Basilica of the Guadalupe in the northern neighborhood of Mexico City where Our Lady was said to have a appeared to Juan Diego, an Indian convert, in December 1531. Yet the most moving testament to the faith she inspires came not in Mexico nor a Mission chapel, but in New York City. 

My dear friend, Christine Brown, had come from Philadelphia for a weekend visit in the city. On a cold Sunday morning, December 12, we decided to attend Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe church on 14th Street, a brisk walk from my Chelsea apartment on 23rd.  Not fully cognizant of the Feast Day, we were overwhelmed by the crush of people entering the church. Dozens and dozens of young men and women pressed toward the altar of the Virgen their arms full of flowers. It was a literal sea of roses and thick, dark hair—as vibrant expression of belief as either of us, both children of strongly Catholic, Irish families, had ever experienced. It was beautiful, it was moving—a memory that has stayed with both of us for over 2o years. 

Today, I celebrate in small, everyday ways. There are, of course, candles and even a nicho, but the Virgen's image appears in other, less likely places around the house from my jewelry box to the guest bedroom. Last evening, I put an ornament with her image on our Christmas tree, an appropriate apparition for the eve of her Feast Day.