Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
La Crosse, Wisconsin
December 12, 2025
Zech2, 14-17
Jdt 13, 18. 19
Rv 11, 19; 12, 1-6. 10
Lk 1, 26-38
Homily
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On this day in 1531, Saint Juan Diego, at the instruction of the Virgin Mother of God, Our Lady of Guadalupe, visited Bishop Juan de Zumárraga for the third time. It was his most important visit to the Bishop for he was bringing the sign which the Bishop had requested, the proof provided by Our Lady that Saint Juan Diego was indeed speaking on her behalf. Saint Juan Diego was asking, on behalf of Our Lady, that the Bishop construct a chapel, a holy place of pilgrimage, in which Our Lady could bring pilgrims to her Divine Son, Our Lord, to know His love and mercy, to love Him in return, and to serve Him with all their hearts. At Our Lady’s instruction, Saint Juan Diego had ascended Tepeyac Hill, a rocky and barren place where only weeds and thorn bushes grew. What is more, it was in the cold of winter. He found there the most beautiful Castilian roses, the sign provided by Our Lady to prove to the Bishop the truth of Saint Juan Diego’s mission. He gathered the roses and brought them to Our Lady who carefully arranged them in his tilma, instructing him not to show them to anyone, except the Bishop.
With great joy, Saint Juan Diego went to the Bishop and, at the moment when he was opening his tilma to present the miraculous Castilian roses, a stunningly greater miracle occurred, a miracle which continues yet today. Let us listen to the account of the presentation of the sign to the Bishop:
And then he opened his white tilma, in the hollow of which were the flowers. And all the different flowers, like those from Castille, fell to the floor. Then and there his tilma became the sign, there suddenly appeared the Beloved Image of the Perfect Virgin Saint Mary, Mother of God, in the form and figure in which it is now, where it is preserved in her beloved little house, in her sacred little house in Tepeyac, which is called Guadalupe. And as soon as the Governing Bishop and all those who were there saw it, they knelt, they were full of awe, they stood up to see it, they were moved, their hearts were troubled, their hearts as well as their minds were raised. And the Governing Bishop, in tears, with sadness, begged Her, he asked Her forgiveness for not having carried out Her venerable will, Her venerable breath, Her venerable word.
And the Bishop got up, and untied Juan Diego’s garment, his tilma, from his neck where it was tied, on which appeared the venerable sign of the Heavenly Queen. And then he took it and placed it in his private chapel. And Juan Diego still stayed for the day in the Bishop’s house, who still kept him there. And on the next day he [the Bishop] said to him: “Come, let’s go so you can show me where it is that the venerable will of the Queen of Heaven wants Her chapel built.” Immediately the order was given to make it, to build it.…
And after some time, the Reverend Bishop moved the beloved Image of the Heavenly Maiden to the main church. He [the Bishop] took it from his palace, from his chapel where it had been, so that everyone could see and admire Her precious Image. And absolutely everyone, the entire city, without exception, trembled when they went to behold, to admire Her precious Image. They came to acknowledge it as something divine. They came to offer Her their prayers. They marveled at the miraculous way it had appeared since absolutely no one on Earth had painted Her beloved Image.[1]
In fact, from the time of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the enshrinement of her miraculous image in the chapel built near Tepeyac Hill, Our Lady has lovingly gazed upon countless pilgrims, and they have lovingly gazed upon her.
Through the encounter with Our Lady miraculously present on the tilma of Saint Juan Diego countless pilgrims have come to know intimately her Divine Son and his unceasing and immeasurable love for them in His holy Church. They have been inspired and strengthened to remain always in His company through prayer, devotion, and divine worship.
Today, we fall on our knees with Bishop Juan de Zumárraga before the heavenly image of the Virgin Mother of God, the “woman clothed with the sun”[2] who gave birth to the Son[3] Who has conquered forever the “huge red dragon,”[4] Satan, “a murderer from the beginning,” and “a liar and the father of lies.”[5] We recognize the evil, the sin, which seeks to destroy us because we are sons and daughters of God the Father, alive in His only-begotten Son, God the Son Incarnate, through outpouring of the sevenfold gift of the God the Holy Spirit into our souls. We fall down in worship of Jesus, God the Son made man in the womb of the Virgin Mother, the One Who saves us from Satan’s hateful designs. Jesus is the “one who is to rule all the nations,”[6] and of whose “kingdom there will be no end.”[7] Our Lady of Guadalupe brings Him to us and brings us to Him, even as she first brought Him into the world, conceived in her womb at Nazareth and born of her at Bethlehem. The prophetic word of Zechariah has been perfectly fulfilled: “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for behold, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the LORD.”[8] God the Son has united our human nature to His divine nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, “full of grace,”[9] and married to Saint Joseph. The Virgin Mother of God, Our Lady of Guadalupe, as she first did at the Wedding Feast at Cana, brings us to her Son Jesus Who alone saves us from Satan, and she instructs us: “Do whatever he tells you.”[10]
Filled with awe, inspired, and elevated by the contemplation of the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe present on the miraculous tilma of Saint Juan Diego, let us renew today the consecration of our hearts to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, giving our hearts, with hers, completely to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, her Divine Son. In the face of the difficulties, the trials, and the temptations by which Satan wishes to discourage us and lead us away from the Heart of Jesus, Our Lady receives us into her arms, urging us to trust Our Lord and His promise of eternal salvation.
Conscious of the many who have abandoned Christ and of the many more who do not yet know Him, let us beg Our Lady of Guadalupe to lead countless souls to Him Who alone is the way, and the truth, and the life.”[11] Let us dedicate ourselves with new energy to our mission as her messengers, drawing souls to Him Who alone is our salvation.
Let us especially place our families and our homeland “in the hollow” of the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, “in the crossing of [her] arms,”[12] that Christ the King may reign in all hearts. Let our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, lift up to the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus all who suffer in body or in spirit, that they may be purified of all sin and inflamed with divine truth and love.
Consecrating our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of the Virgin of Guadalupe, His Mother, and pleading, through her intercession, that His victory over sin and death in our human nature may be realized in each of our lives and in the lives of all our brothers and sisters, may we proceed faithfully on the pilgrim way which leads to our true homeland: the eternal life of Heaven. There may we, with the angels and all the saints, forever praise and glorify God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Let us renew each day the Act of Consecration we make today, confident that it, as a sacramental of the Church, disposes us to receive and to cooperate with the actual grace to be one in heart with the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Thus, may we cooperate with the grace of Christ Who wins in our human nature the victory of divine love and eternal life in the daily struggle against Satan and all evil spirits.
In a few moments, at the conclusion of the General Intercessions, we will make the Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Let us then give our hearts completely to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Who renews sacramentally His Sacrifice on Calvary for our eternal salvation. May the union of our hearts with the Immaculate Heart of Mary in His Most Sacred Heart shine forth in everything we think and say and do. So may Christ the King, through His Virgin Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, always reign in our hearts. ¡Viva Cristo Rey! ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] “Y luego extendió su blanca tilma, en cuyo hueco estaban las flores. Y al caer al suelo todas las variadas flores como las de Castilla, luego allí en su tilma se convirtió en señal, se apareció de repente la Amada Imagen de la Perfecta Virgen Santa María, Madre de Dios, en la forma y figura en que ahora está, en donde ahora es conservada en su amada casita, en su sagrada casita en el Tepeyácac, que se llama Guadalupe. Y en cuanto la contempló el Obispo Gobernante y también todos los que allí estaban, se arrodillaron, mucho la admiraron, se pusieron de pie para verla, se conmovieron, se afligió su corazón, como que se elevó su corazón, su pensamiento. Y el Obispo Gobernante con lágrimas, con tristeza, le suplicó, le pidió perdón por no haber realizado su venerable voluntad, su venerable aliento, su venerable palabra.
Y el Obispo se levantó, desató del cuello de donde estaba atada, la vestidura, la tilma de Juan Diego en la que se apareció, en donde se convirtió en venerable señal la Reina Celestial. Y luego la llevó allá, la fue a colocar en su oratorio. Y todavía allí pasó un día entero Juan Diego en la casa del Obispo, quien hizo que se quedara allí. Y al día siguiente, le dijo: “Anda, vamos a que muestres dónde es la venerable voluntad de la Reina del Cielo que le levante su templo”. De inmediato se dio orden de hacerlo, levantarlo….
Y después de que el Señor Obispo la tuvo algún tiempo, trasladó a la Iglesia Mayor la preciosa reverenciada Imagen de la amada Niña Celestial. La vino a sacar de su palacio, de su oratorio en donde estaba, para que todos la vieran, se admiraran de su preciosa Imagen. Y absolutamente todos, toda la ciudad, sin faltar nadie, se estremecioeron cuando fueron a contemplar, a admirar su preciosa Imagen. Venía conocerla come algo divino. Venían a presentarle sus plegarias. Mucho se admiraban en qué milagrosa manera se había aparecido puesto que absolutamente ningún hombre de la tierra pintó su amada Imagen.” “Apéndice A: El Nican Mopohua,” tr. Instituto Superior de Estudios Guadalupanos, in Carl A. Anderson y Eduardo Chávez, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Madre de la civilización del amor (México, D.F.: Random House Mondadori, S.A. de C.V., 2010), pp. 223-225, nn. 181-193, y 212-218. [Hereafter, Nican Mopohua]. English translation: “Appendix A: The Nican Mopohua,” in Carl A. Anderson and Eduardo Chávez, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love (New York: Doubleday, 2009), pp. 182-183, nos. 181-193, and 212-218. [Hereafter, Nican Mopohua Eng].
[2] Rev 12, 1.
[3] Cf. Rev 12, 2.
[4] Rev 12, 3.
[5] Jn 8, 44.
[6] Rev 12, 5.
[7] Lk 1, 33.
[8] Zech 2, 10.
[9] Lk 1, 28.
[10] Jn 2, 5.
[11] Jn 14, 6.
[12] “en el hueco … en el cruce de [sus] brazos.” Nican Mopohua, p. 220, n. 119. English translation: Nican Mopohua Eng, p. 179, no. 119..