Feast of the Dedication of the Church of St. Mary of the Snow

onAug 5, 2025

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

La Crosse, Wisconsin 5 August 2025

Sir 24, 14-16
Lk 11, 27-28

Sermon

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

We worship God today, honoring the mystery of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the inspiration of the building and dedication of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major. The beauty and solemnity of our worship is especially enhanced by the presence of the Most Reverend Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, who is offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and by the singing of the Mass of the Americas, the first composition commissioned by The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship. The Benedict XVI Institute was founded by Archbishop Cordileone in 2018 to draw men to God, the font of all beauty, through the employment of what is artistically most beautiful in teaching Divine Truth and Love, and, above all, in offering Divine Worship.

The esteemed composer of the Mass of the Americas, Frank La Rocca, has drawn upon the rich tradition of Sacred Music, beginning with Gregorian Chant and including sacred polyphony, and traditional popular carols and hymns, to assist us in lifting up our minds and hearts to Our Lord Who, through the Eucharistic Sacrifice, unites Heaven with earth. The beauty of the Mass of the Americas helps us to recognize Our Lord descending from His place in glory at the right hand of God the Father to renew sacramentally for us His Sacrifice on Calvary and to nourish us with the incomparable fruit of His Sacrifice: His true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. God the Son Who united our human nature to His divine nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, continues to accomplish the salvation He won for us on Calvary through our life in Him, in His holy Church, especially through our union of heart with His glorious-pierced Heart in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Virgin Mary continues to bring Our Lord to us through her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart mystically pierced as His Most Sacred Heart was pierced when He died on the cross for our eternal salvation. In the words of Blessed Ildefonso Schuster, “[a]s Mary at the foot of the cross united herself with the Eternal Priest in offering the sacrifice of redemption in the name of mankind, so, too, even now, her maternal prayers intermingle at the holy altar with those of the priest and the faithful.”[1] The sublime beauty of the More Ancient Usage of the Roman Rite of the Mass draws men to the Virgin Mother of God, and she leads them to give their hearts, one with her Immaculate Heart, totally and unceasingly into the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus.

Sacred Music, and specifically the Mass of the Americas, is completely at the service of the Rite of the Mass for the union of hearts with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the eternal salvation of souls. In welcoming Archbishop Cordileone to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe to offer the Pontifical Mass on the Feast of Our Lady of the Snow, adorned by the sacred music of the Mass of the Americas, I thank him and the generous benefactors who have made possible today’s celebration. May God abundantly reward you. May God bless the work of The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship.

Today’s celebration of the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Snow or, as it is now most commonly known, the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, on the Esquiline Hill of Rome, has particular significance for the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe here. Since May 26, 2011, the Shrine Church has enjoyed the spiritual bond of affinity with the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, permitting pilgrims here to obtain the spiritual benefits of a pilgrimage to the Papal Basilica. Such a wonderful bond is altogether fitting for, in the words of Dom Prosper Guéranger, “[t]he Basilica raised by [Pope] Liberius, the beloved of our Lady, on the Esquiline, was not, then, the most ancient monument dedicated by the Christians of Rome to the Mother of God; but it at once took, and has always kept, the first place among our Lady’s churches in the city, and indeed in the world, on account of the solemn and miraculous circumstances of its origin.”[2]

Honoring as it does the mystery of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, is most fittingly the home of the Manger in which the Divine Infant rested at His Birth in Bethlehem. Thus, one of the Basilica’s historical titles: Saint Mary of the Crib.[3] Conscious of the bond with the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, the altar and baldacchino of the Shrine Church are modelled after the altar and baldacchino of the Papal Basilica. The Shrine Church, too, is blessed to have a relic of the Manger or Crib of our Savior, which is preserved and venerated under the high altar of the Papal Basilica.

The Epistle and Gospel illuminate for us the profound significance of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for our daily living. The Epistle praises Christ, Divine Wisdom Incarnate, the Divine Word, the perfect expression of the order – the truth, beauty, and goodness – placed by God in His Creation, above all, written by God upon the heart of man, the only earthly being He created “in [His own] image, after [His own] likeness,”[4] “into [whose] nostrils” He “breathed … the breath of life.”[5] His Virgin Mother, privileged to share in anticipation in the Redemption He would win for man by His Passion and Death, participates in Divine Wisdom in a singular way. Blessed Ildefonso Schuster comments on the Epistle:

The praises of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom, are also applied to her who held him at her breast and was the “seat of wisdom.” For this reason Mary shares with Christ his sovereignty over the elect – that is, the Christian people, to whom as their queen, their mother, and their advocate she distributes the treasures of the redemption.[6]

The Virgin Mary, Mother of God, is, in virtue of her Divine Maternity, also the Mother of Divine Grace. Each day and at every moment of each day, she, with the deepest motherly love, intercedes for an abundant outpouring of divine grace from the glorious-pierced Heart of her Divine Son into our hearts.

Recall Our Lady of Guadalupe’s words to Saint Juan Diego at her first apparition on December 9, 1531, the words by which she identified herself, both in her relationship with God and in her relationship with man:

Know, know for sure my dearest and youngest son, that I am truly the ever perfect Holy Virgin Mary, who has the honor to be the Mother of the one true God for whom we all live, the Creator of people, the Lord of all around us and of what is close to us, the Lord of Heaven, the Lord of Earth.
I want very much that they build my sacred little house here, in which I will show Him, I will exalt Him upon making Him manifest, I will give Him to all people in all my personal love, Him that is my compassionate gaze, Him that is my help, Him that is my salvation.
Because truly I am honored to be your compassionate mother, yours and that of all the people that live together in this land, and also of all the other various lineages of men; those who love me, those who cry to me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Because there [at my sacred house] truly will I hear their cry, their sadness, in order to remedy, to cure all their various troubles, their miseries, their pains.”[7]

Worshipping God today by praising the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, let us be filled with trust in God’s promise of the unfailing help of abundant divine grace for our happiness on our earthly pilgrimage and the fullness of happiness at the destination of our pilgrimage: the eternal life of Heaven. Even in the most difficult of times, in the cruelest of sufferings, Our Lady is with us, even as God has left her image imprinted on the tilma of Saint Juan Diego for us, to draw us to Christ, to unite our sufferings to His Passion and Death, to follow Him on the way of the Cross which alone is our salvation.

In the Gospel, Our Lord teaches us what our praise of the Divine Maternity of His Virgin Mother demands of us in the depths of our being. When “a woman in the crowd raised her voice”[8] to declare the beatitude of His Mother, he taught the crowd the font of her beatitude as He wishes it to be shared by all: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”[9] Our Lady draws us to herself so that she may take us to her Divine Son with the maternal counsel which she gave to the wine stewards at the Wedding Feast of Cana: “Do whatever he tells you.”[10] The devotion of pilgrimage to a holy place at the invitation of the Mother of God confers not only the grace of a deeper knowledge of God’s immeasurable and unceasing love for us but also the grace of the conversion of our lives to Him. The Mother of Divine Grace leads us to both know her Divine Son and to live in Him, giving our hearts totally and forever into His glorious-pierced Heart ever ready to receive us.

As Our Lord descends to the altar to make sacramentally new for us the outpouring of His life for our salvation, let us, under the care and protection of the Virgin Mother of God, unite our hearts to His Most Sacred Heart. Let us offer ourselves with Him in His Sacrifice on Calvary, made sacramentally present in His Eucharistic Sacrifice. Thus, may we be blessed both now and in eternity by hearing His Word and keeping it with all our heart.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

[1] “Come Maria ai piedi della Croce s’unì al Pontefice Eterno nell’offrire a nome dell’umanità il Sacrificio di Redenzione, così anche adesso, la sua materna preghiera s’intreccia a quella del sacerdote e del popolo fedele, presso il sacro altare.” A. I. Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum. Note storiche e liturgiche sul Messale Romano, Vol. VIII, 2^a ed. (Torino-Roma: Casa Editrice Marietti, 1932), p. 139. [Hereafter, Schuster]. English translation: Ildefonso Schuster, The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum): Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal, Vol. IV (Parts 7 and 8), tr. Arthur Levelis-Marke (Waterloo, ON: Arouca Press, 2020), pp. 410-411. [Hereafter, SchusterEng].

[2] “La basilique que Libère, aimé de Notre-Dame, eut la gloire d’élever sur l’Esquilin, ne fut donc pas le plus ancient monument dédié par les chrétiens de Rome à la Mère de Dieu ; la primauté qu’elle prit dès l’abord, et conserva entre les églises de la Ville et du monde consacrées à Marie, lui fut acquise par les circonstances aussi solennelles que prodigieuses de ses origines.” Prosper Guéranger, L’Année liturgique, Tome IV, Le temps après la Pentecôte, 6^ème éd (Paris: Librairie Religieuse H. Oudin, 1901), p. 331. [Hereafter, Guéranger]. English translation: Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book IV, tr. The Benedictines of Stanbrook Abbey (Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications, 2000), p. 265. [Hereafter, GuérangerEng].

[3] Cf. Gueranger, p. 333. English translation: GuérangerEng, p. 266.

[4] Gen 1, 26.

[5] Gen 2, 7.

[6] “L’elogio di Cristo, eterna Sapienza, viene applicato anche a Colei che lo portò in seno e ne fu la sede. Maria per tal motivo entra a parte della sovranità di Cristo sul popolo eletto, che è la famiglia cristiana, alla quale la Vergine distribuisce, siccome regina, madre e mediatrice, i tesori della Redenzione.” Schuster, p. 138. English translation: SchusterEng, p. 410.

[7] “Sábelo, ten por cierto, hijo mío, el más pequeño, que yo soy en verdad la perfecta siempre Virgen Santa María, que tengo el honor de ser Madre del verdaderísimo Dios por quien se vive, el Creador de las personas, el Dueño de la cercanía y de la inmediación, el Dueño del cielo, el Dueño de la tierra.

Mucho quiero, mucho deseo, que aquí me levanten mi casita sagrada, en donde lo mostraré, lo ensalzaré al ponerlo de manifiesto, lo entregaré a las gentes en todo mi amor personal, a Él que es mi mirada compasiva, a Él que es mi auxilio, a Él que es mi salvación.

Porque, en verdad, yo me honro en ser tu madre compasiva, tuya y de todos los hombres que vivís juntos en esta tierra, y también de todas las demás variadas estirpes de hombres, los que me amen; los que me llamen, los que me busquen, los que confíen en mí. Porque ahí, en verdad, escucharé su llanto, su tristeza, para remediar, para curar todas sus diferentes penas, sus miserias, sus dolores.” “Apéndice A – El Nican Mopohua”, in Carl Anderson y Monseñor Eduardo Chávez, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Madre de la civilización del amor (México, D.F.: Random House Mondadori S.A. de C.V., 2010), p. 214, nn. 26-32. [Hereafter, NM]. English translation: “Appendix A – The Nican Mopohua,” in Carl Anderson and Msgr. Eduardo Chávez, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love (New York: Doubleday, 2009), pp. 173-174, nos. 26-32. [Hereafter, NMEng].

[8] Lk 11, 27.

[9] Lk 11, 28.

[10] Jn 2, 5.