St. Patrick Parish in Rolla celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe
CLICK HERE to see a gallery of photos from this event from St. Patrick School’s The Emerald Press.
On Saturday Dec. 11, St. Patrick Parish in Rolla hosted a prayer service and celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Members of the local Hispanic community, along with fellow parishioners, St. Patrick Catholic School families, Rolla Newman Center students of Missouri S&T, and other Rolla area residents came together for this meaningful and powerful celebration of Catholic Hispanic spirituality culture.
The celebration marked the anniversary of a series of apparitions made by the Blessed Virgin Mary made to St. Juan Diego, an indigenous convert to Christianity, at Mount Tepeyac in present-day Mexico.
She left him with an image of herself imprinted upon his tilma (cloak).
Devotion to Mary under the title Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to increase, and today she is venerated as patroness of the Americas. Millions of conversions to the Catholic faith are attributed to Our Lady’s 1531 apparitions and continued intercession.
Pope St. John Paul II in 2001 canonized St. Juan Diego, the man to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near Mexico City is the most celebrated place of pilgrimage in the Americas.
Traditionally, a three-hour vigil is held in honor of the Virgin. The vigil concludes at midnight, followed by food, drinks, music and dancing.
The event in the St. Patrick Parish Hall began at 9 p.m. with a prayer service led by Father Gregory Meystrik, pastor, with the meal and music beginning within the hour.
As midnight approached, the mariachi band continued to play as attendees formed a line to visit the shrine of Mother Mary and lay a carnation at her feet.
Many local families and businesses made the event possible.
Portions of this article were originally published in emeraldpress.org, the student news site for St. Patrick School in Rolla. Visit the site to see a large gallery of photos from this event.
