On today’s Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I reproduce a few lines from an article about the Carmelite presence at the shrine in Mexico. So wonderful to know that the Sisters are present there.
‘It's always strange to knock on the door of a stranger. And that was the case knocking on the door of the St. Joseph of Guadalupe Monastery at Mexico City's Tepeyac Hill, a community that is home to eight Discalced Carmelite sisters who live in one of the most revered places by Catholics in the Americas. An understated plaque above the monastery door repeats the oft-told story that says near that spot "at dawn on Dec. 9, 1531, the mother of God appeared for the first time to Juan Diego," referring to the Indigenous Mexican saint, said to have been witness to 16th-century apparitions of Mary in the surroundings of Tepeyac Hill. Paintings inside the church adjacent to the Carmelites' monastery depict how she asked him to tell the bishop to build her a shrine on that hill and when the prelate asked for proof, she sent Juan Diego nearby to pick roses — in winter. When Juan Diego delivered them to the bishop, tradition says that the image — now globally recognized as Our Lady of Guadalupe — was imprinted on the cloak in which he had carried the flowers. Where the sisters now live, the plaque says, "on the morning of Dec. 12, Juan Diego picked the roses of the miracle." From that spot, the Carmelites now have a bird's-eye-view of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe below. While the shrine is the main attraction, many pilgrims, including some who are physically compromised, make the taxing climb up to nearby Tepeyac Hill. Even as large crowds gather outside, the sisters maintain a silent, contemplative space in the monastery that celebrated 130 years in May.’
Intercessions:
Elara, Siena – infants with severe medical issues
Marie – cancer
Bernard – cancer, and wife Angela
Rosemarie – multiple afflictions
Agnes - sickness
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