Celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The women’s group that meets at the CCVI Casa San José Ministry at Brookdale Village Apartments organized its second annual Novena Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe, which drew hundreds of faithful to pray the rosary and venerate the Blessed Mother between December 3 and December 12.

On the 8th, I attended the 5th day of the novena. I was expecting a 20-minute rosary, but, to my amazement, the ladies of the women’s group, Voces de Maria Rosa Mistica, had other plans. The ladies had organized a procession of about 10 people who were carrying the Virgen de Guadalupe and singing songs in her honor. You could hear the beautiful voices coming from far away. We were a handful of people waiting for the Virgen to arrive, but as the music got closer, the crowd got bigger. They set the altar down in front of us with the beautiful statue of the Virgen in the middle, adorned by various roses and other flowers. As we started praying, more than 25 chairs filled up, and more people stood behind us. It was a full house that night as we prayed the sorrowful mysteries. 

So, for nine consecutive days, our ladies group, together with people from our community, committed to praying the rosary. On the last day, the same group of people prayed the joyful mysteries and sang songs, accompanied by a much larger crowd who came to honor the patroness of the Americas. Afterward, they celebrated by serving tamales, pizza, coffee, and hot chocolate.