Happy (Belated) Feast Day Blessed Mother!

Feliz Dia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe

            I realize it can be difficult to celebrate feast days in the middle of the week as we scramble to finish the school semester or finish that one project before “winter break.”  But I encourage you to pause even for a moment to remember the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas and Protector of the Unborn.  Let us look to her as a Mother and ask her intercession for our times.

            “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

            Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.  Amen.”

(The Memorare Prayer)

Holy Anticipation

                Welcome to the anticipatory Season of Advent!  I feel like my own preparations started a couple months earlier than usual, in emotionally- and gift-wise- for the birth of my first niece.  True, she was not announced to my sister by the angel Gabriel or said to be our Savior, but she is the beginning of something new in both my sister and brother-in-law’s lives as well as in my own, meaning as a first-time aunt. 

                Boy or girl? 

                What would it be like the first time I hold her in my arms?  (I have found out by now.) 

                Amidst all this anxiety and excitement, I started to parallel it with Our Lady and St. Joseph’s own anticipation as they awaited that special time when the Savior of the world- their own baby- would be born.  What a responsibility!  And yet, during my first visit to see my own precious niece, I saw the new parents’ swiftness to heed to her little cries, and also the natural interaction between parents and child.  How beautiful! 

                As we enter into this blessed season in preparation for Christmas, may we see the sanctity of all human life.  Because, with them, the world will never be the same.