Our Lady of Guadalupe & Third Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday

In 1531 a "Lady from Heaven" appeared to Saint Juan Diego, a poor Indian from Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City.  She identified herself as the Mother of the True God and instructed him to have the bishop build a church on the site and left an image of herself imprinted miraculously on his tilma, a poor quality cactus-cloth.  The tilma should have deteriorated within 20 years but shows no sign of decay after over 470 years.  It to this day defies all scientific explanations of its origin.

Apparently the tilma in the eyes of Our Lady of Guadalupe, even reflects what was in front of her in 1531!  (Click HERE for a FASCINATING description of the eyes of the image) Her message of love and compassion, and her universal promise of help and protection to all mankind, as well as the story of the apparitions, are described in the "Nican Mopohua," a 16th century document written in the native Nahuatl language.

There is reason to believe that at Tepeyac Mary came in her glorified body, and her actual physical hands rearranged the roses in Juan Diego’s tilma, which makes this apparition very special.

An incredible list of miracles, cures and interventions are attributed to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Each year an estimated 10 million people visit her Basilica, making her Mexico City home the most popular Marian shrine in the world, and the most visited Catholic church in the world after Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

Altogether 24 popes have officially honored Our Lady of Guadalupe. His Holiness John Paul II visited her Sanctuary four times: on his first apostolic trip outside Rome as Pope in 1979, and again in 1990, 1999 and 2002.

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated on December 12th.  In 1999, Pope John Paul II, in his homily given during the Solemn Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, his third visit to the sanctuary, declared the date of December the 12th as a Liturgical Holy Day for the whole continent.  During the same visit Pope John Paul II entrusted the cause of life to her loving protection, and placed under her motherly care the innocent lives of children, especially those who are in danger of not being born.

Gaudete Sunday 

Certain Sundays throughout the liturgical year have taken their name from the first word in Latin of the Introit (the entrance antiphon at Mass).  Gaudete Sunday is one of these.  It is the Third Sunday of Advent.  The Introit on this day, in both the current "novus ordo" Mass and the older, Traditional Latin Mass, is taken from Phillippians 4:4,5: "Gaudete in Domino semper" ("Rejoice in the Lord always").

Like Lent, Advent is a penitential season, so the priest normally wears purple vestments.  But on Gaudete Sunday, having passed the mid-point of Advent, the Church lightens the mood a little, and the priest pulls out the "twice-a-year" Rose colored vestments.  The change in color provides us with encouragement to continue our spiritual preparation - especially prayer and fasting - for Christmas.

For this same reason, the third candle of the Advent wreath, first lit today, is the Rose colored candle.  (Many, not understanding the origin of the rose, or pink, candle mistakenly light the pink candle of the 4th Sunday - but it is lit on the 3rd Sunday of Advent).