The second day of Advent this year was also the feast day of St. Juan Diego and the weekend celebration for the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego. The Quad City area between December 9 and 12 had its share of celebrations and St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Moline had a crowd of about 360 people wake up at 5 a.m. to honor her.
A guadalupana band, La Reina de Bajillo played before the service. The parish priest, Father Jerry Pilon looked at the reading for the day and said how fortunate the Mexican community was in having this privilege.
“God was telling Moses, how good of a gift it was that he had,” he said. Comparing Moses’ gift to what the Mexican people had, he said, “There’s no Virgin of the U.S.”
Parishioner, Marco Martinez who was a part of a play on the apparitions followed immediately after mass that day and was organized by the church youth group, Nuevo Amanecer, with the parish and priest.
“We’ve been doing this several years. We hope Our Lady gives us strength and God the knowledge to remember of our holy mother’s appearance to Saint Juan Diego,” he said.
Anabel Torres had the privilege of being Our Lady of Guadalupe saying that they practiced twice a week to learn their roles. Her parents were also much honored. Torres earned the role, through the approval of the group.
“I went to the ‘grupo’ meetings on Friday. I was just sitting there and the people said I should be her,” Anabel said.
Efrain Lopez played the role of Juan Diego and found out that he was doing it, three weeks ago.
“We’re children of God and this makes us closer to our faith of what is our inheritance and culture,” he said. “We celebrate her that day through our faith.”
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