"For 500 years, she has faithfully accompanied her people in this clash and encounter of peoples called America," he said. That doesn't surprise Timothy Matovina, a Notre Dame theology professor who specializes in Latino Catholicism. But in recent years, as American Catholicism has increasingly turned Latino, and especially Mexican, it's the Guadalupe manifestation of Mary that has popped up the most. People in the United States have reported cameos by the Virgin Mary on terrestrial things - on tortillas or grilled cheese sandwiches, hidden within a billboard in New Orleans, or as part of a Chicago underpass - for decades. "We don't know how the Spirit works, but events like this point us to a higher reality," he said, noting that even non-Catholics walk by and linger. "She's telling us," Gomez said, "not to lose faith."įather Cordero doesn't call what's in front of his rectory an apparition but a "sign" of something bigger. Briseida Gomez keeps a dried rose in her office that she once grabbed from the puddle. She said people already attribute miracles to this Guadalupe - arthritis cured, citizenship applications granted, bills magically paid. Leticia Suarez, 48, lives down the street and tends to the flowers left outside on a daily basis. The church's two official, larger Guadalupe shrines - a statue near the confessional booths, and a fountain in the back - look lonely by comparison. People have shown up to pay respect, kneeling and dabbing their fingers in the murky water to anoint themselves. The cross-hatched edges? The rays of light that always surround Lupita. Lighter splotches that run down the center? Guadalupe's pink-colored robe, her beatific face, and hands clasped in prayer. Its dark swirls? Those are her outer greenish-blue tunic. So how exactly do some people see the Virgen de Guadalupe from this humble water stain? Votive candles are not allowed within the shrine because the melted wax "might ruin its integrity," said Father John Cordero.
Runoff from the rectory's sprinklers replenishes the Guadalupe-like image every night, tracing its uncanny contours. They created a small shrine and even put four traffic pylons around the spot to protect it from heedless pedestrians who just see a stain. That was due, in part, to the industry of members of the church. The humanitarian organization is helping kids around the world, around the clock.
The site seemed destined to join the roster of long-forgotten Southern California spots where believers say the Patroness of the Americas presented herself.
Pilgrims came from across Southern California reporters filed tongue-in-cheek dispatches. It was last December, just after this same Mass, that Holy Family members say Guadalupe first graced this sidewalk. For the faithful at this church, la virgencita herself shone in the stain beneath their feet.Īnd she has, they believe, for a year now. Now, they stared at la jefa herself - not in the flesh, but in the concrete. Just minutes before, they had witnessed the spectacle that is the mananitas Mass: plumed Aztec dancers and traditional hymns to celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's beloved patron saint. LOS ANGELES - The parishioners at Holy Family Catholic Church in Artesia walked out into the chilly morning darkness to gawk at the puddle on the sidewalk.
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