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CV NEWS FEED // Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles told the faithful at a Mass marking the end of the Diocese’s 93rd procession honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, that during the pilgrimage of life, “We take Our Holy Mother’s, Our Lady of Guadalupe, hand and she guides us in following the footsteps of her son Jesus.”
According to a press release from the Diocese, the Dec. 1 Mass, also celebrating the First Sunday of Advent, took place outdoors at the East Los Angeles College Stadium.
The procession leading up to the Mass included 20,000 faithful, Aztec dance groups, local Catholic school students, and 35 decorated carts, called “andas,” holding images of Our Lady.
This year, the images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego were gifts from Monsignor Efrain Hernandez Diaz, the rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Archdiocese of Mexico City, and the basilica’s first rector, Monsignor Diego Monroy.
Monsignor Diaz delivered the gifts to Los Angeles on Dec. 1. An exact replica of the image on St. Juan Diego’s tilma was also gifted to the Diocese before the upcoming 500th anniversary of the apparition.
The procession is part of the Diocese’s annual Guadalupe pilgrimage, where images of Our Lady and St. Juan Diego tour parishes and cemeteries in the Diocese. The pilgrimage began in mid-October and ends on Dec. 4. The celebration, which was started by Mexican Catholics who fled the Mexican government’s persecution in the early 1900s, is the oldest religious procession in the city.
