For the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe I stayed with Jorge & Gabriela Oria-Quinzaños in Mexico City from December 8th to the 15th.
The bus fare for an 8 hour ticket was 45 USD. I left Zacatecas at 11:30 p.m. and arrived in Mexico City at 7:00 a.m. I had two seats to myself but slept rather comfortably. The bus driver stopped at about 4 or 5 check points to pay a toll they also checked his blood pressure and tested his reflexes at some of the stops. No one was allowed to get off the bus.
I bought a ticket for the taxi inside the bus station in Mexico City. That way the driver has no money. However, I got a real bad guy! I had a “Map Quest” guide in case he got off the track. I kept watching the signs. The Oria-Quinzaños live in a gated community with at least two security check points before getting to their house.
Gabriela showed me to my room and I showered and rested. I had a snack and dinner was served around 9:00 p.m. Their high school son, Patrick, and I stayed home when the parents went to work. He had to study for mid-terms. I used the time of rest as a retreat. It was wonderful.
They have a huge house with a big park in their backyard. They have tons of toys for their grand children. They made a trampoline with a sunken hole underneath so that the trampoline is on the ground level and the children cannot fall off. They have bikes, little cars, an entire jungle gym thing with a slide and everything. They have a soccer field. On a second level of their park they have a full size tennis court. They had a pool but it was removed and the hole covered up. There are like three gardeners who daily rake all the leaves and water their lawns.
These folks both work hard. Jorge is an investor and realtor. Gabby is a professor of post-graduate courses on family life at University Anahuac, a Catholic university run by the Legionaries of Christ. She gave me a tour and I found their name on a huge rock outside the university chapel. Gabby also helps her daughter, Fernanda, with street girls in rehab. Fernanda has five other siblings who are all professional people—well educated. Gabriela was a boarding student at St. Mary’s along with her sister, Elena, when they were young girls.
On Friday, December 10th I left to go stay at the Sisters’ convent which is very close to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Sisters are the same community as the ones in Zacatecas. They welcomed me warmly. Ten Sisters live and work in a school about two blocks from the convent. This is winter time and no one has heaters. Oh, how I suffered. It was really 34 ° in my room. I wrapped my head in a blanket that Gabby had packed for me to take to the basilica. I had 3 heavy blankets on top and socks on my feet. I prayed and fell asleep. I don’t think I turned all night. No one here…not even the rich…have box springs to their mattresses. The beds are almost always hard.
On Saturday around 8:30 p.m. we started walking the packed streets toward the basilica. Most streets were blocked. We had tickets to enter the chapels above the main floor of the church—only one problem—how to get there past all these people and into the chapel.
After the two days of attending the services I found out that over the several days of celebrations, there had been over 5 million people who had visited the basilica! No wonder! People came from far and near in Mexico and many, many people came from other countries as well.
The Mañanitas (early dawn serenade for Our Lady) last 3 hours. There are professional musicians who come and donate their talented voices in song to Our Lady. Many of the performers dressed in their finest. Some singers were not professionals. Some were adults, some children; some sang, others recited verses. All faced the image of Our Lady and addressed Her only.
There is a midnight Mass which is celebrated with all the seminarians from Mexico who can attend. We, older Sisters, left at the beginning of Mass. There are pilgrims sleeping on the sidewalks everywhere. How the city can take the extra crowds, I’ll never understand!
The next morning we went to Mass at the parish church across the street from the convent. We ate breakfast and at 9:00 a.m. left to attend the “Mass of the Roses”. The roses are donated by the Spanish Consulate or something. The Spaniards say that there are no “rosas de Castilla” in Mexico so they must have come from Spain. Anyway, roses are given to the people who attend that Mass. There are huge baskets filled with roses in honor of Our Lady. We again had tickets for the upstairs chapel. The plaza, which is almost the size of the plaza in the Vatican, already was packed with native dancers and their drums. They were already perspiring in the hot sun. How amazing that at night it is freezing cold and as soon as the sun comes out, it is hot. Some dancers wear ornate costumes and others have very simple outfits. The guys’ head feathers cover huge areas while their bodies are barely covered.
The Mass lasted a long time but it was beautifully celebrated. Flowers are donated. These flowers come and come from all over. The sacristans have to keep putting the flowers in high piles on the sides of the altar while pilgrims file by to get a glimpse of Our Lady. The ushers keep the lines moving. It is a miracle how so many people come just to get a few seconds in the presence of such an awesome Lady!
It never fails. I learn something new about our Lady’s image every single time. I have learned so little about what this image meant to the Indians. This time I learned that our Lady’s hands are different. One hand is slim and light color…the Europeans. The other is curved, short and dark…the Indians. Our Lady did more to evangelize and unite the two cultures than we have ever been able to do ourselves. Our Lady’s knee is up a bit. The images of the European statues and paintings showed our Lady standing straight. Our Lady of Guadalupe is “dancing” as Her Indians would when they worshipped their gods. Of course, I had heard about the position of the stars on her veil but not the way the historians explained on the “Discovery Channel” on TV on the 12th of December. She is still teaching all of us to love Her and to learn to love Her Son as She loves Him.
On the following day I returned to the Oria-Quinzaños family. I was invited to a banquet dinner at the University of Anahuac. I was Gabriela’s “spouse” as Jorge was working. The dinner was a 5-star affair. We attended Mass first and we knelt and prayed our Rosary after Mass. The Legionaries of Christ (Regnum Christi) own the university.
After the almost 4 hour lunch, we went home and set up Skype in Gabriela’s computer. Patrick is constantly on his computer filling out his exam “charts” or guides that they get from their professors to help them prepare for their exams. Their last two years of high school are really like the first two years of college. Their courses are high level math and science plus they must pass a foreign language test. Patrick knows both English and Spanish. His English test was on five or six American literature authors. Very difficult!
Gabriela arranged to have a “Posada” at her house for all the grandkids. They hung a piñata on a tree outside and after our 3:00 p.m. lunch had the children hit it. Patrick finally had to break it. But before they could break the piñata I was “hired” to tell the Christmas story to the children. I had them mesmerized with all the sounds and drama of Mary and Joseph and the Little Baby. I interjected the story with some carols in English: Silent Night and Little Drummer Boy. There was a boy around 9 years old (a grandson of Gabriela) who claimed he was an atheist and asked if we could please get going with the piñata! He must be a very disturbed little fellow or he is merely very smart or very hyperactive and can’t stand himself! Sad!
I arrived back in Zacatecas around 7:00 p.m. at the bus station and had a Skype appointment with my Sisters back in the USA at 8:00 p.m. I made it! We spoke with each other and it was wonderful. After our visit I went downstairs and the Sisters here told me that they were very happy to have me back “home”. The Christmas tree is up in the atrium. The chapel is all decorated beautifully. There was a gift for me in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe: two thermal long-sleeve shirts. They will come in very handy!
I will be leaving on December 27th. I have not purchased my bus tickets but I will do so soon. I am going to miss these Sisters. I hope the Irapuato Sisters are fun to get to know and live with them.
