Torches Burn Bright Across Diocese, Honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe
PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Torchbearers fanned out across Brooklyn and Queens on Tuesday, Dec. 12, holding their flames aloft for all to see as they walked along the streets. But they weren’t Olympic torchbearers. Instead, they hailed from dozens of churches across the two boroughs as part of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
At two Masses held at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights, Bishop Robert Brennan and Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Octavio Cisneros each lit torches, and from those torches, the bearers lit theirs and set off for journeys on foot back to their churches.
In some cases, the journey would take hours. Lázaro Bulux, a torchbearer from St. Finbar Church in Bath Beach, said he wasn’t daunted by the long walk. “It might take about three hours, but we are doing something very important,” he explained. “We are bringing the light of Jesus back to our friends and neighbors.”
While Bulux, who is a trustee of his parish, has attended the Mass every year, this year marked the first he did so as a torchbearer. “It is a great honor,” he said.
Historically, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe commemorates the day the Blessed Mother appeared in an apparition to a young peasant named Juan Diego in Mexico in 1531.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico, and many Mexicans who came to live in the U.S. have a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother.
It also is a day filled with colorful sights and sounds for Catholics who gather for Masses featuring mariachi music as well as dancers wearing traditional Aztec costumes and feathered headdresses who dance up the center aisles of churches, accompanied by a beat of a drum.
The feast is a major celebration in the Diocese of Brooklyn, where an estimated 175,000 Mexican Americans reside.
“This day means so much to us because Our Lady of Guadalupe means so much to us,” said Roberta Reyes, a parishioner of Our Lady of Solace Church in Coney Island.
Reyes prays every day for Our Lady of Guadalupe’s intercession. “She is there to help us and guide us, and I feel I want to show her how much I love her,” she said.
But while Our Lady of Guadalupe’s apparition took place in Mexico, the feast is a big day in the entire Hispanic community and included representatives from other nations as well.
Bishop Brennan called it an exciting day, a day that demonstrated the diversity of the diocese.
“This stands out as a grand celebration, but what we focus on is our unity in diversity. So there’s a great diversity in Brooklyn and Queens — diversity of communities of ethnicities, ages. But we’re united by our faith in Christ, by the fact that we’re saved by Jesus Christ,” said Bishop Brennan, who was recently elected chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Cultural Diversity Committee.
The celebration is so big that the diocese split it into two separate Masses to accommodate an estimated 3,400 people expected to come to the co-cathedral on Tuesday.
As a result, a morning Mass was held for Brooklyn churches, and an afternoon Mass took place for the Queens churches.
This year also saw an increase in the number of parishes participating in the feast day. Forty-nine parishes — 28 from Brooklyn and 21 from Queens — were represented. Last year, it was 44.
Father Baltazar Sanchez-Alonzo, coordinator of the Ministry to Mexican Immigrants for the diocese, attributed the increase to an outreach effort he and others made to Mexican American Catholics over the past year to encourage them to join the feast day activities.
“Reaching out is a very important part of our mission in the apostolate. We remind people that Mexico is a very Catholic country and that we all grew up in the faith,” he explained.
For Father Sanchez-Alonzo, who grew up in Mexico watching Our Lady of Guadalupe processions in his hometown, the Blessed Mother is a source of inspiration who changed the course of his life. “It is because of her that I am a priest,” he explained.
