Each year, the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Madre de las Americas, is one of the highlights of the Advent season at the Cathedral.  People from all over the Archdiocese spend months preparing for this special day.  They gather at St. Mary's Church for the rosary, then walk, dance and sing the two miles to the Cathedral.  Here, the float depicting the miraculous apparition leads the way.


Many of the dancers are children who enter wholeheartedly into the celebration.


Dancers wear costumes traditional to the various regions of Mexico.
















Inside the Cathedral, each group dances before the shrine honoring Our Lady.
 

Dozens of musicians young and old, under the direction of Rudy Lopez (a noted northwest composer), sing traditional hymns in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.




As Mass begins, Archbishop Sartain pauses to incense the image of the Mother of the Americas.




"Water of life, holy reminder, touching, renewing the Body of Christ!"


Rudy Lopez leads the assembly in the singing of the responsorial, Mary's Magnificat.




The gifts procession included not only bread and wine, but also flowers recalling the sign Mary gave to Juan Diego to convince the skeptical bishop.




"El que coma de este pan vivira para siempre."
The one who eats this bread will live forever.