The Catholic Church in Montreal, in close collaboration with the Misión Latinoamericana Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Spanish-speaking Catholic Mission) and St. Ambroise Parish, is pleased to invite you to two celebrations in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas:

• at the Misión Latinoamericana Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe,
  2020, rue de Bordeaux
  on Sunday, December 15 at 1 p.m.
  Mass of the solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrated by
  the Archbishop of Montreal, Monseigneur Christian Lépine,
  (followed by a mariachi music performance).
   
• at Saint-Ambroise Parish,
  1215 Beaubien Street East
  on Wednesday, December 11
  11 p.m. - Mass in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe
  Midnight - Serenade (30-minute musical performance)
  Coffee and Mexican tamales will then be offered.

Come celebrate with us!

On December 12 the beautiful feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated. On this occasion thousands of people flock from all over Mexico to the Basilica dedicated to her near Mexico City, the most visited Basilica in the world after the Vatican.

This year marks the 488th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to Juan Diego. In 1737, Our Lady of Guadalupe was proclaimed Patroness of Mexico. Then in 1895, Queen of Mexico; in 1910, St. Pius X proclaimed her Empress of the Americas. To all these honorific titles, Saint John Paul II will add a few others.

Moreover, it is Mexico which benefits from the first great apostolic journey of Saint John Paul II, during which the Pope opens the third general conference of the Latino-American episcopate. On January 28, 1979, in the conclusion of a solemn speech, addressed to the representatives of all the bishops of Latin America, gathered at the Major Seminary of Puebla de los Angeles, Saint John Paul II names Our Lady of Guadalupe the « Star of Evangelism ». On October 12, 1992, he will add to that: the « Star of the first and new Evangelism ».

In addition, the same year, Saint John Paul II consecrated a chapel in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Peter’s Basilica. In January 1999, St. John Paul II made a fourth trip to Mexico to deliver the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America. In this exhortation, he first calls Mary the Queen of all the Americas, then also Mother and Evangelizer of the Americas.

It is in this document 'Ecclesia in America' that he stipulates that the feast of December 12 is proclaimed as a feast on the entire American continent. Thus, the liturgy of this beautiful feast of the Virgin Mary, proposed as an optional memory in other countries, is obligatory not only in the Latin American countries, but also in the United States and Canada.