In God’s perfect Providence, He allowed some of the Board members of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) to come before His Blessed Mother at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City from the 21st to the 25th of January 2025. The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious CMSWR is composed of the major superiors and their vicars of 112 communities of women religious (approximately 5,700 sisters) in the United States. The Council was founded on June 13, 1992 in response to the Second Vatican Council’s call for the renewal of religious life based on discipleship to Jesus Christ.
Back in September 2024, Mother Anna Grace Neenan, O.P. (the current President of CMSWR) invited the Board members to prayerfully consider making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe: first, to thank Our Blessed Mother for all the graces received through the years as patroness of CMSWR; and second, to implore Her maternal intercession for the Church, our country and all the member communities of CMSWR.
Eight members of the Board were able to take advantage of this pilgrimage of grace during the Jubilee Year of Hope and experience the tangible and loving presence of Our Blessed Mother. As should have been expected, Our Lady took care of every detail of the pilgrimage and left us all with a desire to return to visit Her again on Tepeyac Hill. From the places visited, to the individuals who assisted us on this pilgrimage, Our Lady carefully looked after Her daughters.
From different corners of the United States, the members of the Board met in the international airport of Mexico City and made their way to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe for Holy Mass on Tuesday January 21 for the Memorial of St. Agnes. Saint Joseph welcomed us in a side chapel for the recitation of Vespers from which we then proceeded to the main church for a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament and the living image of Our Lady on St. Juan Diego’s almost 500-year old tilma. The number of pilgrims and their profound devotion to Our Lady’s presence is continuous. From 6am to 8pm each day, there is at least one Holy Mass being offered at the main altar of the Basilica wherein hundreds of people gather. Whether it is completing a promise made to the Virgin, bringing intentions to Her or expressing the filial love owed to Her, the lines of people who walked the Basilica are impressive. Besides being able to participate in the Holy Mass at the Basilica, we benefitted from an almost 3-hour long tour of the history and miracles wrought by Our Lady of Guadalupe by a gregarious and pious father of eight, Alfredo. He offers to give tours to pilgrims as a way to share his love for this great Queen and Evangelizer of the Americas.
Another tremendous grace came from the presentation Monsignor Eduardo Chavez who gave the Board members a presentation on January 23 at the “Instituto Superior de Estudios Guadalupanos”. This Institute was created in 2003 from the research and studies approved by the Holy See that led to the canonization of St. Juan Diego. From the hill of Tepeyac, the “Instituto Superior de Estudios Guadalupanos” is the most important center to continue the study and research of the great apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe and its diffusion to the whole world.
During our time in Mexico, the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart, founded by Venerable María Luisa Josefa of the Most Blessed Sacrament in 1921, housed us at their Provincial House and Retreat Center a few miles south of the Basilica. Their gracious hospitality and the prayerful space they provided for us granted us a great opportunity to share our love for Our Lady and our vocation as religious women called to bear witness to the love and mercy in God in so many places. The retreat center was an old hacienda built over a hundred years ago that during the time of the persecution of the Church housed many who were displaced and left in need.
Apart from our time at the Basilica, we were also able to take advantage of visiting and praying at other sacred sites important to the Church in Mexico. Out of the five apparitions Our Lady made in Mexico City, four were on the Tepeyac Hill and one was in Tulpetlac. This latter place is a suburb of Mexico City and the place where Our Lady appeared to St. Juan Diego’s ailing uncle, Juan Bernardino. The Church of the Fifth Apparition (as it is called) is located several miles north of Tepeyac Hill and would have been the place from which St. Juan Diego would have been walking from on the early morning of December 9, 1531 on his way to catechism classes. To our surprise, we were able to participate in a funeral mass for Arturo, a father of four who had recently passed away. Relatives and friends of the family filled the church and several religious sisters from different congregations also attended. God had ordained us to pray for this man and his family in a very particular way.
On Thursday January 23, we were able to visit the last residence of Blessed Concepcion Cabrera de Armida and the chapel which houses her mortal remains. These provided us with a profound experience of prayer and witness to the heroic life of this mother and mystic. After her death in 1937, the Congregation for the Clergy wrote: “Maria Conception Cabrera de Armida (“Conchita”) was a wife and mother with children. Over the course of many years, Jesus prepared her to live a life of spiritual motherhood for priests. In the future, she will be of great importance for the universal Church.” Truly, her life of self-sacrifice and union with God radiated so naturally in her home and attracted the attention of so many bishops and priests during a time of great turmoil for the Church in Mexico. Her prolific writings encourage all Christan souls to enter into the mystery of the Cross and find their strength in uniting their sufferings with the sufferings of Christ Crucified.
In addition to visiting the church of the Sagrada Familia which contains the mortal remains of Father Miguel Agustin Pro, the Board members were also able to visit the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and attend Holy Mass. The Metropolitan Cathedral also houses the mortal remains of Servant of God, Archbishop Luis Maria Martinez who was the Archbishop of Mexico City from 1937 to 1956 and governed the Church during a very turbulent time. His leadership strengthened the faithful in faith, hope and charity after decades of living through periods of strong persecution against the Church and her mission of evangelization and reconciliation.
We entrust to Our Lady’s maternal hands and intercession the gift of consecrated life and the grace of perseverance in our vocation of love and service to God and His people.
