www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Prayer St Juan Diego

Dear Friends,

Let us join together to praise God in His saints, especially St Juan Diego, the servant of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St Pedro de San Jose Betancur of Central America and the Proto-Martyrs!

Alex

GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST!
GLORY TO HIM FOREVER!

Robert Lentz, the ikonographer, has a GORGEOUS new ikon of St. Juan Diego with St.Juan looking like a TRUE AZTEC!

You can see it at www.trinitystores.com [trinitystores.com]

mark

Dear Mark,

A magnificent icon, to be sure!

There is also a great icon of Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha, in case our sister Kimberly Kateri Garcia is interested!

Alex

Praise the Triune God for the new saint and blesseds! I wish everyone had EWTN and could watch for themselves the matchless images of the Pope in action with the beloved Mexican people. All I can say: it's obviously a love affair. The Mexican people - how they can demonstrate their love and devotion! It is a sight (and sound) to behold. The way, too, they serenaded the Pope with the traditional melodies of Mexico.

After watching some of the Pope's visit to Mexico, it dawns on me anew that there just isn't anything in the world that compares to this phenomenon: the love of the Catholic People for the Successor of Saint Peter. I get a sense, too, of why it is said that the Pope's "jurisdiction" is "immediate" over all the Catholic faithful.

This technical term - so criticized by so many - translates into that special bond of ALL Catholics, of every nationality, of every sui juris Church, of every social status with the "holy FATHER" the "papa."

Seeing the raptuous joy of the Mexican people, the raptuous joy of the youthful Church in Toronto, it makes me so glad to be a member of this warm and loving family.

Long live the Pope!

Dear Gerard,

Yes, as some Byzantine Catholics would say, "Long may we be in communion with him!"

You should have been here for WYD in Toronto.

Mexico is Catholic but the Church is still persecuted there insofar as it cannot spread its message on the radio nor teach religion in the schools, as I understand.

In Canada, even the mistresses of politicians were claiming to be Catholic at the sight of the Pope!

Doesn't that make us better than Mexico?

Alex

Alex,

I believe those restrictive laws in Mexico have been lifted. Even the President of Mexico (who wept) said: CATHOLIC MEXICO WELCOMES YOU! How amazing!

One great thing about the triumphant visit of our beloved Pope to Toronto and Guatemala and Mexico: the love and exhuberance towards the Pope is not just a "youth" phenomenon as some try to dismiss the WYDs, etc. All ages, all classes, all races, joined in a deep and ecstatic love of this great witness to Jesus Christ.

In Mexico, as in Toronto, there were not only smiles but many tears of joy.

Father of mercies, thank you that you have given us this gift in our own days. Watch over our Pope and, even as his body deteriorates more and more, lead him from strength to strength and let Christ continue to radiate from his stooped body.

Dear Gerard,

I pray for Mexico and her Catholic people.

Regrettably, those laws have NOT been removed, despite the actions of this one Catholic Mexican President, who has been criticized in the Mexican press for "overstepping" the boundary between church and state.

He still had to divest himself of his presidential regalia to attend the Cathedral.

Let us pray that the Mexican "democratic" government has a change of heart.

Alex

Come, Holy Spirit!

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the update. I was thinking only of one lifted restriction in Mexico: now clergy and religious can appear in public in appropriate dress.

But I didn't know other restrictions are still in place.....

Oremus!

Dear Gerard,

Dominus Vobiscum!

Laudetur Iesus Christus!

Yes, you are right. Clergy may now appear in public wearing their religious garb as can religious.

El Presidente raised quite the furor last week when he kissed the Pope's ring, something no other Mexican head of state has done since the Emperor was shot.

This really gives rise to the issue about the "democratic" nature of Mexico, given the overwhelming Catholic character of her people.

Something similar was the case for years in France following the revolution there.

The great Cathedral of St Genevieve, patron of Paris was turned into a national monument that I visited on my last sojourn in France.

Where the altar once stood there is now a monument to France's soldiers - quite tacky and I'm sure the war dead would rather have appreciated the altar where Masses for their repose could be said.

There is also a scientific gadget attached to the roof of the Cathedral with this wire that constantly spins on a ball that travels along the floor. A little tribute to the "victory of science over religion."

And the basement? The entire undercroft is filled with the tombs of the heroes of France, the radicals and the great humanistic-atheistic leaders.

There is even a video that shows an "atheist canonization" of one such leader (whose name escapes me now but the video plays constantly).

The question is even raised in posters down there, that is, whether the Republic wanted to establish the right for itself to "canonize" secular (anti-Church) heroes . . .

And some of the tombs look like those of Catholic saints!

Why don't they get their own rituals?

Let us pray for the ending of the persecution of the Church by secularist ideologies once and for all!

Alex

Holy Father Juan, pray to God for us!

May it be so!

May all the Martyrs of Mexico pray for us and may Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, be our mainstay!

Alex

To my Brothers in Christ:

(I address you as brothers, because it would seem I am in "the minority", as I believe myself to be one of the few female contributors to this forum!)

I have been away for a week; therefore I have not had the opportunity to respond to my mail. Thank you Alex in remembering me when mentioning that there is an icon of my Patroness (Blessed Kateri Tekawitha)! Yes, when I was received into the Roman Catholic Rite in 1994, I chose Kateri as my Patroness and was given her name upon being Confirmed. Should I enter into The Catholic Byzantine Church, I intend to keep her name if at all possible. As for my last name, I confess I am using it 9 months "prematurely". I am engaged to a wonderful Hispanic Man and will become Mrs. Garcia in May of 2003.

Back to the topic at hand. Yes, thank goodness Juan Diego has been acknowledged for his humility and piety. My fiancee explained to me that his Canonization created controversy in some regions of the country because some Catholics question Juan Diego's existence"! There was even an article in the Albuquerque journal about some Catholics who believe the Catholic Church "created" the person of Juan Diego in an attempt to convert the Aztecs. When I discussed this theory with my fiancee, he said that this theory just doesn't hold water when you consider the relationship between the Spainiards and the Aztecs during Juan Diego's time. As Joseph explained to me, the Friars looked down upon the Indians of Mexico and were reluctant to believe Juan Diego at first! Their thinking was, "Why would The Blessed Virgin" appear to a common indian? If she were to appear at all - wouldn't it be to one of Spanish descent? The Friars were humbled once Juan Diego returned with the Tilma and the Roses which bloomed in the Winter!

Ten points for my fiancee!

Now that Juan Diego has been declared the first Native American Saint - Blessed Kateri may soon follow!

May God Richly Bless Our Brotherhood in Christ!
Kimberly Kateri Garcia

Dear Kimberly Kateri,

You are welcome and congratulations. I offer my prayer for your future happiness with your fiance!

And remember, it is "Roman Catholic Church" and not "Roman Catholic Rite."

Roman Catholics don't like it when they are referred to as a "Rite" and not a "Church."

Alex

Well....as a continuation from another thread....wouldn't St. Peter the Aleut be considered the first cannonized Native American Saint?

Dmitri