“La Morenita” celebrated as “casita” for light of Christ in December

The beating of drums and feathered swirling of costumed Azteca and matachin dancers praise Jesus Christ and his human tabernacle, Mother Mary as the Virgen de Guadalupe starting this Saturday, Dec. 7.

The Archdiocesan procession begins at Discovery Green in downtown Houston at 7 a.m. from McKinney and LaBranch, winding its way to the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, 1111 St. Joseph Parkway, for a 9 a.m. Mass. Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, will concelebrate the Mass with Father Jeffrey Bame.

“We celebrate La Morenita (Spanish for brown-skinned) as the casita sagrada (sacred house) for the light of Jesus Christ,” said Patricia Morales, president of the Archdiocese’s Association of Guadalupanos.

Jesus Coronado, of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Manvel, will be performing among the hundreds of dancers participating in the procession. Wearing a feathered head dress, Coronado said, “We will be honoring our Mother and her Son with music and dancing.”

After the Mass, about 20 groups of dancers and musicians from various Catholic churches across the Archdiocese, will perform across the street from the Co-Cathedral at the Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza Plaza, he said.

In this Advent season of waiting for the Lord, the performances are similar to the Scripture of the Old Testament in 2 Samuel 6:14-22 stating, “And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment. ... So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns.”

This Marian tradition honors the time starting Dec, 9, 1531 on a hill near a rural village just outside Mexico City, when the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, appeared to a humble peasant Juan Diego on his way to Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. She appeared to him several times through December 12 asking him to convince the bishop to build a church on that hill honoring her Son.

She arranged roses within the native’s cloak and him this would be the sign that he should present to the bishop. When Juan Diego opened the tilma, a cloak, to show the flowers, the bishop was presented with a miraculous imprinted image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that still exists and is exhibited in Mexico City.

Parishes around the Archdiocese and the world celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, including Houston’s historic Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Navigation in the East End. Drawing thousands of pilgrims over two days, OLG will celebrate with multiple Masses on Wednesday, Dec. 11, and Thursday, Dec. 12, including a midnight Mass at the church’s outdoor plaza.

As the holiday season progresses, parishes will also re-enact Spanish posadas and nativity plays of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem for the census that eventually leads to the birth of Christ. Among those events, Sacred Heart Church in Conroe will be hosting a live nativity on Dec. 20 that includes a posada and treats.

Culminating in Christmas Eve and Christmas Masses, the schedule for the St. Mary Cathedral Basilica in Galveston and the Co-Cathedral in downtown Houston. On Dec. 24, Tuesday, Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, will celebrate both a 6:15 p.m. English Mass, and an 8:30 p.m. Spanish Mass, at the Co-Cathedral. Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, will celebrate the midnight English Mass Dec. 25 at the Co-Cathedral.

Then on Christmas Day at the St. Mary Cathedral Basilica, 2011 Church St. in Galveston, Bishop Dell’Oro will celebrate the 12:30 p.m. Mass.