Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 12, 2023
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
Reflection
My goal has always been to be a physician. I remember praying as a naive 17-year-old with clenched fists in the middle of the night that if God would concede this one request, I would return the favor in service. I received the admission letter to Notre Dame on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 15, 1996. This feast day has subsequently always carried a special significance for me.
Later, as a senior in Keenan Hall, I had a dream that was so vivid that I spoke with our dorm chaplain, Father Gary Chamberland, to help me understand it. It was a vision of Mary, in vivid colors and glory, penetrating the rooftops of the homes in my childhood neighborhood. I had no idea what it meant for the next 25 years through medical school, residency, and work as a physician.
When the angel Gabriel was sent from God to announce to Mary that she would be the ark of
the new covenant, I wondered: Could she have said no to this offer? After all, scripture tells us that she was “greatly troubled” by what was said to her, which led to Gabriel soothing her fears. But God chose her, the perfect dwelling place for The Word that would bring peace to
households and unwavering patience in times of desperate need.
Recently, I started a new tradition at our small parish in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to lead the rosary before Mass in English and then again in Spanish. It hit me! I finally made sense of my dream! The real service I was sent to do was to remind fellow parishioners, family members, patients, and everyone that Mary points us to Jesus.
That is who she is, which is why she was also sent. We venerate Mary because her guidance in many households is needed now more than ever. Through her example as the prototypical Christian and mother, she said “Yes” to God when many of us would have said, “No thanks.”
Mass comes from the Latin words spoken at the end, “Ite, missa est,” meaning literally, “Go, it is sent.” Every day we wake up and open our eyes, we are reminded that God gifts us one more twenty-four hours to try our best to serve his purpose of being sent.
Prayer
O Lord our God, like a mother who cares for her dear children, you offer us the model of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe. For the poor and the oppressed, she is the mother of hope and calls all of us to justice and peace. She proclaims the rewards of holiness to all her children, sisters, and brothers in this world. May we, in turn, prove worthy of Mary, empress of the Americas, as we await the coming of the kingdom of her Son, Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day

In December of 1531, a poor native Aztec Indian named Juan Diego was walking through the hills outside of Mexico City on his way to Mass. He heard sweet music and a woman’s voice calling his name from a hill called Tepeyac.
Juan Diego climbed the hill and found a woman who looked like she was also Aztec and dressed in traditional Aztec clothing. She identified herself as the Virgin Mary and instructed Juan Diego to tell his bishop to build a shrine on Tepeyac hill to encourage faithfulness in the people of Mexico City.
When he heard Juan Diego's request, the bishop was skeptical and asked for a sign. When Juan Diego went back and gave this message to Mary, she told him to go to the top of Tepeyac hill and pick the roses he would find there. Juan Diego gathered the roses in his tilma, a cloak-like a poncho, and Mary arranged the flowers and told him to take them to the bishop.
When Juan showed the bishop the roses, they saw that an image of Mary was left upon Juan’s cloak. The bishop was immediately convinced and built a shrine on Tepeyac. Soon, some 8 million people had come to the faith because of Mary’s apparition.
Juan Diego’s tilma was framed and kept in the shrine. It was made of a rough material from cactus and should have decayed within a few decades, but 500 years later is still an object of wonder for millions of pilgrims today. (Recent analyses have revealed that recorded in the image of Mary's iris there are small images of Juan Diego himself, which further indicates its supernatural origin.)

Our Lady of Guadalupe was declared patroness of the Americas. And, as, in the image of Guadalupe, she is portrayed as an expectant mother (her pregnancy is indicated by the high-waisted black sash) she is depicted as pregnant with Jesus, she is also the patron of the Right to Life movement. (For a short reflection on the placement of this feast during the Advent season, read this essay from theology professor and Guadalupe scholar Maxwell Johnson here.)
This feast day is celebrated on Notre Dame's campus with a vibrant Mass in the Basilica led by the Spanish-language student choir. A number of images of Our Lady of Guadalupe are presented on campus—the most recent shown below was painted along St. Joseph Lake by artist Bea Bradley.

Our featured image for the day can be found in a side chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and is brought out for veneration annually for the Guadalupe Mass. It was painted by Maria Tomasula, professor of painting in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design. In the video below, Director of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, Dr. Joseph Becherer, explains two different paintings of Our Lady of Guadalupe: a piece from 18th century in the Raclin Murphy collection and Tomasula piece in the basilica.
View and personalize a card with a prayer to of Our Lady of Guadalupe here on FaithND.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and of the Right to Life movement—pray for us!
Image Credit: Maria Tomasula, Virgin of Guadalupe, 2008, Oil on board. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame. Pat and Robert Kill Family Endowment for Excellence for Latin American Art, 2009.001. ©Maria Tomasula, 2020