Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 12, 2025
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”
*Today’s gospel and reflection are also available in Spanish.
In today’s gospel passage, Mary sets out and travels in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who has miraculously conceived a son in her advanced age. Mary does not wait for Elizabeth to confirm the news herself. Instead, she hits the road, seeks her out, and greets Elizabeth with expectant hope.
Elizabeth’s response to Mary’s greeting is one of deep faith but also perplexity. Filled with awe, she wonders, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
Today, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we are invited to ponder how Mary never ceases to travel in haste to accompany her people, especially the forgotten and the downtrodden. When Juan Diego encountered Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill, like Elizabeth, he was both filled with awe and could not believe that the mother of God would appear to him, a poor indigenous man with no power or status. Yet, it was not in spite of his poverty but precisely because of it that she met him in haste and chose him to be a bearer of hope.
In some way, we are all Juan Diego, perhaps feeling forgotten, unworthy, or unloved. It is at our lowest moments that she sets out in haste, takes us by the hand, dusts us off, and sends us out in hope. Today’s feast also invites us to see the Juan Diegos of the world through Guadalupe’s loving eyes, with eyes of compassion to see their inherent dignity and to make haste to accompany them in their need.
In Our Lady of Guadalupe, God’s message of hope is revealed to those who feel rejected and unworthy, affirming their inherent dignity and entrusting them with a mission to be hope-bearers for the world.
Prayer
Almighty and ever-living God, Mary found favor with you, and you chose her to bear your saving promise. She questioned “how?” and was told nothing is impossible for the power of the Most High. When we are troubled and question amid our doubts or fears, may your grace abound, stirring the hope that moves us, too, to declare “Thy will be done.” We ask this through Jesus, your Word made flesh, who is Lord forever and ever. 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.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and of the Right to Life movement—pray for us!
View and personalize a card with a prayer to of Our Lady of Guadalupe here on FaithND.
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