December 15, 2021

Holyoke parishioners join together for Our Lady of Guadalupe feast day

REGIONAL
Story and photo by Nick Morganelli

The Trovadores de America mariachi band performs following the Dec. 12 Spanish Mass at St. Jerome Church in Holyoke. Parishioners then gathered at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Community Center to celebrate the saint’s feast day.

HOLYOKE – On Dec. 12, hundreds of parishioners gathered at St. Jerome Church for a Mass in Spanish celebrated by Father Francis Reilly, pastor, assisted by Deacon Jose Correra, to mark the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  

“We have people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Santo Domingo, Colombia, Peru, and some of them have grown up in this parish for years and they are the leaders in the Hispanic community,” said Father Reilly.

It was December of 1531 when the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego in the city of Tepeyac, which later became part of Guadalupe, a suburb of Mexico City. After seeing Mary in an apparition more than once, Diego spoke to Archbishop Juan de Zumarraga of Mexico City who requested a sign that what Diego was saying was true. At the fourth apparition, Our Lady instructed Diego to arrange Castilian roses in his tilma, or cloak, and when he later opened it for the archbishop, the flowers had left the image of Our Lady of Gudalupe on it.

During the homily, Father Reilly changed his vestments from the rose colored for Advent to one with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the front.

“Our Lady leaves her image on our hearts and Jesus lives in our hearts and we can learn a lot from Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas,” he said.

John Kelley, a member of St. Jerome Parish for over 65 years has seen the ethnicity of this Catholic community evolve over the years. “It’s truly wonderful to see how the cultural diversity has blended together so well. This has been an annual celebration for over twenty years now and it’s a great community. I enjoy it very much,” said Kelley.

After Mass, Trovadores de America, a mariachi band, dedicated two songs to Our Lady of Guadalupe and continued entertaining at Our Lady of Guadalupe Community Center in Holyoke, where a luncheon reception continued the celebration.

“Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico and to have the Mariachi band at church and at the reception really brings the celebration together,” said Brenda Pedraza, a longtime parishioner of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.

A video version of this story will be featured on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel,” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 on WWLP-22NEWS.