Monday, September 18th, we visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I like to think of this as the start of our second leg of the the journey. Our first leg was all Laura Ingalls Wilder, which was super cool, but this second leg proved to be even more "super cool". This leg of our journey included all the shrines which we are planning to stop at during our trip. This shrine outshines all the others in its beauty, layout, and inspiration. I think we could visit every week and never get tired of it.
The girls walked to the church with me while Darren and the boys went to confession.
The walk up the hill is not long, but it is an incline steep enough to tire little ones out. Funniest story of the day came when we were walking up the hill. Kiara was getting tired so she stopped and started to whine about how Brigid wasn't waiting for her. I asked Brigid if she could please slow down and wait for Kiara. Her response: "I can't wait. I gotta get to Mass!" It took all I had not to giggle at her. We made it to the church with a few moments to spare before Mass. Once we got to the door Brigid wouldn't go inside. She didn't want to go to Mass after all. It took all I had not to roll my eyes at her. Girls! They are just handfuls!
There are six side altars by the pews with pictures of saints. The three on the side of the church where we sat were all special saints to us. All the altars had first class relics of those saints on display. What an amazing blessing to be able to pray at each altar.
This is Gianna in front of St. Gianna's altar.
Stephen in front of Bl. Miguel Pro, who is his confirmation saint.
Blase in front of St. Therese who is his First Holy Communion patron saint.
On the other side of the church was St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy picture.
St. Maria Goretti who is my confirmation saint.
St. Peregrine, patron of those with cancer.
The altars on the side of the church near the altar were bigger than most altars in churches.
St. Juan Diego
The organ with 2,000 pipes (?) or some outrageous number!
Picture behind the main altar
The stained glass windows around the church were of the Litany of Our Lady.
The dome just outside of the altar area was painted with the constellations that are on Our Lady of Guadalupe's dress.
These four saints were honored here because they all taught about the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The men in the pictures below were part of a display in the basement of the church.
A bit more up the hill was the Chapel where they remember the unborn.
Pray for the Pietila Family. They are friends of ours. We were so blessed to see their little girl's resting place and offer a rosary for their family.
Darren took the younger four to the van while the older four and I did the rosary walk.
Then we did a quick Stations of the Cross - which was a good thing for so many reasons, but mostly because it started to rain.
The rectory for the order that offers Mass here.
Coming back down the hill we saw the shrine in its full height and beauty.
There were little statue shrines down the path back to the parking lot.
I hope you enjoyed coming along with us to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. What was your favorite part of the Shrine? Here's ours:
FAVORITES
Darren - pictures and dome in church
Karen - candle chapel
Blase - the stone pillars by the altar
Stephen - the indulgence attached to the shrine
Cormac - dome with the constellations
Rex - organ
Brech - candle chapel
Gianna - St. Gianna picture
Brigid - pictures on the wall, pretty flowers
Kiara - stars (dome)
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