Today we celebrate one of the holiest days of the year for Americans throughout North, Central, and South America. The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Mother of the ONE Church in America, is a story of how God acted in a people's history to bring light in a time of great darkness. The earliest account of the Guadalupe story states that "when it was night," a great sign appeared in this part of the world: "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet" (Revelation 12:1).

   This gentle, pregnant woman came with a message of hope, a vision of unity from the God of "What is Near and Together." Speaking to the powerful through a humble and wise Indian man, she offered all her children the opportunity to build together a Church where the homeless are welcomed, the sorrowful comforted, the sick healed, and the voiceless empowered. The imprint of her lovely brown face on the strands of Juan Diego's garment still calls to the Church in America to weave together the many races and cultural groups of the continent into a "new creation."...