Joyful Festival Concludes Week of Guadalupe Events

 

Our Lady of Gudalupe and the tilma of St. Juan Diego took center stage, literally, before thousands of faithful ones at the Guadalupe Festival on August 8. An afternoon of song, dance, prayer, joyful celebrations and witness talks, the festival was held at the Jobing.com Arena, just outside of Phoenix, which was filled with nearly 20,000 attendees of all ages and many ethnic backgrounds.

The festival concluded a week of events sponsored by the Knights of Columbus in Phoenix, starting with the Order’s 127th Supreme Convention and continuing with a three-day Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The highlight of the festival was a procession with the tilma relic, a small portion that was cut from Juan Diego’s tilma, and is on permanent display at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. It was loaned to the festival by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The relic was encased in a reliquary and draped by a chain upon a 17th century state of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was placed on the arena’s center stage.

The festival concluded with the praying of an international rosary, with prayers read in many languages, and meditations on the mysteries given by prominent Catholics from a number of countries.

A colorful highlight was the drumming and dancing of the Matachines Dancers, dressed in traditional garb of native Mexicans.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson gave the closing address, saying that the Knights of Columbus would continue to seek to bring all the people of America – North South and Central – in unity under the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to help build a culture of life and a civilization of love.