By Elsa Baughman
JACKSON – The first celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Diocese of Jackson was held on Dec. 16, 1979, in the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. Every year many of the parishes and missions hold in her honor mañanitas, a sunrise service on Dec. 11, Masses, processions and skits about her apparition. In some communities the faithful pray a novena of rosaries at different homes or in the church leading up to the feast day.
Saturday, Dec. 12, marks the 484th anniversary of her apparition to the Indian San Juan Diego in Tepeyac, Mexico.
In 1754 Pope Benedict XIV declared for Dec. 12 a special Mass and Office proper to the celebration on her feast day. In 1945, Pope Pius XII designated Our Lady of Guadalupe the Empress of the Americas noting that she had been painted “by brushes that were not of this world.” The following year he declared her to be the Patroness of the Americas. In 1988 the liturgical celebration on Dec. 12 was raised to the status of a feast in all dioceses in the United States.
For Mexicans living in the Jackson diocese the celebration has special meaning.
Herminia Martínez, a member of Hazlehurst St. Martin of Tours Mission, says that the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a very special day in her native country, Mexico. “On Dec. 11 people decorate the front door of their houses with lights of different colors and with images of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” she said. Around 11 p.m. people gather in churches to sing songs and to pray the rosary, a tradition known as mañanitas.

Members of the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle process with the statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe around the Smith Park every year praying the rosary before the 2 p.m. Mass.

Martínez remembers fondly the year she participated in the “Guadalupan torch run” when she was a teenager, walking and running with a group of friends from her home in San José Chiapas Puebla to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, a journey that took all day and night. There, youth groups from different parts of the country lit their torches and then brought them, burning, to their local churches.
“You feel something special when you are running with that torch in your hands,” she said. “It’s a great joy to participate in this relay race.”
Martínez added that she has also participated in that event here in the United States when the “Guadalupan Torch Relay Race” has passed through Hazlehurst on its way to New York. “We received the lighted torch, we remember the tradition and we think about the message the runners bring.”
The International Guadalupan Torch Relay Race is sponsored each year by the Tepeyac Association of New York. The race begins in October at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, progresses through several states in the United States and ends on Dec. 12 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
For the feast this year, Martínez is preparing the children of the parish to present a Guadalupan dance on Friday, Dec. 11, during the 6:30 p.m. Mass in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. “We will bring her flowers, we will sing and dance in her honor,” she said.
For Martínez, Dec. 11-12 are also special days of remembrance in a different way. Eleven years ago her father was dying on Dec. 11 but it seemed like something was holding him in this world. On that day, she prayed to the Virgin of Guadalupe that if her father was afraid of dying, to help him go in peace. “And he died that same day,” she said.
Growing up in the small town of Allende, in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, Blanca Cantu would pray the rosary to the virgin with her parents and siblings at different homes. “We prayed 46 rosaries, one daily for each star in the Virgin’s blue mantle, ending on Dec. 12 before the Mass on her feast day,” Cantu said.

BELMONT – On Thanksgiving Day, Sandra Hernández with the help of her family, erected an altar for the Virgin of Guadalupe in the front lawn of her house. She posted this photo in Facebook with the cutline, “My little Virgin of Guadalupe is ready to be celebrated on her feast day.”

On Dec. 12, she added, the people would gather at 5 a.m. at the entrance of the town to walk for two hours toward their church, praying the rosary led by their pastor and singing songs. The Mass was celebrated at 7 a.m. followed by dances and a meal. “This is one of my most cherished childhood memories,” Cantu said.
As a member of Batesville St. Mary, Cantu is one of the organizers of the celebration in her parish, a tradition that began in 2009. She said that before the 7 a.m. Mass the congregation participates in a short procession from the parish center to the church. The adults and the children, many dressed as St. Juan Diego and others wearing Mexican dresses, bring flowers to the Virgin at the beginning of the celebration. This year the Mass will be on Saturday, Dec. 12.
This past Thanksgiving Day, Sandra Hernández and her family prepared an altar for the Virgin in the front lawn of their home in Belmont.
Her devotion for the Virgin of Guadalupe comes from her father who used to pray daily for her intersession. Hernandez’s father had a small statue of the Virgin and a crucifix on his night stand. “I was very young but I remember  him praying everyday, in the morning or at night, calling the Virgin ‘My Lupita,’” she said. Lupita is a nickname for Guadalupe. Hernández said her father named the last of his seven daughters, Guadalupe.
“My mother taught me to pray the rosary, she has a big devotion for Mary. But my father passed on his faith and love for the Virgin of Guadalupe to me,” she explained.
She remembers that in her native town of Cuitlahuac, Veracruz, the community assembled close to midnight on Dec. 11 to pray the rosary and sing mañanitas. “I went with my family to this celebration which was always very well attended and afterwards we shared a meal,” she said. On the 12th we gathered again for Mass.
Gerardo Hernández of Jackson grew up in a small town in the state of Juanajuato in Mexico. During the months of November and December he took part in the “Hermandadez (Brotherhood) activities in Rincón de Alonso, his town, for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“We processed from one town to another taking a statue of the Virgin on a pedestal to the small chapel in each community,” he said. Sometimes the group walked for two hours or more praying the rosary and singing songs written for the Virgin. The statue stayed in each town for several days and then it was taken to the next town until Dec. 12 when it arrived at the main church in the district.
As a member of the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle’s Hispanic ministry, Hernandez participates in the procession around Smith Park while praying the rosary and singing songs led by a group carrying a statue of the Virgin. This year the celebration is set for Sunday, Dec. 13, beginning at 1 p.m. with the procession. Bishop Joseph Kopacz will be the main celebrant.

Meridian – Knights of Columbus Council 802 has introduced an innovative program called “Knight-Day.” The goals of “Knight-Day” are to increase fellowship throughout the Meridian Catholic Community; increase devotion to the rosary and increase the awareness and understanding of the Catholic faith, the Order of the Knights of Columbus as well as the history and good works associated with Council 802.
“Knight-Days” are celebrated in months with a fifth Saturday, a fifth Sunday and/or a fifth Tuesday. On a fifth Saturday, we celebrate family and church together by sponsoring a meal for the Meridian Catholic Community in the St. Patrick Family Life Center immediately following the 5 p.m. Mass.
On fifth Sundays, Knights lead the rosary before our weekend Masses and on fifth Tuesdays, we focus on continuing education through our lecturer program with topics focusing on our Catholic faith, our Order and our council as a whole!

(On Sunday, Nov. 1, seminarian Nick Adam gave the following talk at the Msgr. Glynn Seminarian Brunch at Jackson St. Richard Parish. He spoke about his experience at the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha this past summer. He graciously agreed to let us publish it.)
I am about to start my fourth year studying to be a priest in the Diocese of Jackson. I may not sound like I am from Mississippi – I’m not – but I worked in the state for five years as a TV news anchor and I very much feel called to serve the church in the deep south.
Last January, my mother died after battling cancer for nearly 10 years.
I spent about a week sitting by my mother’s bed with the rest of my family as she lost the ability to speak, then lost the ability to eat, then went on home hospice, then lost the ability to drink, then she was unresponsive, and before dawn on Jan. 22, 2014, she was gone.
I was able to help organize the funeral, I went to the funeral, I cried at the funeral, and I have prayed for my mom. That was pretty much the extent of my grieving, until I attended the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF).
While I was praying at IPF during our scheduled silent retreat, I found myself revisiting that week with my mom. I remembered how I would sit with her late into the night praying beside her, sometimes she would even respond to the prayers. I remembered how we were able to talk one last time, and toward the end I would just talk and tell her what was happening in my life. I also experienced feelings of restlessness, this worry that I did not say everything I should have said during that week, and a sadness that I was not the best son, especially after mom got sick and needed to be taken care of.
On one day during the retreat, I was praying with scripture and in my mind’s eye I found myself back in my mom’s room. I remembered the pain that I felt as I watched her fade, but in my prayer she was able to hold me close to her heart and comfort me as she had done so many times in my life. In my prayer Mary was in the room, and she offered me support and assured me that my mom knew her well.  Jesus was in the room too, standing next to me in sorrow and support, and I even had the sense of the love of God the Father, present in the room and in my heart.
This was not a replay or dramatization of a memory, but it was a re-experience. I experienced the healing power of God on that day. God revealed to me the love that he has for me, and for my mother, and all those nagging fears and regrets about how I should have done this or that, they simply didn’t seem important. In prayer the Lord entered a wound and healed it, I am now able to look upon the death-bed of my mother and see the loving presence of God there.
In God’s providence this experience of prayer almost immediately bore fruit in my ministry. As a part of the program I found myself one day visiting a dying man in hospice care here in Omaha. He was unconscious on a morphine drip, and his wife was in the room. Without even thinking about it, I was able to walk over to this dying man, and take his hand. Then I reached out and held the hand of his wife, and led a prayer. I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t embarrassed, I just wanted to offer God’s love to these people, and I believe that we all experienced God’s presence in that room just as I realized that God was with my mom and my family all those months ago.
We all have our share of tragedy, and as faithful Catholics I know how much you depend on your priests to give you faith and hope during times of trial. In these moments what kind of priest do you want to show up? Good priests, unfortunately, don’t grow on trees, and the men in the seminary with me have stories much like my own, just like all of us they have pasts that need healing, and if they don’t get healed in the seminary, then instead of getting a spiritual physician at your door, you may get a wounded man who has not allowed God’s healing love into his life and therefore can’t bring it into your life.
What kind of priest do you want? This is important because there is a choice here. IPF has given me great confidence that one day I will be the type of priest that the church deserves, the type of priest that each of you deserves.
So I thank you for allowing me to share my story with you. I believe in IPF, the men that come here leave forever changed, they become beacons of God’s love and a source of great comfort to all that they encounter. That’s what God asks us to do as priests, and that is what we learn to do here, good priests don’t grow on trees, but they do grow at IPF.
(It’s not too late to support the Seminarian Education Fund. Contact Aad de lange at aad.delange@jackson diocese.org or Father Matthew Simmons at matthew.simmons@jacksondiocese.org for information on how you can help secure a match for your donation.)

By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – Six hundred people packed into the downtown Jackson Marriott to hear Father Jonathan Morris speak at the Catholic Charities Journey of Hope luncheon Tuesday, Oct. 13.
Father Morris talked about his work in the Bronx in New York and as a news analyst for Fox News. He pointed out that Pope Francis has encouraged all the faithful to be people of service to the poor.
He recalled the story of Zacchaeus, in which Jesus calls the tax collector by name and offers to dine with him. Father Morris said the story, and much of what Pope Francis did while he was in the United States, demonstrates the kind of personal interaction and service all Catholics are called to perform.
He said the nation is in a battle for it’s very soul and that the church is trying to be a positive force in that. Father Morris closed by encouraging everyone on hand to donate to the work of Catholic Charities Jackson.
The evening before Journey of Hope, Father Morris hosted a meet and greet at the Old Capitol Inn. Almost 200 bought tickets for the meet for a chance to chat one-on-one with Father Morris and hear more about the work of Catholic Charities.

PEARL – The Knights of Columbus in the Diocese of Jackson again hosted the Silver Rose for the month of September. The silver rose is a pro-life program sponsored by the Knights honoring our Lady of Guadalupe.
Knights in parishes across the diocese host rosaries and prayer services using the rose as a focal point. The rose made stops at numerous schools and parishes including Madison St. Joseph and St. Anthony as well as Jackson St. Richard schools, Pearl St. Jude and Madison St. Francis parishes.
The program started many years ago with one rose that traveled from Canada to Mexico.
In 2015, six roses have been making different journeys, most starting in Canada and making winding trips across many states where Knights’ councils host similar prayer services and rosaries.
The one that stops here starts its run in Manitoba, moving south through the central United States and along the Mississippi before turning to Texas.
The program ends on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, when all the roses are presented in the Basilica of our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.

Sister Manette Durand, CSJ, born on March 2, 1937, and named Dorothy Jeanette Durand, died Oct. 11. She began her lifelong ministry in healthcare, serving in North Dakota and Minneapolis. Feeling a draw to serve in areas where there are fewer medical resources, she accepted a scholarship from the Edmundite Home Missions to study for an master’s of science in nursing at the University of Alabama. She also obtained certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner in exchange for her agreement to work in their mission in Selma, Ala, for five years.
When she finished her service with the Edmundites, she responded to the request to reopen a clinic in Jonestown, Miss. She said, “I heard Jonestown needed a nurse practitioner and I arranged for an interview.
When I drove up to the clinic building, I saw that the windows were boarded up and that poison ivy and raspberry vines covered the walls and doors. The mayor and some of the townspeople, waiting for me in front of the building, interviewed me on the steps.
Everyone kept saying, ‘Come! You can do it! We need you!’ They promised to take the boards off the windows and clean the place. I promised I would come back if I could find others to help me run the clinic…” This story was the beginning of a deep and heartfelt love between Manette and the people of the Mississippi Delta that continued for 30 years.
When the Jonestown Health Clinic closed in 2005, Sister Durand worked in Cleveland with the chemically dependent, and in 2007 came to work with Doctors Wells and Mangren at the Children’s Clinic of Clarksdale.
Nursing gave her an avenue for relationship, caring and healing. She said, “I don’t like the ‘saving of souls.’ My job is to help save bodies so that the souls can come alive because when bodies fall apart it is hard to pay attention to what the soul is telling you.” She found people in the rural areas of Alabama and Mississippi who may never have seen a doctor and who lacked the money or resources to address their physical pain and suffering. After she had a few minutes to visit with them and hear their stories, they trusted her to care for them and help them to heal.
Another avenue of relationship came through Manette’s gardens. She engaged people in working with her in the various gardens she tended and of course, shared the produce and flowers.
Sister Durand  never stopped caring for people, whether at the Children’s Clinic, the Clarksdale Care Station, delivering bread, or sharing her garden vegetables. On Aug. 19, 2015, she received a diagnosis of advanced thyroid cancer, a very rare type that was fast-growing and aggressive. Deciding to return to St. Paul was difficult for her.
She wanted to stay in her beloved Clarksdale/Jonestown area in Mississippi and struggled with her desire to live as simply as the people she served. She said, “Why would I go somewhere else for treatment when these are the doctors and services my patients have?”
On September 3, before she left, the students at Clarksdale St. Elizabeth School presented her with a scrapbook and thanked her for service.
One evening toward the end of her life, Sister Durand was sitting with friends at Carondelet Village who were getting ready to play her favorite game, Rummikub with her.
A nursing assistant came into the room to help her prepare for bed. Regardless of her friends shuffling of the Rummikubes and wanting to start the game, Manette stopped everything to embrace the aide and say “Tell me your story first.” Within moments, the aide was sharing her story while she listened intently and asked occasional questions oblivious of everyone else in the room.
Though she was “still holding out for a miracle” so she could go back to Mississippi, Sister Durand was gradually losing her voice and strength. Breathing was challenging and in the early morning of Sunday, October 11th, she drew her last breath — only seven weeks after her cancer diagnosis.
To honor Sister Manette with a gift, see below.