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December 27, 2021, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – During the time of year that focuses on the birth of Jesus, Sister Carol Gross, OP, gave a live stream presentation on a central figure of the nativity: Mary, the mother of Jesus and our mother.
Sister Carol’s talk, “Devotion to Mary in Latin America,” was presented on December 9, 2021, the day after the patronal feast of the United States, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and three days before the December 12 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is especially revered in Mexico and by many Hispanic people in the United States.
The talk was part of a series of presentations organized by the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Spirituality Committee. Sister Carol spoke from her home in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Sister Carol described in general the Marian piety of many of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean – a popular piety involving the heart. In times of need, she said, this devotion to Mary “soothes pain and strengthens hope – the loving, healing, consoling power of God or God’s mother, who is the stand-in for God at the center of Latin American culture.”
Throughout the centuries, Sister Carol said, Mary has appeared to suffering people in a variety of images – suited to the people of a particular culture to help them to understand God’s love for them. “Myths and legends attributed to an icon of Mary speak to the needs of the people,” she explained.
Sister Carol highlighted a number of images of Mary that are popular in various parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Our Lady of Altagracia (“high grace”) is the cultural image of Mary in the Dominican Republic. She is known as the Protectress of the Dominican Republic, Sister Carol added. The image was originally brought home by a merchant to his daughter in the Dominican Republic. A basilica now houses the image, and about 8,000 people visit the basilica every year. On January 21, the Feast of Our Lady of Altagracia, people who cannot visit the basilica take part in Masses, novenas, and processions at their home parishes.
Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mary appeared as a pregnant Aztec woman in 1531 to St. Juan Diego, an Aztec who had converted to the Catholic faith, at Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City. Because of her appearance, Sister Carol said, “The native people of Mexico began to recognize the Catholic faith. They say, ‘This virgin looks like us. She is ours and we are hers.’” The Patroness of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe “is our mother,” Sister Carol said. “As a mother she understands, relates, protects, listens, comforts.”
The Immaculate Conception: Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, is the Patroness of the United States and of other countries, such as Nicaragua, who revere her as La Purisima, the most pure one, Sister Carol said. At sundown on December 7, the eve of the feast, people in Nicaragua “flood into the streets in groups, singing hymns to La Purisima,” Sister Carol said. The feast refers to Mary’s conception without original sin, not to the conception of Jesus.
Learn more about various Marian devotions in Latin America in the recording of Sister Carol’s presentation, found below.
December 21, 2021, Adrian, Michigan – Sister Esther Kennedy, OP, a Dominican Sister of Adrian, invites you to join her mindfulness community to deepen your understanding and commitment to a daily meditation practice. Monthly Days of Mindfulness are held on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The schedule for the first four months of 2022 is as follows:
January 8, 2022 – Come and See. Take a Fresh Look. In this Zoom presentation, come to the New Year with fresh enthusiasm to embrace the truth of who you are and who you are becoming.
February 12, 2022 – Amp Up your Happiness. This Zoom presentation begins an exploration of the Buddha’s eightfold path of cultivating skillfulness in understanding, thoughts, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. This session helps us to cultivate skill in the first three areas: understanding, thoughts, and speech.
March 12, 2022 – Life Itself Orients Toward Happiness. In this Zoom presentation, we practice skillful action; skillful livelihood in ethical work, practiced with honesty and integrity; and skillful effort, aware of our negative attitudes and cultivating wholesome thoughts and more open-hearted behaviors.
April 9, 2022 – If Only… I’d Be Happy. This in-person presentation teaches the steps on the path to happiness: cultivating a skillful mind that is uncluttered, precise, sees through negative thought patterns, and guides us to inner wisdom and kindness and skillful concentration that is free of worry, restlessness, boredom, and dullness.
The cost is $25 per session. Registration is required for both the virtual and the in-person sessions and is available at www.webercenter.org; click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by calling 517-266-4000 or emailing [email protected]. Limited scholarships are available.
All guests at in-person presentations will be screened for COVID-19 and required to wear a mask. Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Motherhouse, Adrian. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.