Guadalupe ceremony

Children at St. Mary on the Hill School didn’t just pray the rosary on Monday, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. They sent one made out of b
Nearly 50 first-graders crowded on to the playground of the Catholic school off Monte Sano Avenue on Monday afternoon. After praying one decade of the rosary together, they released the balloons, which floated off toward Highland Avenue, where they were spotted by staff and students at Aquinas High School.
Some of the 60 balloons were filled with helium, while others were blown up by the youth and held slips of prayers and the message “God Bless America.”
They’re meant to be reminders -- not just to the students, but all who see them -- that miracles happen.
“The whole entire world will get to see them,” said 7-year-old Caroline Jackson. “That’s really cool.”
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe dates to 1531, when the Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant, Juan Diego, in a village outside Mexico City. She asked him to build a church on the spot where they were standing. Diego told his local bishop, who asked for proof. Mary told Diego to bring the bishop roses from a nearby bush. He wrapped them in his robe called a tilma and went to the bishop. When he opened his tilma, an image of Mary was imprinted on the cloth.
The cloth is displayed today in the Basilica of Guadalupe, one of the most frequently visited Catholic shrines in the world.
First-grader Jeb Bowles, 7, played the role of Juan Diego. He wore a tilma and dropped roses below a picture of Mary as the children released the balloons.
The idea for the balloon rosary came from parent volunteer Maura Jabaley, whose first-grader, Jonathan, attends St. Mary on the Hill. She received an e-mail a few weeks ago that showed an anti-abortion group releasing a balloon rosary in Chicago.
“We’re hoping that this becomes somewhat of a rite of passage for our first-graders,” she said. “It’ll be something they can look forward to.”
Principal Joe McBride said he was immediately on board.
“The kids are learning a lot about Mary and her significance to our faith,” he said. “It’s a hands-on way that they’re learning about their faith. They’re not just reading about it, but doing it.”
alloons high into the sky.

Gilroy Celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe

Hundreds of people gathered at the corner of Eigleberry and 10th streets in Gilroy Sunday afternoon to kick off a procession to celebrate the Virgin Mary that ended at St. Mary's Church on First Street.

The celebration, named by St. Mary's as the Feast of Our Lady, is normally celebrated with flowers and music on Dec. 12 in Mexico and many churches across the United States and Central America.

Giroy resident Maria Torres said she and her family went to Eigleberry Street Sunday afternoon to pay their respects.

"We are here to give praise to the Virgin Mary," Torres said. "I brought my children out here to show how strong our Catholic community is and how beautiful it can be when a community comes together for a common good."

The parishioners started the day with a regular Sunday Mass, then met for the celebratory procession at 10th and Eigleberry streets and ended back at the church for a 2 p.m. Mass.

At 6:30 p.m., parishoners gathered for "Noche Guadalupana" in the church gym and then finished the evening with a mariachi serenade in the chapel.

According to tradition, on Dec. 9, 1531, in Mexico, a young indigenous man named Juan Diego saw an image of the Virgin who told him to tell the Catholic bishop to build her a church. The bishop didn't believe him and asked for proof.

When Juan Diego saw the Virgin again and gave her the bishop's message, she told him to return to the hill where he first saw her and bring the flowers there to the bishop as proof that she exists. In winter, the hill of Tepeyac Hill didn't have flowers in bloom, but when Juan Diego arrived, he saw flowers, just as the Virgin promised. He gathered them in his cloak and took them to the bishop.

On Dec. 12, when Juan Diego returned to the bishop and opened his cloak, the flowers fell to the floor. On the cloak remained the image of the Virgin. The cloak now hangs in the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City.