Join Bishop Burns on December 12, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, for this extraordinary celebration of Frank La Rocca's Mass of the Americas at the beautiful and holy Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Mass will be held at 7:00PM Central time.
All are welcome. Donations help cover the cost of the Mass and worship aid, along with marketing for the Mass. TICKETS ARE NOT REQUIRED, but if you plan on attending please register so we can properly plan for worship aids, etc. (Your donations to cover the cost of digital marketing to make sure more people hear about this Mass are appreciated but also not required of course!)
Information on parking for the Cathedral is available here.
Though the mass is earlier, EWTN will Broadcast the mass starting at 7:30 PM Pacific/10:30 PM Eastern. Register here to receive the link in your inbox!
This celebration of the Mass of the Americas is part of Project Guadalupe 2031, Archbishop Cordileone's answer to Pope Francis's call to prepare for the 500th anniversary of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the birthday of Christianity in the Americas.
The Mass of the Americas was commissioned by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone from composer Frank La Rocca as a twinned tribute to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe, a unity Mass honoring the patroness of the United States and the patroness of Mexico and all the Americas. The sung parts of the Mass will be a Latin Novus Ordo incorporating an "Aue Maria" in Nahuatl (which is the Aztec language Our Lady spoke to San Juan Diego). It takes classic Mexican folk hymns to Our Lady (especially La Guadalupana) and weaves them into the high sacred music tradition of the Church.
"I asked Frank La Rocca to do for sacred music what St. Junipero Serra and his Franciscans did with Mission Architecture: take elements from the local culture, but raise them into the sacred tradition instead of lowering the sacred to the level of popular culture," notes Archbishop Cordileone.
The recording of the "Mass of the Americas" released on the prestigious classical music label Cappella Records debuted at #1 on the Billboard's traditional classical music chart.
Critics raved:
"Perhaps the most important Catholic composition of our lifetime," Dr. Michael Olbash
“The best piece of liturgical music for the Mass since Duruflé," Michael Linton,
“La Rocca has managed to create a modern Missa Solemnis that is undeniably stirring…seamlessly blending Gregorian chant with Latin American folk melodies, organ and orchestra with marimba, guitar, and handbells, all instruments with deep roots in Mexico...I was floored by the beauty of the music—floored, and then lifted to a different altitude of existence.” Fanfare
About Project Guadalupe 2031:
Archbishop Cordileone’s goal with Project Guadalupe 2031 is to inspire more U.S. Catholics, priests, and prelates to prepare for the 500th anniversary in 2031; to organize a renewed and energetic intellectual defense of the Guadalupe event; and to deepen American Catholics’ relationship with Our Lady of Guadalupe and through her deepen their relationship with Christ.
For more information visit ProjectGuadalupe.org
