Saturday, December 12, 2026 — Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Mary sets out in haste
Luke 1:39-47
The Gospel
Mary sets out and travels in haste to the hill country, to the house of Zechariah, and greets Elizabeth. At the sound of her greeting the infant leaps in Elizabeth’s womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out that Mary is most blessed among women and blessed is the fruit of her womb. Mary answers with praise: her soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God her Savior.
Readings of the day: First Reading: Zechariah 2:14-17 or Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; Responsorial Psalm: Judith 13:18bcde, 19; Gospel: Luke 1:39-47 (or Luke 1:26-38).
Reflection
Mary has just received the greatest news ever given to a creature, and her first act is to hurry to someone else’s house to help. St. Ambrose notices the order of grace in the meeting: Elizabeth is the first to hear Mary’s voice, but John is the first to be aware of grace. She hears with the ears of the body, but he leaps for joy at the meaning of the mystery. The child leaps in the womb, the mother is filled with the Holy Spirit, and only then does Elizabeth speak. Joy comes first, and words follow. That is the pattern of Guadalupe too. Mary came to Tepeyac in haste, as she came to the hill country, not to be served but to bring her Son to a people who had never heard of Him. And the answer is the same as Elizabeth’s: blessed is she who believed. On this feast, the Church in the Americas remembers that Mary still sets out in haste, and still brings Christ with her wherever she is welcomed.
From the Fathers
“Elizabeth is the first to hear Mary’s voice, but John is the first to be aware of grace. She hears with the ears of the body, but he leaps for joy at the meaning of the mystery.”
— St. Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 1:39-47
“The child leaps in the womb; the mother is filled with the Holy Spirit, but not before her son. Once the son has been filled with the Holy Spirit, he fills his mother with the same Spirit.”
— St. Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 1:39-47
Feast of the day
Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City from December 9 to 12, 1531, and left her image on his tilma as a sign for the bishop. She is honored as Patroness of the Americas, and her feast is kept today.
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Sources: the day’s readings follow the daily lectionary (USCCB, Lectionary 690A). The Gospel text is not reproduced here; read it at the link above. Patristic quotes: Catena Aurea on Luke 1:39-47, compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by John Henry Newman (1841, public domain).