Guadalupana Mass at Mission Dolores

For more than 30 years, Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco has held a Guadalupana Mass with “Las Mañanitas,” a traditional Mexican song for birthdays, holidays and saints’ days. People gather, process into the basilica and honor the Blessed Mother through the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas. During the offertory a parishioner portraying St. Juan Diego presents himself to the bishop. Rose petals then fall from the basilica dome, re-enacting Juan Diego’s 1531 meeting with the local bishop to provide roses as proof of Mary’s miraculous appearance to him on a hill in what is now Mexico City. Bishop William J. Justice and Mission Dolores pastor Father Francis Garbo concelebrated the Mass Dec. 12. (Photos by Dennis Callahan/Catholic San Francisco)