Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles is set to lead the seventh annual archdiocesan pilgrimage to Mexico City, where prayer petitions will be hand-delivered and entrusted at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Until Father’s Day, June 21, prayer intentions can be submitted online or at the Los Angeles-based Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels’ Chapel of the Relic of the Tilma of St. Juan Diego, or any of the 11 locations of the Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries.
Almost 300 pilgrims, including 26 from as far as New York, will journey with Archbishop Gomez on the pilgrimage during the second week of July, according to an emailed press release.
“In a special way, we will bring the petitions and prayer requests of many people from Los Angeles,” Archbishop Gomez said in the release. “We lay all our cares at the foot of the virgin and we ask for her intercession for all our needs.”
This year marks 495 years since Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego and 50 years since the modern Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico was consecrated, the release noted. The modern basilica is located across the road from where the original church, finished in 1709. St. Juan Diego’s tilma, on which the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was first seen, is in the basilica.
The prayer petitions carried from Los Angeles will be presented to Our Lady of Guadalupe during a special Mass celebrated by Archbishop Gomez July 11.
“It is with great joy that we celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe as we approach the 500th anniversary of her apparition on Tepeyac,” Archbishop Gomez said in the release. “Our Mother will always be with us, to comfort us and lead us to her Son, Jesus – and she entrusts each and every one of us with the responsibility of continuing that beautiful mission of bringing Jesus to the entire American continent.”