The Day of the Virgin of Zapopan...

So, I don't know about in the rest of the country of Mexico, but at least in Guadalajara, they have this holy day called the Day of the Virgin. See, they have this statue of the Virgin Mary that travels around to different churches, and when it arrives they have a huge fiesta day and everyone congregates at the church to honor the virgin and take communion, etc. Well, this happened last week..the day after exams ended...in Zapopan, near to where our house was. It was very interesting. Basically downtown is pretty much closed off to buses and traffic because millions of people will descend upon whatever church has the virgin. It was a big deal. I didn't go to the church to take pictures for myself, but I took some of the TV news when they flashed pics on the screen..check this out...




We had some interesting discussion in my house about this form of "idol" worship, because in essence it's what it is. In one of our classes in the school we started reading about different aspects of the catholic church and their dogma and doctrines. It's really sad to think about the fact that many of the people have no idea what the church really believes behind their practices. But this is a very interesting aspect of Mexican culture because it is about 99% catholic, especially for us as Missionaries. The Mexican people make a definite distinction between the Christian church and the Catholic church. It's a little jarring for my US mentality to hear that distinction made, but there is a definite distinction in belief and practice, at least here in Mexico, between the two, and it is something we confront every day. Please keep this country in your prayers that the Lord would break through the strongholds of ritual and idolotry to soften hearts to the truth of His gospel of grace!