Guadalupe

Today is a big feast day in the Catholic Church in the United States wherever a lot of Mexicans live.  It is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  It is when God, through a vision of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, said to the Mexican people, “I look just like you.”  We all like our God, Deity, Higher Power to look just like we look.  In our church in Chinatown here in San Francisco, the Holy Family looks Chinese.  The tourists are fascinated by it.  Look-a-like makes for a connection.  When people first go into a recovery room they need to see people who somehow look like them, to help with feeling comfortable.  If the faces don’t match, the stories of mess and recovery do.  Some meetings are only men and some only women and many mixed.  But the stories are what connect.  And the honesty.