The Rose of Tepeyac Gala: One Hour Livestream Event: February 6, 2021 at 6pm
Register Today!
Grateful for the flexibility and generosity of our friends and benefactors, we will hold a joyful and celebratory one-hour livestreamed event on Saturday, February 6, at 6pm! Join the Chesterton community to share, support, and celebrate the first year of Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Guadalupe as we showcase an hour of merriment and wonder, complete with a feature presentation by Dale Ahlquist, President of the Society of GK Chesterton, student performances and presentations, and online silent auction (link to come soon).
We need YOUR ONLINE ATTENDANCE to make this a night to remember. If you are passionate about our mission of sustaining a joyful high school with a higher purpose in Metro Detroit, please make plans TODAY to attend! Contact us at ChestertonDetroitGala@gmail.com or 248-346-5372 for information on how to help sponsor the event through monetary sponsorship, program ads (digital programs will be distributed to all registrants, and hard-copy programs will be distributed to all Chesterton families, staff, and board members), and/or our online silent auction. Thank you for your generosity and enthusiasm!
The Story Behind the Name of Our 2021 Gala: The Rose of Tepeyac
Our Lady has many titles and some of the most beautiful are in reference to a rose: “mystical rose” and “rose ever-blooming” and “rose without thorns.” She is the beauty of the rose without the “thorns” of original sin.
The third time Our Lady appeared to St. Juan Diego in December 1531, in what is today Mexico, he told her that the Bishop was asking for a sign in order to believe him that She had indeed appeared. As Juan Diego walked along one day, Our Lady told him to go up the Hill of Tepeyac and cut the flowers that he found there - Castilian roses in the middle of winter, something unheard of - and take them to the Bishop. Unbeknownst to Juan Diego, the Bishop had prayed to Our Blessed Mother for a sign of roses from his native town of Castile, Spain, to know that peace and conversion would indeed come to the land.
On his last visit to the Bishop, St. Juan Diego opened his tilma and the roses fell before the Bishop, revealing the miracle of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe emblazoned there upon the tilma. Her image was so full of symbolism to the native Aztecs that all they had to do was see her and convert. Her intercession ended human sacrifice among the natives, and nine million natives converted in just nine years. This is why Our Lady of Guadalupe is known as the patroness of the Americas who set off the avalanche of conversions on this continent, but also the patroness of the unborn who appeared to St. Juan Diego as a young mother pregnant with Our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is our local Chesterton Academy’s patroness because she has accompanied us since our very first meeting on the vigil of her feast day, December 11, 2017, but also because she is proving to us that this type of education and placing Our Eucharistic Lord at the culmination of every school day are what will help to transform our current culture to a culture of life - one student, one family, and one community at a time.
