About 100 of the faithful gathered on Wednesday night to celebrate Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Saint Aloyisius of Gonzaga parish in Nashua with a Spanish-language Mass and procession.
“I was very excited to see Our Lady out here,” said event organizer Adriana Bueno, in Spanish. “We’re in a country that’s not ours, in the middle of a different culture. And now there are so many people from different cultures gathering to honor her.”
A solemn procession praying the rosary and following a plaster statue of the Virgin Mary is a common scene in Latin America. In Nashua, though, Wednesday’s procession was a walk around the parking lot of the church, as it didn't require a permit from the city.
Bueno said the scene reminded her of her childhood in La Virginia, a small town in the heart of Colombia. Her father was a driver and celebrated our Lady of Mount Carmel every year, as she is venerated as the patroness of drivers in Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean.
For other parishioners, like Migdalia Castro, the procession was a chance to join with others to pray in community. She’s a member of the church choir and part of the Emaús brotherhood. She joined a group of women from Emaús to sing in honor of Our Lady. To her, this kind of service is a way to stay connected with her faith and her community
“What really moves us is service, community, doing small gestures like the one we did here today,” she said in Spanish. “We do it with love and because of our love to serve God and Our Lady,”
