This is a time rich with Marian feasts, beginning with today (the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception) and ending with January 1 (Mary the Mother of God.) In the middle, of course, come two great feasts that prominently feature Mary — Christmas, and the Feast of the Holy Family.

But next week comes a Marian feast that is growing in significance — as the Hispanic Catholic population also grows — the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

From The Dallas Morning News:

Being childlike is not the same as being childish.

It’s a distinction Father Eduardo González carefully stresses as he explains the devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

“The child in me has a sense of wonder, of being aware and amazed, and that is the only way we can perceive God’s presence in our lives,” he says. “Guadalupe is one way to reach that transcendence.”

It’s a spiritual message that may be difficult to understand if you don’t have a strong female figure in your religious cosmology. Indeed, not even all Catholics share the devotion to Guadalupe that many Hispanics have.

But it is a message Father González will likely deliver several times in the days leading up to the feast day of Guadalupe on Wednesday in a region that now has one of the largest Catholic populations in the country.

About 1 million Catholics live in the Dallas Diocese, which includes several counties in North Texas. The feast day of Guadalupe is one of the area’s major religious observances, but it is one that goes far beyond religion.

As rector of the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in downtown Dallas, Father González is especially busy in the nine days leading up to the observance. A novena – nine days of prayers and special devotion – continues every day beginning at 6:30 p.m.

It will be followed by a special serenata, or serenade, to the Virgin at 11 p.m. Tuesday, followed by a midnight Mass and later singing of the mañanitas –a celebration song usually sung at birthday parties – at 5:30 a.m.

For some, attending midnight Mass on Guadalupe’s feast day is as important as attending it on Christmas Eve. The sanctuary will be filled with the scent of hundreds of roses as pilgrims from all over the area bring one of the key elements of the Mexican apparition’s story.

Read on for much more about the history of the feast, and its cultural significance to many Mexicans.