The article looks at the language of a modern-day sermon delivered by a Spanish-Quechua bilingual priest during a popular mestizo pilgrimage in southern Peru. The study assumes that the form and content of the sermon are both shaped by and revealing of the sociocultural setting within which it arises. Thus, as an example of linguistic "hybridization" between Spanish and Quechua, the question is posed whether the text is also indicative of conceptual mixing at work within the culture, particularly as expressed through religion. The analysis also focuses on the rhetorical strategies by means of which the priest seeks to influence his audience, illustrating how religious language of this genre not only seeks to instill and maintain belief, but also serves functions of social control. Language mixture, and the exercise of power by rhetorical means in the sermon, are seen to be interrelated pragmatic functions of the communicative event, whereby the persuasive art of preaching is exercised upon a largely bilingual and culturally "mestizo" congregation. In conclusion, the language of the sermon, and the communicative strategies it exemplifies, is contextualized in relation to other genres of religious discourse in the Andes.