Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
There are many places in the world where images or figures of Mary are especially venerated, through which the miraculous power was revealed. While admiring their artistic beauty, we simultaneously touch the mystery of the living presence of the Queen of Heaven herself.
One of the most unusual images is that of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. The history of these apparitions is also very interesting. They took place in Mexico, less than 40 years after Christopher Columbus discovered America.
According to the message, on December 12, 1531, Our Lady appeared to an Indian, St. Juan Diego. She spoke his native Nahuatl. She was dressed in a magnificent outfit: a pink tunic and a blue cloak, girdled with a black ribbon, which for the Aztecs meant that she was pregnant. She said to Juan Diego: "Know for certain, least of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God through whom everything lives, the Lord of all things near and far, the Master of heaven and earth. It is my earnest wish that a temple be built here to my honor. Here I will demonstrate, I will exhibit, I will give all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people. I am your merciful mother, the merciful mother of all of you who live united in this land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who seek me, of those who have confidence in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their sorrow, and will remedy and alleviate all their multiple sufferings, necessities and misfortunes."
At first, the Bishop of Mexico, Juan deZumárraga, did not believe the Indian. The latter Juan Diego asked Mary for a sign with which he could convince the bishop. During the next apparition, Mary ordered the Indian to climb the hill. Although in Mexico flowers do not bloom in December, beautiful roses grew there. Madonna instructed Juan to collect their entire bouquet and put them in a tilma (it was a kind of Indian cloak, lowered at the front like a cape, and tied at the back like a sack). Juan quickly complied with this command, and Mary herself carefully arranged the collected flowers.
Juan immediately went to the bishop and in his presence undid the corners of his cloak. Castilian roses spilled out onto the floor, and the bishop and all those present knelt in reverence. On the unfolded cloak, they saw a beautiful image of Mary with a thoughtful face with a dark complexion, dressed in a red robe, fastened at the neck with a small cross-shaped clip. Her head was covered with a blue cloak with gold trim and stars, from under which could see neatly combed hair with a parting in the center. Mary had folded hands, and under her feet was a crescent moon and a seraphim's head. Behind her figure there was an oval shield of rays.
It is this mantle of Juan Diego, hanging to this day in the sanctuary built at the site of the apparitions, is the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. There are no known dyes or brush marks in the image. You do not notice the passage of time on the material, the colors have not faded, there are no traces of accidental dousing with caustic acid.
Our Lady's eyes have an extraordinary depth. In the pupil of the Madonna, an extremely precise image of twelve figures was discerned. On December 24, 1531, in a solemn procession, the mantle with the image of Mary transferred by bishop from his residence to the chapel built near the Tepeyac hill, thus fulfilling Mary's wish. Currently, it is the largest Marian shrine in the world, where about 12 million pilgrims go every year.
Mary's greatest miracle was the peaceful Christianization of the Mexican Indians. The time of her apparitions was a very difficult time for the evangelization of these areas. Until the invasion of the conquistadors, the Aztecs worshiped the Sun and various deities, including Quetzalcoatl in the form of a feathered serpent. They believed that they had to be fed with the blood and hearts of human victims. According to the account, Mary was to ask Juan Diego in his native Nahuatl language to name her "holy Mary of Guadalupe". It is supposed that "Guadalupe" is a Spaniard twisted word " Coatlaxopeuh ", which in Nahuatl means "She who tramples the serpent's head".
When the news of the apparitions, the extraordinary image and that Our Lady had trampled the serpent's head spread, the Indians realized that She had defeated the terrible god Quetzalcoatl. The humble young woman brings God made man in her womb, the Savior of the whole world. Under the influence of the apparitions and the meaning of the image, the Aztecs began to adopt Christianity. In just six years after the apparitions, eight million Indians were baptized. This was the beginning of the evangelization of the whole of Latin America.
Before this image, many millions of people prayed and experienced various graces. Those who come here can also experience the wonder of this place. The holy image is visible at every point of the temple, regardless of the distance. And the intensity of its colors increases as you move away, so that you do not necessarily have to ride up the escalator below the main altar to see it up close. We see Mary in the mantle on which the sky has scattered its stars. On her forehead, her hair is shaped like a dove - a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It is a particularly beautiful sign of the Bride of the Lord, saying that she is all filled with Love.
On October 12, 1945, Pope Pius XII, decreed Our Lady of Guadalupe to be "Patroness of all the Americas." Her feast day is December 12, and it is a Holy Day of Obligation in Mexico.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george
Saint John Paul II’s Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe
O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church! who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity to all those who ask for your protection, hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust, and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer.
Mother of Mercy, Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice, to you, who come to meet us sinners, we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love. We also dedicate to you our life, our work, our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows. Grant peace, justice and prosperity to our peoples; for we entrust to your care all that we have and all that we are, our Lady and Mother. We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church; hold us always with your loving hand.
Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, we pray to you for all the Bishops, that they may lead the faithful along paths of intense Christian life, of love and humble service of God and souls. Contemplate this immense harvest and intercede with the Lord that He may instill a hunger for holiness in the whole people of God, and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious, strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God’s mysteries.
Grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings, with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God. Blessed Virgin Mary, protect our families, so that they may always be united, and bless the upbringing of our children.
Our hope, look upon us with compassion, teach us to go continually to Jesus and, if we fall, help us to rise again, to return to Him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins in the Sacrament of Penance, which gives peace to the soul.
We beg you to grant us a great love for all the holy Sacraments, which are, as it were, the signs that your Son left us on earth.
Thus, Most Holy Mother, with the peace of God in our conscience, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, which come to us from your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.