Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

 

Tepeyac Hill, Mexico City

On December 9, 1531, Cuauhtlatohuac, an Indian Catholic convert who was baptized Juan Diego, was walking to morning mass when he suddenly heard beautiful music in the air near Tepeyac Hill. A shining cloud appeared. Out of the cloud appeared a beautiful Indian woman dressed like an Aztec Princess. She addressed Juan in his native language and told him to go to the Bishop of Mexico and build a chapel on the spot.

The Bishop did not immediately believe Juan. But on December 12, 1531, Juan returned to the Bishop after visiting with the mysterious lady. When he opened his cloak, roses fell to the ground and an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on the cloth where the roses had been lying. The image remained permanently on the cloth.

A Basilica was built on the spot where the apparitions were seen, more Indians converted to Catholicism, and Tepeyac became a great pilgrimage destination.

Cuauhtlatohuac is now known as Saint Juan Diego, and Our Lady of Guadalupe has become the Patron Saint of Mexico and the Americas. The miracle validated the worth of ALL PEOPLE and served as a reminder and condemnation of the cruelty of the Spanish conquistadores in Latin America.

We all have our Tepeyac,

Our hill we're hurrying over in these December days.

Perhaps, like Juan Diego,

We are even avoiding You.

In our rush to get where we're going --

To finish the shopping,

To hang the decorations,

To prepare the meal.

May each one of us be stunned,

Stopped in our tracks,

By Your call to us in our native tongue.

Alone as we may feel this Advent,

Speak to us once more --

Remind us of this:

That You are here,

That You are Our Mother,

That You love us tenderly and unfailingly.

May we gather Your roses,

So improbably blooming in the winter chill,

And shower them on a weary world,

Hungry for hope.

Amen.

~Cameron Bellm~

from http://www.jesuits.org. 

Cameron Bellm is a Catholic writer.

Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe

O Virgin of Guadalupe,

Mother of the Americas,

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,
Mother of Fair Love,
protect our families so that
they may always be united
and bless the upbringing of our children.

Our hope, look upon us with pity,
teach is to go continually to Jesus,
and if we fall
help us to rise again and return to Him
through the confession of our faults
and our sins in the Sacrament of penance,
which gives peace to the soul.

We beg you to grant us a great love
of 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 consciences,
with our hearts free from evil and hatred,
we will be able to bring to all others
true joy and peace,
which come to us from your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
who with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.

~Pope John Paul II~

May Our Blessed Holy Mother Bless You and Keep You!

Dawn Pisturino

December 11, 2021