Our Lady of Guadalupe by Carson
Hi, today I'm going to tell you a bit about Our Lady of Guadalupe. Many of you probably know this story by heart, but It's an exciting one for those of you who don't know it or haven't heard it. Plus, it never hurts to have a bit of a refresher if you have heard it before. Why did I choose to write about Our Lady of Guadalupe for this blogpost? For three main reasons:
1. Her feast day is coming up on Dec. 12.
2. She is very relevant to the topic of foreign missions. In fact, in most or all the foreign countries I've been to, Our Lady of Guadalupe stands out as the one of the most known saints, which I'll talk about later.
3. Guadalupe is fun to say.
So, here's the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe:
Many years ago in 1531 near modern day Mexico City, there lived an Aztec convert named Juan Diego. Juan Diego was just mindin' his own business walking one day when a pretty glowing lady appeared out of nowhere calling his name and speaking his language. The lady told Juan that she was the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. She asked that he go to the Bishop with the request that a church be built on the hill that she was standing on.
Juan Diego then visited the Bishop and told him everything the lady told him. The Bishop, not exactly believing him, asked Juan to ask the lady to give him a sign. Juan returned to the lady who was on the same place on the hill. She told Juan to climb to the very top of the hill to collect some roses to bring the Bishop. Juan found the roses as she said he would, even though it was the middle of December, when there should have been no roses anywhere! It's also noted they were Castilian roses, which aren't found in Mexico.
Bringing the roses to the Bishop in his tilma, the Spanish word for cloak, Juan dropped the roses at the Bishop's feet. As amazing as this was, there was another even more astonishing miracle: An image of the lady (Our Lady of Guadalupe) was imprinted on Juan Diego's cloak! Needless to say a church was built.
A few amazing facts about Juan's imprinted tilma:
- Scientists discovered on the tilma that after enlarging the eyes of the Virgin Mary to 1/100th of an inch, you could see the reflection of Juan Diego opening his cloak to the Bishop!
- Doctors found the tilma miraculously keeps a temperature of 98.6, the temperature of a human body!
- The tilma survived a bomb that someone set with the intent of destroying it-- the metal altar rail in front of it was completely blown into a twisted mess, and windows 150 feet away were shattered, but the tilma remained unharmed!
- Beyond that, the tilma remains today without any preservation methods, even though it should have deteriorated long ago.
Many countries, especially Mexico and Central American countries have taken Our Lady of Guadalupe as their patron. Look out for her if you're ever in Central America or Mexico; you're bound to see her on tapestries, blankets, and even wallets around the local markets!
So there's the main story of La Virgen de Guadalupe, as the locals call her. There's quite a few more miracles following this main one, but you can look into those yourself if you're interested. And, by the way, you can still see the tilma at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, which I hope to do someday. I hope you enjoyed this blogpost, and maybe learned something new you didn't know before about Our Lady of Guadalupe!
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
Carson!
