Our Lady of Guadalupe - December 12th

"Or Lady of Guadalupe, mystical rose, make intercession for Holy Church, protect the Sovereign Pontiff, help all those who invoke thee in their necessities, and since thou art the ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the true God, obtain for us form thy most holy Son the grace of keeping our faith, sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life, burning charity and the precious give of final perseverance. Amen." - The Prayer Book, Catholic Press, 1954

So much can be written, and has been written, on the Apparition of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego in 1531 at Tepeyac, (just outside Mexico City). Ten years earlier, in Europe, (1521), Luther began his revolution against the Catholic faith from which millions would eventually leave the Catholic faith.

But at that same time, Our Lady of Guadalupe’s apparition caused the great miracle of leaving her image on the Tilma of Juan Diego that eventually caused millions of Mexicans to believe in Jesus Christ and become Catholics.

Here is the Blessed Mother Mary’s message to Juan Diego then, and to all of us now.

“Know and understand well, you the most humble of my son, that I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth. I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows.

And to accomplish what my clemency pretends, go to the palace of the bishop of Mexico, and you will say to him that I manifest my great desire, that here on this plain a temple be built to me; you will accurately relate all you have seen and admired, and what you have heard. Be assured that I will be most grateful and will reward you, because I will make you happy and worthy of recompense for the effort and fatigue in what you will obtain of what I have entrusted. Behold, you have heard my mandate, my humble son; go and put forth all your effort.”

“Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die now of it. be assured that he is now cured.”

You can read about everything that happened and every word Mary said here.

In 1921, the secularist planted a bomb in the flowers in front of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The crucifix was bent, but the image was not harmed.

Mary is God’s gift to us. Just before Jesus died, He gave us His own mother to be ours at the foot of the Cross. Literally thousands of miracle have happened from the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe to God for the sick, poor, unemployed and lost.

We are so blessed to have Mary as our mother who wants us to go to heaven with her Son Jesus.