Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe December 12, 2011
The Virgin Mary appeared four times to Saint Juan Diego on December 1531, only ten years after the defeat of the Aztec empire in Mexico. This time period marked the integration of Spanish and native cultures which ultimately gave rise to a unique people and culture which continues to flourish today throughout Latin America.


Mary’s words to Juan Diego were soon recorded in the work called Nican Mopohua written in Nahuatl, the language of the natives. Her words for this new mestizo society that was forming in Latin America were of maternal care and encouragement. In the first apparition she said to Juan Diego, “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.”

During the fourth apparition she said, “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.”

The Virgin Mary’s maternal words to Juan Diego continue to echo throughout the hearts of the twenty million pilgrims who visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe every year and in the hearts of every faithful devotee. May Our Lady, Queen of the Americas, defend us from all evil and pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

Click on links below for other posts about this year’s celebrations:


 
 
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