Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us!

December 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  After learning that Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas, unborn children and New Evangelization, I desired to learn even more about her visitation.   This summer, I read (more like devoured) the book: “A Woman Clothed with the Sun: Eight Great Apparitions of Our Lady edited by John J. Delaney.  I was delighted to find that this book included the apparition of the Blessed Mother to Saint Juan Diego in the 16th century in Mexico City. 

As we’ve posted on social media the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe begins on December 9, 1531, when Juan Diego, an Aztec, saw the Blessed Mother on Tepeyac hill in Mexico City.  Our Lady told Juan to have a church built in her honor. When Juan went to ask the Bishop about this, the bishop did not understand Juan’s Indian dialect and did not believe in the vision he described.

​Three days later, on December 12, Mary appeared again to Juan Diego, and this time she gave him a sign for the bishop. “Take these roses to the bishop,” she said, as she arranged in his cloak beautiful roses she had Juan Diego pick from the hillside although it was winter. When he was admitted into the bishop’s room, Juan Diego opened his cloak, and out dropped the roses. On the cloak there remained a miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as she had appeared to Juan Diego.

Image: Raúl Berzosa

This miraculous image is the only one in which Our Lady left us of herself with which is “unmade by human hands.”  This image is also “the only universally-venerated Mary and Christ Child image in which Our Lady is pregnant instead of holding the Infant Jesus.”

What I find to be most amazing is that the image on Juan's cactus fiber cloak, or "tilma", still exists today for all to see in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

​Here are some more interesting facts about the Our Lady of Guadalupe image from the Catholic Company:

• The tilma's weak cactus fiber should have decomposed within 15-20 years of being woven. It hasn't, not even after 500 years
• Mary’s mantle is a constellation map, showing the same constellations that were in the sky on the day of the apparition
• In the image Mary is “clothed with the sun” with “the moon at her feet” as described in Revelation 12:1
• A doctor once heard a heartbeat coming from the image when he place a stethoscope over Mary's womb
• Our Lady's eyes, when examined through a microscope, reflect the images of the witnesses present at its unveiling, including Juan Diego and the bishop

 

How We Are Celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe:
 
Our Lady of Guadalupe Coloring Page
 
My son LOVES to color and I am happy that he embrace his creativity, as long as he is not coloring the walls, the floors or the dog, of course.
Loyola Press has a wonderful coloring page of Our Lady of Guadalupe that is printable and free.  To view and print the coloring page, please click here.
 
Mexican Wedding Cookies
My son and I LOVE to bake together and we take any opportunity to bust out our measuring cups and mixing bowls.  While I mostly do all the measuring, mixing, pouring and cleaning since he has a toddler’s short attention span, he still enjoys playing around in the kitchen and especially loves to sample the finished product.
These Mexican Wedding Cookies are so easy to make and delicious.  We use this recipe and will definitely make these cookies again!

Prayer
What Feast Day would be complete without a prayer?  This prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe is by Pope John Paul II and a prayer that we will be saving in my “Catholic toolkit”.
 
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 us 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 true 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.
​

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us! 
​
Virgen de Guadalupe, ora por nosotros!

How are you celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe?  Please share with us on Facebook!

As always, thank you for reading.  God bless you and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

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Sources:
Lynch, Dan, "The Amazing Truth of Our Lady of Guadalupe." Catholic Education Resource Center https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/the-amazing-truth-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe.html

Filz, Gretchen. “Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day: Facts & Celebration Ideas.” Get Fed, Catholic Company, 22 Sept. 2017, www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/our-lady-of-guadalupe-feast-day-facts-celebration-ideas/.

"Our Lady Of Guadalupe." Catholic Online. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=456

"Our Lady of Guadalupe." Loyola Press. https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/saints/saints-stories-for-all-ages/our-lady-of-guadalupe

"Unveiling the image’s hidden meaning." The Catholic Spirit. September 29, 2011  thecatholicspirit.com/special-sections/travel-and-pilgrimages/unveiling-the-image’s-hidden-meaning/