OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

1531, OUR LADY SAVES AMERICA

 

 

MANY REMARKABLE FACTS ABOUT HOLY MARY OF GUADALUPE

written by Rasa Von Werder, Dec. 12, 2004

 

It is important that Mary appeared to avoid a BLOODBATH. Just at the time of the apparition, the Indians, who had a completely different religion, were going to rise up against the Catholic Church and kill every man and woman connected with it. There were numerous Indians and few Spanish Catholics, so the outcome would have been complete destruction. Notice our theme: Mary appears to avoid disaster, prevent war and bloodshed.

When Mary appeared to this devout Saint, Juan Diego, she appeared as an INDIAN PRINCESS, dressed in appropriate garb, in Indian colors and with signs that indicate PREGNANCY.

This was her garb and figure especially SPOKEN IN SYMBOLS
TO THE INDIANS WHO HAD NO WRITTEN LANGUAGE, BUT UNDERSTOOD SYMBOLS. She was saying to the Indians,

"I am one of you. I am close to you, I am familiar."

She was saying, in inference,

"I do not just belong to the Spanish Catholics, I am as close to you as one of your Indian Princesses!"

The Indians understood this appearance, this representation, and were IMMEDIATELY CONVERTED. Of course, this was not a mere PICTURE but a sign from God, miraculously created and appearing on earth, and it carries with it the great grace and anointing of God. This anointing is not only to avoid the bloodshed which it did, but to convert the MILLIONS OF INDIANS AND OTHERS WHICH WERE SOON CONVERTED TO GOD and to this day remains one of the greatest conversion vehicles on this planet. People are instantly and immediately put IN TUNE WITH GOD by veneration and devotion to this image. I myself have a Tilma of Holy Mary of Guadalupe hanging in my kitchen. Whenever I sit for one half hour in front of it praying, Holy Mary appears to me that night in a dream. This happens night after night after night, when I pray before this image!

There have been REMARKABLE discoveries made by the study of this Tilma through today's science of computer pixels. For one thing, when they enlarged her eyes by 50,000 times, they discovered a picture of THE ENTIRE ROOM AND EVERYONE IN IT AT THE TIME OF HER APPEARENCE. (She appeared on the tilma like a picture on a xerox polaroid, developing before your eyes, after St. Juan Diego let loose the roses from the Tilma...she manifested, slowly, right before the eyes of the astonished Bishop and others in the room!)

When the Tilma is studied from the side, it is discovered that THE PICTURE OR IMAGE DOES NOT TOUCH THE CLOTH BUT IS INDEPENDENT OF THE CLOTH, APPEARING IN FRONT OF IT! The cloth itself, which would have distintegrated within ten years under normal conditions, is still intact AFTER FIVE HUNDRED YEARS!

An eye doctor who studied Mary's eyes on the picture with his instrument discovered on the image REAL HUMAN EYES!

The devil has tried to destroy the Tilma many times, with no success. A man brought a bouquet of flowers and placed them under the elevated tilma, kneeling reverently as if he worshipped Her. But inside the flowers was a bomb. This bomb blew out all the windows from the old basilica and created much damage and injuries, but the tilma was not touched. Underneath the Tilma was a large crucified Savior. The image of the Savior bent completely backward, and miraculously took the force of the explosion, in order to protect the image of His Mother!

Another amazing fact is that the STARS which appear on the Tilma were the stars in the Heavens at exactly the time of the appearence of Our Lady!

The devil has tried to burn and discolor the Tilma and even it's computer-made replicas, all to no avail.

The copy of the Tilma has been taken around the world and miracles occur wherever it is. People see rose petals falling from it and cures and conversions are frequent. Get a copy of the Tilma and put it into your own home. Pray before it with the greatest faith and you will see wonders! The appearence of Holy Mary of Guadalupe is considered one of Her most remarkable because of the great number of miracles connected with it.

 

by Rasa Von Werder, Dec. 12, 2004

 

THE APPEARANCE OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

 

Guadalupe is, strictly speaking, the name of a picture, but the name was extended to the church containing the picture and to the town that grew up around the church. It makes the shrine, it occasions the devotion, it illustrates Our Lady. It is taken as representing the Immaculate Conception, being the lone figure of the woman with the sun, moon, and star - accompaniments of the great apocalyptic sign with a supporting angel under the crescent. The word is Spanish Arabic, but in Mexico it may represent certain Aztec sounds.

Its tradition is long-standing and constant, and in sources both oral and written, Indian and Spanish, the account is unwavering. The Blessed Virgin appeared on Saturday 9 December 1531 to a 55 year old neophyte named Juan Diego, who was hurrying down Tepeyac hill to hear Mass in Mexico City. She sent him to Bishop Zumárraga to have a temple built where she stood. She was at the same place that evening and Sunday evening to get the bishop's answer. The bishop did not immediately believe the messenger; had him cross-examined and watched, and he finally told him to ask the lady who said she was the mother of the true God for a sign. The neophyte agreed readily to ask for the sign desired, and the bishop released him.

Juan was occupied all Monday with Bernardino, an uncle, who was dying of fever. Indian medicine had failed, and Bernardino seemed at death's door. At daybreak on Tuesday 12 December 1531, Juan ran to nearby Saint James's convent for a priest. To avoid the apparition and the untimely message to the bishop, he slipped round where the well chapel now stands. But the Blessed Virgin crossed down to meet him and said, "What road is this thou takest, son?" A tender dialogue ensued. She reassured Juan about his uncle, to whom she also briefly appeared and instantly cured. Calling herself Holy Mary of Guadalupe she told Juan to return to the bishop. He asked for the sign he required. Mary told him to go to the rocks and gather roses. Juan knew it was neither the time nor the place for roses, but he went and found them. Gathering many into the lap of his tilma, a long cloak or wrapper used by Mexican Indians, he came back. The Holy Mother rearranged the roses, and told him to keep them untouched and unseen until he reached the bishop. When he met with Zumárraga, Juan offered the sign to the bishop. As he unfolded his cloak the roses, fresh and wet with dew, fell out. Juan was startled to see the bishop and his attendants kneeling before him. The life size figure of the Virgin Mother, just as Juan had described her, was glowing on the tilma. The picture was venerated, guarded in the bishop's chapel, and soon after carried in procession to the preliminary shrine.

The coarsely woven material of the tilma, which bears the picture is as thin and open as poor sacking. It is made of vegetable fiber, probably maguey. It consists of two strips, about seventy inches long by eighteen wide, held together by weak stitching. The seam is visible up the middle of the figure, turning aside from the face. Painters have not understood the laying on of the colours. They have deposed that the "canvas" was not only unfit but unprepared, and they have marvelled at apparent oil, water, distemper, etc. colouring in the same figure. They are left in equal admiration by the flower-like tints and the abundant gold. They and other artists find the proportions perfect for a maiden of fifteen. The figure and the attitude are of one advancing pregnancy. There is flight and rest in the eager supporting angel. The chief colours are deep gold in the rays and stars, blue green in the mantle, and rose in the flowered tunic.

Sworn evidence was given at various commissions of inquiry corroborating the traditional account of the miraculous origin and influence of the picture. Some wills connected with Juan Diego and his contemporaries were accepted as documentary evidence. Vouchers were given for the existence of Bishop Zumárraga's letter to his Franciscan brethren in Spain concerning the apparitions. His successor, Montufar, instituted a canonical inquiry, in 1556, on a sermon in which the pastors and people were abused for crowding to the new shrine. In 1568 the renowned historian Bernal Díaz, a companion of Cortez, refers incidentally to Guadalupe and its daily miracles. The lay viceroy, Enríquez, while not opposing the devotion, wrote in 1575 to Philip II asking him to prevent the third archbishop from erecting a parish and monastery at the shrine. Inaugural pilgrimages were usually made to it by viceroys and other chief magistrates. Processes, national and ecclesiastical, were laboriously formulated and attested for presentation at Rome in 1663, 1666, 1723, 1750.

The clergy, secular and regular, has been remarkably faithful to the devotion towards Our Lady of Guadalupe, the bishops especially fostering it, even to the extent of making a protestation of faith in the miracle a matter of occasional obligation. Pope Benedict XIV decreed that Our Lady of Guadalupe should be the national patron, and made 12 December a holiday of obligation with an octave, and ordered a special Mass and Office. Pope Leo XIII approved a complete historical second Nocturne, ordered the picture to be crowned in his name, and composed a poetical inscription for it. Pope Pius X permitted Mexican priests to say the Mass of Holy Mary of Guadalupe on the twelfth day of every month, and granted indulgences which may be gained in any part of the world for prayer before a copy of the picture.

The place, called Guadalupe Hidalgo since 1822, is three miles northeast of Mexico City. Pilgrimages have been made to this shrine almost without interruption since 1531-1532. A shrine at the foot of Tepeyac Hill served for ninety years, and still forms part of the parochial sacristy. In 1622 a rich shrine was erected, and in 1709 a newer, even richer one was erected. There are also a parish church, a convent and church for Capuchin nuns, a well chapel, and a hill chapel all constructed in the 18th century. About 1750 the shrine got the title of collegiate, a canonry and choir service being established. It was aggregated to Saint John Lateran in 1754. In 1904 it was created a basilica, with the presiding ecclesiastic being called abbot. The shrine has been renovated in Byzantine style which presents an illustration of Guadalupan history.

- taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia article by G Lee, copyright 1911, Nihil Obstat, 1 February 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor; Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York; edited and rewritten

 

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