Today, the Church celebrates the Feast day of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. To understand this feast, we must go back in time to December 1531. There were a series of apparitions that took place. The first one was on 9 December, when the Virgin Mary appeared to a young peasant by the name of Juan Diego at a place called the Hill of Tepeyac located in the Northern part of present-day Mexico City. During that first apparition, she asked for a church to be built on the sight where she was seen, but it took four apparitions (on December 9, 10, 11 and 12), each one involving more questions which were asked of the Virgin in order to authenticate her validity.
On 11 December, Juan's uncle - Juan Bernardino - fell ill and by the early morning hours of 12 December, his condition had worsened even more. Instead of keeping his appointment to meet the Virgin Mary, Juan Diego set out for Tlatelolco to fetch a Catholic priest who could hear Juan Bernardino's confession and help minister to him on his death-bed. Our Lady intercepted him and in response to his concern for his uncle, she responded with the words that have become associated with the apparitions of Guadaloupe: ¿No estoy yo aquí que soy tu madre? (Am I not here, I who am your mother?).
The Virgin assured Juan Diego that his uncle had been restored to full health and then instructed him to gather flowers from the top of the Tepeyac Hill, which was normally barren, especially in the cold of December. Following her instructions, Juan Diego was surprised to find Castillian roses - not native to Mexico - growing there. He gathered them in his tilma (cloak) and took them to the Archbishop of Mexico. When he opened his cloak, the flowers fell on the floor and the image of the Virgin remained on the fabric.
Juan Diego's tilma now hangs inside the new Basilica of Our Lady of Guadaloupe - the world's most visited Catholic pilgrimage site - to this day. Between 18 and 20 million pilgrims visit each year, each of them coming to place their petitions at the feet of their mother, hoping that she will hear their prayers and teach them to do as she did: to respond affirmatively to the Lord's invitation and to set out with haste in search of those who are in need (cf Lk 1:39).
The Virgin of Guadaloupe is the Patroness of Mexico and of the Continental Americas. May she intercede for all of us and teach us how to grow closer to one another and to our heavenly Father.
Have a great day.
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