Our Lady of Guadalupe

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1519 the Spanish explorer Cortes sailed to Mexico and there he found the Aztec people enslaved to a culture of death, literally a cult of human sacrifice.

For the Aztecs worshipped demonic spirits represented by

·       the "serpent god" under the sign of the Crescent Moon

·       the “god of war” under the sign of the Sun

·       The Aztecs believed both demanded human sacrifice

The Aztec priests offered to their gods every year at least 50,000 men, women and children, in human sacrifices

·       80,000 in 4 days in 1487

·       1 out of every 5 children were sacrificed

The Spanish witnessed this with their own eyes

·       And wanted to flee

Cortes became convinced he was sent by God to put an end to the human sacrifice.

·       So, he sunk his ships,

Leaving his men no option but to fight their way into Mexico City and put an end to this evil occult

·       Which they did in 1521.

Franciscan missionaries came in 1524, but had little success with conversions

·       b/c of the corruption of the Spanish

·       especially Nuno de Guzman, the President of the High Court in Mexico was the leader of a vicious tyranny that 

·       Enslaved thousands of Indiginous Peoples shipping them to the Caribbean colonies

·       In 1537 he was arrested for treason, abuse of power, mistreatment of the indigenous inhabitants of his territories and he was sent to Spain in shackles

In 1530 the Bishop of Mexico City, Zumarrago

·       Excommunicated De Guzman for his crimes

·       De Guzman then tried to assassinate the Bishop

·       The Mexican people lost 1/3 of their population to the small-pox brought by the Spanish

·       The Aztech Astrologers said it was the end of their world

·       This was a culture that was impossible to convert to Christ

·       The situation seemed so hopeless that the Bishop wrote a letter to Emperor Charles V at the end of which he said

·       “If God does not provide a solution from His own hand, the land is about to be completely lost.”

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1st Apparition - Saturday December 9, 1531,

·       Mary appeared to 57 yr old Juan Diego

·       On his way that Saturday morning to Mass and Catechism

·       9 miles away!

As he came to Tepayac hill

·       He heard singing

·       Saw a brilliant white cloud and a rainbow

·       A beautiful young women appeared to him

Juan Diego fells to his knees and the Woman spoke to him:

Know for certain, littlest of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God through Whom everything lives.

You must go to the house of the bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you and that it is my desire to have a Church built here.

Juan went to the Bishop

·       But the Bishop did not believe him

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2nd Apparition – Saturday Afternoon December 9

Juan Diego returned to Tepayak Hill and Mary was waitin

Juan explained to Our Lady that

·       The Bishop did not believe him

Juan begged Mary to send someone of more importance…

·       “because I am a nobody”

·       “I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf…”

Our Lady answered,

I have many servants and messengers whom I could send

But I have chosen you…Go and tell the Bishop that I, in person, the ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent you.

Sunday December 10

Juan Diego went back to the Bishop

·       He asked for a sign

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3rd Apparition Sunday December 10

On his way home Mary again appeared to Juan

·       She assured him that she would provide a sign – tomorrow

·       I will await you here tomorrow

Monday December 11

·       Juan Diego’s uncle fell gravely ill with small pox

·       Juan skipped the appointment to call a doctor who told Juan his Uncle would die

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4th Apparition - Tuesday December 12

·       Juan went to get a priest for Last Rites

·       He tried to avoid Tepayac hill

·       Mary came down and intercepted him

·       He explained about his uncle

·       Mary already knew because she was appearing to his uncle at that very moment – healing him (the 5th Apparition)

Mary said:

“Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son (Mijito); let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Am I not here who  am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need? Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Let not the illness of your uncle afflict you because he is not going to die now of what he has in himself. Be sure that he will get well.”

Then she told Juan to climb the hill

·       And he would find the sign

·       Castillian Roses blooming in winter on a barren hill-side

Juan gathered up the roses

·       Mary arranged them in his tilma

·       She tied it up around his neck

Revelation of the Tilma

When Juan dropped the Tilma

·       The roses fell out

·       The Image developed like a photograph

·       Right in front of the Bishops eyes

·       The Bishop placed the Tilma in his private chapel

1st Miraculous Healing of the Tilma

·       December 26, 1531,

·       Bishop was transferring the Tilma to the main church

·       a Nahuatl who died from an arrow wound to the neck was raised from the dead when placed before the Tilma

Mary appeared to Juan Diego in 1531

She left a permanent indestructible sign – the Tilma – the cloak bearing her image

10,000,000 Aztecs converted because they could read the Tilma  

·       This woman is greater than their Sun god of war

·       Greater than their Serpent god under her feet

o   Both of whom demanded human sacrifice

·       She is a Queen – designated by the blue-green color of her robe

·       She is a virgin – signified by the parted hair

·       She is pregnant – indicated by the maternity belt

·       This woman was a Queen, who was also a virgin yet she was pregnant – pregnant with whom?

·       The four-petal jasmine flower over her womb told them she was pregnant with the One True God

This woman is the Virgin Mother of the One True God

But she herself was not a god because she was praying to the one indicated by the black cross on her broch – Jesus Christ

He came to offer His life in sacrifice to put an end to all human sacrifice and set us free from demonic forces.

Miraculous nature of the Tilma.

A “tilma” was a cloak made from cactus fibers

·       It lasts for no more than 20 years.

·       The tilma of Juan Diego is 490 years old

It laid on the floor before the altar of the Church for 116 years,

·       exposed to constant human contact, candle smoke, heat and humidity

1791 Nitric Acid was spilled on the Tilma

1921, a bomb with 29 sticks of dynamite detonated in a flower arrangement next to the Tilma, shattering the marble altar, altar rail, marble flooring, smashing windows and doubling over a brass Crucifix – yet the glass over the Tilma and the Tilma itself unharmed.

1979 a group of scientists from the Univ. of Florida and NASA studied the image.

In their conclusions they reported:

·       The colors are not paint or dye

·       There are no sketch marks or brush strokes

·       The Image does not even rest on the fibers

·       but floats above the Tilma at a distance of 3/10 of a millimeter without touching it

The Secret in Her Eyes

Digitally enlarged 2500 times with extremely high resolution there appear within both eyes of Our Lady of Guadalupe the 13 people who were in the room when the Image of Our Lady appeared on the Tilma

Photographer’s Account

Ivan Esther, one of the best technical photographers in Mexico but an agnostic, was commissioned to photograph the Official Digital Image of the Tilma.

While standing on a ladder to get a better shot, he zoomed in on the eyes of Our Lady and suddenly became so startled that he fell off the ladder as he began exclaiming, “She’s alive! She’s alive!” He immediately confessed that the eyes of Our Lady reacted just as the eyes of a living person. He subsequently converted.

React as Human Eyes - That Mary’s eyes on the Tilma respond to light as human eyes has been reproduced many times

Stars - 1981 astronomers demonstrated that the arrangement of the stars on the Tilma match those found over Mexico on December 12, 1531

The Presence of Mary

“Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son (Mijito). Llet nothing discourage you…Am I not here who  am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?

We are not alone; we are not left on our own

God is Real

·       He is there and He wants to help us

·       Especially through Mary, Our Mother and His

It is an invitation to Trust and Surrender ourselves to God

Through Mary