On December 12, the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas
“In the year 1531 a "Lady from Heaven" appeared to a humble Native American, Juan Diego, at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of what is now Mexico City. She identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord. She made a request for a church to be built on the site, and submitted her wish to the local Bishop. When the Bishop hesitated, and requested from her a sign, the Mother of God granted the request without delay or question, sending her native messenger to the top of the hill in mid-December to gather an assortment of beautiful roses for the Bishop.
After granting the Bishop's request for a sign, she also left for us an image of herself imprinted miraculously on Juan Diego's tilma, a poor quality cactus-cloth, which should have deteriorated in 20 years but shows no sign of decay some 475 years later and still defies all scientific explanations of its origin. It apparently even reflects in her eyes what was in front of her in 1531.
Her message of love and compassion, and her universal promise of help and protection to all mankind, as well as the story of the apparitions, are described in the "Nican Mopohua", a 16th century document written in the native Nahuatl language.
There is reason to believe that at Tepeyac Mary came in her glorified body, and her actual physical hands rearranged the roses in Juan Diego’s tilma, which makes this apparition very special.
An incredible list of miracles, cures and interventions are attributed to her. Yearly, an estimated 14 million pilgrims visit her Basilica, making the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City the most popular Marian shrine, and the most visited Catholic sanctuary, in the whole world.”
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A Woman Clothed With The Sun: Eight Great Apparitions of Our Lady
Author: John J. Delaney |
Author: Br. Francis Mary, F.F.I. |
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Not Made By Hands: The Miraculous Images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Shroud of Turin
Author: Thomas Mary Sennot |
Our Lady Of Guadalupe: And The Conquest Of Darkness
Author: Warren H. Carroll, Ph. D. |
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Mary - The Church at the Source
Authors: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Editor; Pope Benedict, XVI |
The Mother of the Saviour; And Our Interior Life
Author: Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. |
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Our Lady of Guadalupe Framed Print--Spanish language version |
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“Mary – Eschatological Icon of the Church
After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we
contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery on her own 'pilgrimage of faith,' and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, 'in the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity,' 'in the communion of all the saints' the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of the Lord and as her own mother.
In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as
it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God”
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 972
Our 2008 Catholic Calendars are here!
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Day By Day With Mary, the Mother of God; A Perpetual Calendar |
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Fresh-roasted coffee (whole bean 12 ounce bags) from the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming, is here! Buy a bag or two and help support this new community of cloistered Carmelite monks in the Wyoming high country!
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Roasted by Monks! |
Roasted by Monks! |
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Columbian Dark Roast Whole Bean Coffee
Roasted by Monks! |
Roasted by Monks! |
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A Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Mystical Rose,
make intercession for holy Church,
protect the sovereign Pontiff,
help all those who invoke you in their necessities,
and since you are the ever Virgin Mary
and Mother of the true God,
obtain for us from your most holy Son
the grace of keeping our faith,
of sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life
of burning charity, and the precious gift
of final perseverance.
Amen.
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