The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe

"He returned on the same day. He came directly to the top of the hill, met the Lady from heaven, who was awaiting him, in the same spot where he saw her the first time. Seeing her, prostrated before her, he said: 'Lady, my xocoyota, my Child, I went where you sent me to comply with your command. With difficulty, I entered the prelate's study. I saw him and exposed your message, just as you instructed me. He received me benevolently and listened attentively, but when he replied, it appeared that he did not believe me. He said: “You will return; I will hear you at my pleasure. I will review from the beginning the wish and desire which you have brought.” I perfectly understood by the manner he replied that he believes it to be an invention of mine that you wish that a temple be built here to you and that it is not your order; for which I exceedingly beg, Lady and my Child, that you entrust the delivery of your message to someone of importance, well known, respected, and esteemed, so that they may believe in him; because I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf, and you, my Child, my Lady, you send me to a place where I never visit nor repose. Please excuse the great unpleasantness and let not fretfulness befall, my Lady and my All.'
The Blessed Virgin answered: 'Hark, my xocoyote, you must understand that I have many servants and messengers, to whom I can entrust the delivery of my message, and carry my wish, but it is of precise detail that you yourself solicit and assist and that through your mediation my wish be complied. I earnestly implore, my humblest son, and with sternness I command that you again go tomorrow and see the bishop. You go in my name and make known my wish in its entirety that he has to start the building of a temple which I ask of him. And again tell him that I, in person, the ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent you.'
Juan Diego replied: 'Lady, my Child, let me not cause you affliction. Gladly and willingly I will go to comply your mandate. Under no condition will I fail to do it, for not even the way is distressing. I will go to do your wish, but perhaps I will not be heard with liking, or if I am heard I might not be believed. Tomorrow afternoon, at sunset, I will come to bring you the result of your message with the prelate's reply. I now take leave, my Child and Lady. Rest in the meantime.' He then left to rest in his home."

Opening Prayer

Mary, Mother of Conversion,
Pray to your son for the virtue of hope.
Pray to him to free us from doubt
And to give us the courage of the children of God.
Pray that the light of the world
May dispel the darkness of our fear,
Remaking our stony hearts
In the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus your Son.

Novena Prayer

Dearest Mother of Guadalupe, I beg you for a fortified will to imitate your divine Son's charity, to always seek the good of others in need. Grant me this, I humbly ask of you... (mention your request here).

Our Father...
Hail Mary... x3
Glory Be...

Meditation

"God [...] has within Himself blueprints of everything in the universe. As the architect has in his mind a plan of the house before the house is built, so God has in His Mind an archetypal idea of every flower, bird, tree, springtime, and melody...
But it is not so with persons. God has to have two pictures of us: one is what we are, and the other is what we ought to be. He has the model, and He has the reality: the blueprint and the edifice, the score of the music and the way we play it. God has to have these two pictures because in each and every one of us there is some disproportion and want of conformity between the original plan and the way we have worked it out. The image is blurred; the print is faded. For one thing, our personality is not complete in time; we need a renewed body. Then, too, our sins diminish our personality; our evil acts daub the canvas the Master Hand designed. Like unhatched eggs, some of us refuse to be warmed by the Divine Love, which is so necessary for incubation to a higher level. We are in constant need of repairs; our free acts do not coincide with the law of our being; we fall short of all God wants us to be. St. Paul tells us that we were predestined, before the foundations of the world were laid, to become the sons of God. But some of us will not fulfill that hope.
There is, actually, only one person in all humanity of whom God has one picture and in whom there is a perfect conformity between what He wanted her to be and what she is, and that is His Own Mother. Most of us are a minus sign, in the sense that we do not fulfill the high hopes the Heavenly Father has for us. But Mary is the equal sign. The Ideal that God had of her, that she is, and in the flesh. The model and the copy are perfect; she is all that was foreseen, planned, and dreamed." Fulton J. Sheen, in "The World's First Love, Mary Mother of God."

Closing prayer

O Lady of Guadalupe,
Pray for the Church in America,
And walk with us in the new millennium of faith.

Memorare of Our Lady of Guadalupe: click the Pray button below.

Pictures:

1) Mosaic of Our Lady and Juan Diego - Artist unknown.

2) A quilt featuring Our Lady of Guadalupe - Artist unknown.