On my way home from British Columbia to Ontario, I visited Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It’s an elegant church in a tranquil setting. On the grounds is a Rosary Walk, the Stations of the Cross, and a memorial to unborn children.
On December 9, 1531, the pious Juan Diego was on his way to the home of his ailing uncle when Mary appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, a few miles outside Mexico City. This simple peasant farmer was depressed over the recent death of his wife and the impending death of his beloved uncle. The Blessed Mother identified herself as “the ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, Lord of heaven and the earth.” She would come to be known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
She said to Juan Diego, “Listen, put it into your heart, my youngest and dearest son, that the thing that frightens you, the thing that afflicts you, is nothing, do not let it disturb you or frighten you, do not fear this sickness, nor any other sickness nor any sharp or hurtful thing. Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more? Let nothing else worry you or disturb you; do not let your uncle’s illness pressure you with grief, because he will not die of it now. You may be certain that is he already well.”
Mary asked that a church be built. She left a requested sign — a field of assorted roses, and also left an imprint of her face on Juan Diego’s tilma, a poor quality cactus-cloth that should have deteriorated in 20 years but presently shows no sign of decay. It hangs in the Basilica in Mexico City. It reflects what was in front of the Virgin’s eyes at that moment in 1531 when she left behind her imprint for the world.
Annually between 18 and 20 million pilgrims visit the Basilica, making it Christianity's most visited sanctuary. Twenty-five popes have officially honoured Our Lady of Guadalupe. Saint Pope John Paul II visited her Sanctuary four times: on his first apostolic trip outside Rome as Pope in 1979, and again in 1990, 1999 and 2002.
The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is December 12. In 1999, Saint Pope John Paul II, in his homily from the Solemn Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, during his third visit to the sanctuary, declared that date as a Liturgical Holy Day for the whole continent. Saint Pope John Paul II entrusted the cause of life to her motherly protection. Our Lady of Guadalupe, as she appears to Juan Diego, looks to be in her second trimester of pregnancy; she carries sacred life within her.
The name Guadalupe, means “she who crushed the head of the serpent.” It was Mary, together with the Archangel St. Michael, who defeated Satan as she fought to bring Christianity to the world. The woman cloaked in the sun, is the Protectress of the unborn and her message is one of love and compassion, but it is she who fights to bring us to our salvation. She, the Immaculate Mother of mercy, intervenes in history to secure the conversion of her beloved children. As she said to Juan Diego, she is our Mother, and we are entrusted to her loving care.
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