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Today is the day of our Lady of Guadalupe. I may not be the most religious person in the world but something about this story always makes me smile. According to the story, she appeared to Juan Diego, an indian who was the perfect picture of humility. He was poor, but he was pure of heart. The image that she left imprinted on his cloth remains as clear as ever. It has survived many accidents and it just won't fade or disintegrate even though it's over 500 years old. There's something to be said about that mystery. Anyway, I always think of our Lady on this day and as corny as it sounds, I always thank her for giving me inspiration.
I stole the blurb below from wikipedia... Click the link below to read more about it...
According to the first accounts describing the Guadalupan apparition, during a walk from his village to the city on December 9, 1531, Juan Diego saw a vision of the Virgin Mary at the Hill of Tepeyac. Speaking in Nahuatl, she told him to build an abbey on the site, but when Juan Diego spoke to the Spanish bishop, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, the prelate did not believe him, asking for a miraculous sign. The Virgin told him to gather flowers from the hill, even though it was winter, when normally nothing bloomed. He found Spanish roses, gathered them on his tilma, and presented these to the bishop. When the roses fell from it an icon of the Virgin remained imprinted on the cloth.
Some consider it miraculous that the tilma maintains its structural integrity after nearly 500 years. In addition to withstanding the elements the tilma has also resisted a 1791 ammonia spill and a 1921 bomb blast.
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With the Brief Non est equidem of May 25, 1754, Pope Benedict XIV declared Our Lady of Guadalupe patron of what was then called New Spain, corresponding to Spanish Central and Northern America, and approved liturgical texts for the Mass and Liturgy of the Hours in her honour. Pope Leo XIII granted new texts in 1891 and authorized coronation of the image in 1895. Pope Saint Pius X proclaimed her patron of Latin America in 1910. In 1935 Pope Pius XI proclaimed her patron of the Philippines and had a monument in her honor erected in the Vatican Gardens. In 1966 Pope Paul VI sent a Golden Rose to the shrine.
Pope John Paul II visited the shrine in the course of his first journey outside Italy as Pope from 26 to January 31, 1979, and again when he beatified Juan Diego there on 6 May 1990. In 1992 he dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe a chapel within St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. At the request of the Special Assembly for the Americas of the Synod of Bishops, he named Our Lady of Guadalupe patron of the Americas on January 22, 1999 (with the result that her liturgical celebration had, throughout the Americas, the rank of Feast), and visited the shrine again on the following day. On July 31, 2002, he canonized Juan Diego, and later that year included in the General Calendar of the Roman Rite, as optional memorials, the liturgical celebrations of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (December 9) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (12 December).
Replicas of the tilma can be found in thousands of churches throughout the world, including Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, and numerous parishes bear her name.
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