Our Lady

September 10th, 2010

Our Lady

How is devotion to our Lady of Guadalupe an example of the communion of saints in action?

The devotion to our Lady of Guadalupe may help us stay closer to our Saviour, Jesus Christ. That way the devotion to her is an example coming closer to the communion of Saints since it helps us come closer to her son, Jesus Christ. The communion of Saints is in Jesus Christ. But his mother, who is also our mother, helps us stay closer to Jesus.

The devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is not idolatry like the answerer coffee_p is claiming. Indeed, Our Lady of Guadalupe is actually Our Lady Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. She is another version of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady Mary. She appeared near Mexico City on a hill called the Tepeyac to a very humbled man of indigenous or native origin called Juan Diego. Juan Diego was already catholic and baptized whe Our Lady appeared to him. However, a very small percentage of the Aztecs had converted to catholisism. The vast majority of the Aztecs still resisted to convert, and kept practicing many violalent acts in the name of their religion, which included human sacrifices to their "gods." Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ appeared with indigenous/native color of skin, but with the beauty of the mother of our Savior and with surrounded by luminous and divine rays of light to Juan Diego four times in the Tepeyac hill and asked him to collect roses and take them to a Catholic cure so that a church would be built in her name. And ultimately so that the all of the Aztecs would convert to Catholism.

She made many great miracles. After appearing to Juan Diego many times, she also made the mirecle of making roses grow in winter time so that Juan Diego would collect them and take them to the local priest as a proof that the mother of Jesus wanted a church constructed in her name. Roses do not grow naturally on winter time and especially in the Tepeyac hill, that was one of the many miracles done by Our Lady of Guadalupe. When Juan Diego showed the roses to the priest that he was carrying on his clothes, the priest was able to see not only the roses, but the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Juan Diego's clothing, which was another miracle and another proof of Juan Diego's message from the Lady to the priest. Juan Diego's clothing was made of very cheap fabric and not appropriate for painting. Furthermore, many scientists from all over the world have unsuccessfully attempted to "prove" that some human painted the image on Juan Diego's clothing. Scientists cannot explain where the pigments of the color in the image come from, the type of paint cannot be manufactured in any laboratory or anywhere on Earh. Moreover, many scientists have said that "those pigments are from another world." They are right, in fact those pigments are celestial. The mother of Jesus used celestial pigments to leave her Holy Image on fabric that no painter could ever use to paint anything. The original image is in the Basílica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. This Basílica is the most visited Basílica in the world. Every year on December 12, it is visited by about 6 million catholics. Pilgrims come to her in order to ask her to intercede by asking Jesus, her son, to help her faithful devotes. Just like Jesus did what his mother requested in the wedding of Cana, he does it when his mother asks him because he has a lot of respect for his mother. With Our Lady's Holy Image, 9 million of Aztecs voluntarily converted to Catholism and immediately stopped their human sacrifices and any other rituals they used to practice. This has been the biggest massive conversion to Christianism since Catholisms is a way of Christianism. Additionally what is most important is that the conversion was voluntarily once they saw the Holy Image of Our Lady.

Our Lady Mary has appeared in many regions of the word in different clothes and skin tones according to the purposes she is pursuing. For instance, she has appeared as Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes, etc. In the case of pursuing the conversion of the Aztec people, she decided to take the skin color of the native people of that land.

Again, the devotion to our Lady of Guadalupe may help us stay closer to our Saviour, Jesus Christ. That way the devotion to her is an example coming closer to the communion of Saints since it helps us come closer to her son, Jesus Christ. The communion of Saints is in Jesus Christ. But his mother, who is also our mother, helps us stay closer to Jesus.