The Empress of
the Americas
Last year Saints Peter and Paul was gifted with a beautiful reproduction of the miraculous Tilma of St. Juan Diego by an anonymous donor to help us to keep the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the parish.
In December 1531—in a series of five apparitions to an indigenous convert, St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin—in the northern part of what is now Mexico City, the Blessed Virgin Mary intervened to change the history of the New World forever. The culmination of these heavenly interventions was the impression of an original, unique, and mysterious image upon the tilma (a cactus fiber cloak) of Juan Diego. This image, as much as any other endeavor of the Church in the New World, has brought about reverence for the Mother of God, conversion to the faith, and, ultimately, salvation by the love of Jesus Christ.
To enumerate the amazing details about the Tilma would take too much space, but there are many wonderful articles written on the subject (see links below). The most powerful miracle is that although the Franciscan missionaries met with little success in their initial seven years of evangelizing among the peoples of America, in the following eight years after the apparition an astounding nine million natives converted to Catholicism.
The importance of keeping the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe here at Saints Peter and Paul—instead of adopting a common misperception that this is a devotion pertaining only to Mexico—stems from the actions of Pope St. John Paul II in 1997. Writing to all the dioceses of North, Central, and South America, he extended the patronage of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the whole New World and upgraded our liturgical commemoration of her apparition to a feast day equal to the apostles!
The Virgin of Guadalupe stands as a powerful asset to evangelization. In her face, one notices the coming together of different peoples. In her beauty, she possesses both European and Indigenous American features. These same attributes characterize the Church of the New World where many peoples come together united in Jesus Christ. Our Lady of Guadalupe, like the Church, is the Mother of us all. I leave you with the words she spoke to St. Juan Diego and I pray you experience her speaking them to you as well:
Hear and let it penetrate into your heart: Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?
—Fr. Mike McMahon
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