Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas! Here is a list of 16 Great Things about Our Lady of Guadalupe that will change your day!
“Listen, put it into your heart, my youngest and dearest son, that the thing that disturbs you, the thing that afflicts you, is nothing. Do not let your countenance, your heart be disturbed. Do not fear this sickness of your uncle or any other sickness, nor anything that is sharp or hurtful. 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 anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.” - Our Lady to St Juan Diego, and by extension, to all of us.
The Constellations on her cloak match the constellations of the Mexican sky at the time. See here for more details.
The lines on her dress match the topography of Mexico at the time.
The temperature of St Juan Diego's tilma, made from a material that comes from the fibers of the maguey cactus, maintains a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees fahrenheit, 37 degrees celsius, the same as stable human body.
The image has remained on the tilma for 485 years, while the natural life of the fabric is 30. In addition, the image has survived a muriatic acid spill in 1791.
In 1921, a man concealed a bomb in a flower arrangement, and placed it at the feet of the tilma. The explosion destroyed everything around it, except for the tilma, which remained intact.
The image was not made with brush strokes. Scientific studies have not been able to discover the origin of the colouration, nor the way that the image was painted. NASA scientists confirm that the paint material does not belong to any known element on earth.
In her eyes can be seen the people present when the tilma was unfurled before the local Bishop by St. Juan Diego. This is only visible with modern technology and mimics what occurs in a human eye.
Ophthalmic imagery studies that have been carried out on the eyes of Mary on the tilma have detected that when the eye is exposed to light, the retina contracts, and when the light is withdrawn, it returns to a dilated state, just like living human eyes.
When the image was examined under a laser ray, it was shown that there was no colouration on the front or the back of the cloth, and that the colours hover at a distance 3/10ths of a millimetre (0.01 inches) over the tilma without touching it. The colours actually float above the surface of the tilma.
One of the doctors who analysed the tilma, placed a stethoscope below the black band around Mary's waist and hear a rhythmic pulse of 115bpm, which is around the rate for a 9-month old baby at birth.
The image preached the Gospel to the Aztecs. In the eight years following the miraculous image, eight million people were converted.
She is in front of the sun and stands on the moon, conveying that she has conquered the Aztec gods. At the same time, her hands are folded and her head bowed, conveying that she is not god.
Her clothes reflect the Aztec colours of royalty, heaven, and earth. Thus conveying that she is the queen of heaven and earth.
Her loose black hair is an Aztec sign of virginity
Her black band is the Aztec expression of pregnancy. Therefore a Virgin Mother.
The cross shaped flower on her womb was the Aztec symbol for the Deity who was the centre of the universe. Therefore she is virginally pregnant with God.
Our Lady of Guadalupe - Pray for us!
