Our Lady of Guadalupe

[Guest guest]

Though a bit long, I thought you might be interested in yesterday's

front page news item titled: " A MOTHER SUPERIOR, Is The Virgin Mary An

Icon Whose Time Has Come? " I will copy it below.

 

" Monica and Minerva Rivero love the Birgin of Guadalupe with all their

hearts. After all, they say, she saved their brother from death after

is birth in Mexico 19 years ago, and she has performed many other

smaller miracles for the family.

 

" When their brother was bornprematurely, their mother prayed fervently

to the Virgin for her to sustain him. On another occasion, when family

members were moving boulders in their mother's tiny village of Hidalgo,

a large rock fell and split open to reval the Virgin's image.

 

" For us, the Mexican people, she is the most important person, the

best, " said Minerva Rivero of Santa Barbara, who searched for the right

words to explain her devotion. 'When we have problems, we ask her to

help us, and it is miraculous.'

 

Her sister agreed, saying, 'Our parents taught us to believe in her. We

turn to her for evrything. "

 

While the Virgin of Guadalupe has been venerated by the people of Mexico

for centuries, her allure is apreading beyond the bounds of Catholicism

and Latino culture into the mainstream. This, scholars and believers

says, is a sign of the emerging cceptance of the feminine face of God,

and a hunger for the nurture and compassion embodied by the Virgin

Mother figure. The Virgin of Guadalupe is the dark-skinned, Latin

version of the Virgin Mary.

 

" She represents the mothering, supportive, miraculous side of the

deity. When you have a mother, she loves you no matter what you do.

When you lose a mother, you are profoundly an orphan. This mothering

aspect is what is so richly stamped in the veneration of the Virgin.

 

" The Rivero sisters, carrying armfuls of red roses, were among the

hundreds who flocked to tiny Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Santa

Barara's Eastside on Wednesday to see and touch an icon of the beloved

Virgin of Guadalupe.

 

" The image is being taken to Catholic churches throughout Southern

California until December. Thousands have come to see the picture,

which was commissioned and blessed by Pope John Paul II.

 

" The icon is a framed, digital reproduction of the image that hangs in

the Basilica of Tepeyac outside Mexico City, where the miracle of the

Virgin's appearance before a Mexican peasant, Juan Diego, is said to

have occurred in 1531.

 

" Part of the growing popularity of the Virgin is due to the number of

apparitions of her that have been cited by visionaries all over the

world in the lsat 15 years or so. Many people believe this is a sign

that Mary's time has come.

 

" In Santa Barbara, the Catholic publishing company Queenship Press has

become a clearinghouse for the international petition drive to elevate

the Virgin Mary's status to that of " co-redeemer' of the world, a

controversial change in church doctrine. Queenship Press has forwarded

more than 5 million signatures to the pope, seeking the change, which

would mean that all prayers and requests for help must flow through Mary

to Jesus Christ. The Vatican has so far indicated it is not studying or

considering the proposal, but the Marian faithful are undeterred, saying

that such a historical change will take time.

 

" As further proof ot he Virgin's following, hundreds of Web sites are

devoted to the messages she is said to have delivered to Marian

visionaries. In these messages, she urges people to pray more, to adore

her son, Jesus, and to remain faithful to God and the commandments.

 

" 'Because she was the mother of Jesus Christ, we don't worship her,but

we adore her and love her,' said.... 'She is the first mother. She isn

ot just for Catholics, she is for everyone.'

 

Mary's popularity is also viewed as a counterpoint to the masculine,

patriarchal aspects of God in modern Christianity.

 

The adoration of Mary is an attempt to relcaim the feminine aspects of

God. She illustreats a return to an earlier matriarchal world that is

arm and maternal. This image is satisfying a deep psychological and

spiritual need. She has broken the boundaries of the church. She is

carrying this archetype of the feminine into the next millennium.

 

" In the 20th Century the most famous sighting of Mary was reported in

the Portugese town of Fatima in 1917. A period followed in which no

sighjtings were reported, but in the 1980s, a steady stream of Mary

apparitions began to be claimed around the world. Pilgrimages by her

devotees followed.

 

" 'It's amazing when you think of all the people who have saved theior

pennies to go to places like Medjugorje (a sacred site int he Balkans),'

said Brother Mateo Guerrero, a friar at the S.B. Mission. 'It just

boils down to love. They see her as the long-suffering mother of the

good Jesus, and they have a very tender place in their heart for Mary.' "

 

I believe her appearance in 1531 was on the apron of a cobbler or

blacksmith. The image here looks like a photo of a painting, though I am

not sure what the original is. she is life-size, in a blue robe, with an

angel wearing downy brown, white and black wings holding her up. A black

new moon appears behind her, lying on its back, tips to each side.

 

What was so impressive was the devotion of those who had come to see and

commune with her. In the morning of the 2nd day of her visit here, there

was a constant low rumble of prayers being muttered and sounds of soft

weeping while devotees went forward to press their forheads against the

glass of the " picture " , or to touch her heart. In the afternoon some

were moving on their knees to reach the icon; all had one red rosebud

which they brushed against her body, up and down, up and down. Blocks

were jammed all around and it took some time to find a place to park.

All along the sidewalks were vendors selling red rosebuds. All images

from another culture, here in the heart of town, and very impressive,

the deep love, longing and devotion that simply throbbed through the

neighborhood.