Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today is a very important Catholic Feast Day for the Americas (All the way from Alaska, through Northern Canada and down to the Águila Islet of the Diego Ramirez Islands - which are Islands below South America - That is because today is the Feast day of Our Lady of the Americas aka: 
Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

Now, your idea of Our Lady of Guadalupe may look something like this: 

...basically, pretty pictures of a lady plastered all over the size of someone's truck or van (most likely someone of Hispanic origin). Maybe you've never thought about these pictures before...but they are important enough to learn a little bit. 

First, a tiny bit of background (from the blog get fed - click on the name to get more details): 

The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego in the 16th century in present day Mexico City, Mexico. Juan Diego saw an apparition of the Blessed Virgin on the Hill of Tepeyac on December 9, 1531, which happened to be the feast day of the Immaculate Conception in that time. Our Lady requested that a church be built on that site, which Juan Diego dutifully relayed to the bishop.

After a request by the bishop to prove her identity, Our Lady asked Juan Diego to gather roses that were growing on the hill (which were neither native to the area nor in season) and take them to the bishop. Juan Diego obeyed and placed the roses in his tilma (or cloak) to carry back to the bishop as evidence of Our Lady's appearance.

Upon opening the tilma to reveal the miraculous roses to the bishop, there was something even more miraculous present in the tilma—a striking image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

In the image Our Lady wears the traditional garments of an Aztec princess.  A black sash around her waist was a cultural tradition among the Aztec women that indicated pregnancy.  All the elements of the image point to Our Lady as being above the gods the Aztecs worshiped, while at the same time showing that she herself was submissive to the true Creator God while being pregnant with the Divine God-man that grew in her womb.

By using only cultural symbols and no words, which the Aztec people could read as a codex, the miraculous image on the tilma spoke the truth of the Christian faith that the Spanish Catholic missionaries proclaimed. A mass conversion of millions upon millions of Aztecs to the Catholic faith soon followed—ending the human sacrifices, especially child sacrifices, that they practiced...

The Tilma (what Juan Diego was wearing) is still available for viewing at the Cathedral in Mexico City even 500+ years later. It has been studied many times (by non-Catholic scientists) and the image has proven to be almost like a nuclear blast that was projected onto the fabric. Shawn, D and I were able to visit the Cathedral & image right after learning we would adopt C.  We have always believed that Mary's prayers to Jesus were answered for us with our second son.

Here is the actual image and the explanations of what each symbol means:

Almost wants to make me put the supernatural image on my car. I might just go do that.