My Mom's Message About Our Lady of Guadalupe

My Mom's Message About 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' 
by David Hooper
April 17, 2013


I went to my Mom's for some coffee and a quick visit the other day.  She knows of what I have been writing lately.  I don't think she necessarily believes how deep I believe the worldwide conspiracy goes, but she loves the fact that I discovered Jesus and his message because of it.

I spend most of my energy trying to expose the lie that has been told to us and helping people wake to the big deception that is coming.  That means I am immersed in the dark side of things most of the time.  Although, I find much of it fascinating, it can be unsettling at the same time.  But I truly believe many of us are needed to expose this evil.  My motto could be taken from Ephesians 5:11 - "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them."

Anyhow, I usually write about incredible stories of how organized evil operates on this planet.  But at my Mom's, she told me about an incredible story of how good works on this planet.  It was a nice change of pace to have her tell me about the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  I was unfamiliar with the story, but had read just enough about apparitions to know that they have been proliferating over the last few years.  Whether they are legitimate or they are deceptions, many are unsure.  Personally, I believe some are true, but I also believe some are not.  What can't be denied is that millions of people claim to see them every year.

The apparition, or I should say 'set of apparitions,' my Mom discussed took place about 500 years ago, between December 9th and 12th, 1531.  Today the story is commonly referred to as Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Here is a quick summary of the story and why it's incredible to this day.

The Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant named Juan Diego and told him to tell the Archbishop of Mexico City to build a chapel at the foot of Tepeyac Hill (the site of the apparition).  After a couple visits by Juan Diego, Archbishop Juan de Zumarraga didn't really believe him, so he instructed Juan Diego to bring him a sign.  Juan Diego went back to the Virgin Mary.  She said go to the top of the mountain and pick from the roses growing there.  It was December in the mountains and no roses should have been growing there, especially Castilian roses which were not indigenous to Mexico.  To find foreign flowers growing in the craigs of the mountain in December is like producing a snowball in the desert.  Remember it was 1531.  No greenhouses, no electricity, no technology.

But there they were; a plethora of beautiful, healthy roses.  Juan Diego picked and wrapped the flowers in his smock (or tilma) and went to the archbishop.  This was now the third visit and the archbishop's guards were getting annoyed.  Then one peaked into his tilma to see the roses.  The guards knew roses were out of season, like everyone else.  They ran to get the archbishop.  When Juan Diego saw the archbishop, he let all the roses fall to the ground.  Immediately the archbishop knelt down and began asking for forgiveness and praying.  It was at this point that everyone in the room noticed the image that was left on Juan Diego's tilma. 

Photograph of Juan Diego's tilma

Here's where this gets incredible.  Remember that I am sitting at my Mom's coffee table.  So, when she told me about the image that was left on Juan Diego's tilma I was thinking that it was a faint outline of a person (think Shroud of Turin) that somehow was accidentally left by the dew of the flowers or something like that.  It wasn't until I got home and looked up the image that I was blown away.  And after researching its properties, I was further blown away.  More on that below.  At right, is a photograph of the actual tilma and image as it stands today

Fourteen days after Juan Diego brought the roses to the archbishop, construction kicked off with a procession of church leaders, civil dignitaries, Indians, Spaniards and thousands of regular people carrying the tilma to the foot of Tepeyac Hill.  These events were recorded in both Spanish and Nahuatl, the local Aztec dialect.  In other words, the people that were around at that time knew something incredible just happened.  The original image has been in the public view ever since.  It was one of the cornerstone events in converting people away from the satanic-like human sacrifice system of the Aztecs to what Mexico is today, a mostly-Christian nation.  The entire Lady of Guadalupe shrine attracts more than 10 million visitors per year.¹ 

Here are some (and only some) interesting facts I discovered after I left my Mom's house.  The tilma, which is a thin cloth made out of biodegradable cactus fibers should have disintegrated hundreds of years ago.  Replicas using modern-day technology degrade to nothing after 15 to 20 years.  Yet, after spending its first 143 years exposed to the elements without protection, the colors remain vibrant and the material is intact.² 

The tilma has survived at least two disasters.  The first was an ammonia spill in 1791 that did considerable damage before repairing itself to its original condition.  And in 1921 some evil sort tried to destroy the shrine by placing a bomb underneath it, covered by flowers.  The bomb destroyed the altar completely, damaged many parts of the cathedral and blew windows out across the street.  But the glass case, made of regular glass, not security glass, survived intact and unscathed.³

Close up of the eye of Our Lady of Guadalupe

In studies done in both 1929 and 1951, as technology progressed, photographers found the image of a man reflected in the eye of the Virgin Mary.  After enlarging the area of the Virgin's eyes by 2500x an image of a man, believed to be that of Juan Diego can be seen.  Additional studies using infra-red and other modern-day technology have yielded images of additional people in the Virgin's eyes.⁴

In the 1980s, Dr. Philip Serna Callahan photographed the icon under infrared light and declared that portions of the face, hands, robe, and mantle had been painted in one step, with no sketches or corrections and no visible brush strokes, for which technology did not exist at the time.⁵

One more incredible observation I made while researching this was the mountain of evidence trying to discredit it.  Taking it all together, someone has been trying to either destroy this shrine via bomb or destroy it through science for a long time.  Why would someone try to persuade me that there is no image in her eye?  I find that odd.  Why not convince me the Titanic never sank instead?  There are no studies on that one, but of course, it's not supernatural.  It seems there is a pattern in the attempts to discredit supernatural events like this that needs attention.

The actual tilma worn by Juan Diego as it looks today

By the time our life is over, we will have received thousands of messages testifying to Jesus' truth.  This is one of those messages.  Of course, those are interspersed with Satan's messages of vanity, greed, murder, hatred, racism, pleasure, self, anger, etc. that you find everyday on his best weapon, the television set.  The stories like Our Lady of Guadalupe never really make it on television.  Your fate for eternity is based on whose message you want to hear, hopefully not the one that's loudest.  It'll determine your soul's destiny.  If you want Satan and hell, just follow the crowd and don't worry about all those signs.  If you want Jesus and heaven, say it, repent and start acting like you want in. 

I spent the vast majority of my life not really considering if there really was a god or if Jesus was real.  Mostly I cared about my businesses, nice cars, money, good times, my looks, women, and status . . . basically my own glory.  I had many of those things in abundance and I was loving life.  I wasn't a bad person.  In fact, I was pretty nice, but I was superficial and pretty godless, which I now realize is not really heaven material.

Then I saw something so convincing that it changed my entire belief system.  It was confirmed to me with such certainty that (seemingly) overnight I started reading the Bible, going to church, reforming my life and reading about Jesus' teachings.  It's what I write about in my blog.  Why would anyone with a great life want to change it?  Think about it.  It's not just my story, it's the story of so many who finally look into these matters.

My Mom said it best, "There are great signs and wonders happening in the world if you want to look."  Whether they are good or evil doesn't matter, because either way they attest to the truth of Jesus.  This was a nice reminder from my Mom that the good guys are at work, too.  Hopefully, we can all stop our lives long enough to notice.  

Citations

1. A Handbook on Guadalupe, p. 46
2.  Guerra, Giulio Dante. AlleanzaCattolica.org, "La Madonna di Guadalupe". 'Inculturazione' Miracolosa. Christianita. n. 205–206, 1992.
3. D.A. Brading, Mexican Phoenix. Our Lady of Guadalupe: Image and Tradition Across Five Centuries, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, (2001), p.314; Stafford Poole, The Guadalupan Controversies in Mexico, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press (2006), p.110
4. The Mystery of Our Lady's Eyes - Sancta.org
5. Callahan, Philip Serna. 1981. The Tilma under Infra-red Radiation. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

 

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David Hooper is an author and entrepreneur.  As a reformed capitalist who has seen the light, he helps spread awareness through his blog, AnAmericanAwakening.blogspot.com.