Our Lady of Guadalupe

                “My dear Lord, I think of the beautiful show of love for Your Blessed Mother that is being shown on the feast of the Lady of Guadalupe and I wonder what You desire for all Your people honoring Your Blessed Mother.

                “To love Your Mother as You do? She is the model of humility, the model of pure love for God and the ultimate model for all humanity. It began with her immaculate conception as You had chosen her to be a tabernacle for Your son, sinless, holy and pure, to participate in the incarnation of not only her Savior, but the Savior of all mankind. You saw all You needed in her heart to be the one to be the mother of Your son.  Her simple yes to Your invitation to conceive a son through the power of the Holy Spirit, even when she didn’t fully understand how it would be, shows us how to have faith – faith in knowing that if You ask something of us, it will be in our best interests and for Your glory. We need to remember that we are all simple handmaids of the Lord, Your instruments. We belong to You and were created by You so we owe our lives to You. Whatever You ask of us can never be too much. Our gratitude and love needs to transcend all sense of human reasoning and lead us to trust that whatever You ask of us is what we need to do and that it will glorify You. You chose to be born in a manger amongst beasts of burden to a woman betrothed to another man. Mary’s humble heart and deep love for God gave her the faith that helped her form the words, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, May it be done according to Your word.’ Luke 1:37-38. This is the ultimate example of how to love You our Lord, our Creator, our Savior. When we adopt Your mother’s humble heart, then we can love, honor and glorify You with her immense faith, hope and love.

                “The Lady of Guadalupe celebration reminds us how our dear Mother once again reveals how much the You love a humble pure heart. In 1531, she chose an unknown, uneducated farmer, an Aztec convert, to be the one to show a sign of Your love and divine desire by placing an image of herself on San Juan Diego’s tilma (peasant cloak) and filling it with out of season roses to prove to the local bishop that her request to build a chapel in her honor was real. The chapel was constructed in two weeks and within seven years, eight million native people were converted. You never choose the ones we expect and Mary continues to teach us that as she appeared to San Juan Diego in Mexico, to the three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, and to a peasant girl Saint Bernadette in Lourdes France in 1858. The humble heart is the most beautiful gift we can give to you Lord.

                “As we strive to imitate You Christ, I see You as the baby Jesus in Mary’s arms looking up into Your mother’s eyes and seeing only love and comfort. You, the Lord and Creator of us all, with all that power, condensed into a tiny helpless infant that must rely completely on another for all its care. I see the tiny infant and hear the words, ‘Momma, I trust in you.’ I see how much You love and trust Your mother and You ask us to do the same.  Jesus, I trust in You, in all that You send me and all that You don’t send me. I trust in You and give You my heart through Your mother because I trust in her that she will lead me to You.

                “Dear Lord, may the sweet smell of off season roses fill the noses of all your people this day and throughout this Advent.”