Our Lady of Guadalupe

“Our gods of wealth, pleasure, and independence demand so much blood in exchange for their poisonous gifts.”

Tomorrow we commemorate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our Lady has appeared many times to many different people in many different parts of the world. But, of all the many apparitions, in one alone does she appear as a pregnant mother. In the revered miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Blessed Mother contains within her womb the Christ child – the Incarnate Word.

In 1999, St. Pope John Paul II gave a great gift to the Catholic Church and the pro-life movement when he formally declared Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of the Americas, the Empress of Latin America, and the Protectress of Unborn Children. He also designated December 12 – the day of Our Lady’s last appearance to Juan Diego, and the same day he unfurled his humble cloak, imprinted with the miraculous image of Our Lady, before the astonished eyes of his bishop – as her feast day.

“Under her motherly care I place … the innocent lives of children, especially those who are in danger of not being born,” John Paul II said in a homily during his apostolic visit to Mexico in January of 1999. “I entrust the cause of life to her loving protection: may no Mexican dare to harm the precious and sacred gift of life in its mother’s womb!” Sadly, the violent crime against the dignity of human life returned to Mexico in 2007 when abortion was decriminalized in the Federal State. Since its inauguration, over 150,000 children have been sacrificed in the name of choice and freedom.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Before John Paul II’s declaration, Fr. Paul Marx had already selected Our Lady of Guadalupe as the patroness for Human Life International. This was an “obvious” choice, Fr. Marx wrote. “Her reverence and tenderness communicate to us the joy and awe with which we must approach each nascent life.” Fr. Marx directly attributed the astonishing growth of HLI to the miraculous intervention of Our Lady.

A Humble Instrument

When Our Lady first appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, the Aztec culture was still steeped in bloodthirsty paganism. While the Christian Spanish conquistadors had overthrown the Aztec empire just a few years before, the Aztec religion remained dominant. Human sacrifice, once practiced on an industrial scale but curtailed at the command of the conquistadors, was still conducted behind the Spaniards’ backs.

According to Aztec scholars, at the height of their empire, the Aztecs sacrificed tens of thousands of victims every single year. Children were routinely among the victims. The testimony of European eye-witnesses is so horrifying that one hesitates even to quote their words. “They strike open the wretched Indian’s chest with flint knives and hastily tear out the palpitating heart which, with the blood, they present to the idols,” wrote conquistador Bernal Diaz. Then they would cannibalize their victims.

Our Lady, however, had different plans for this continent and its peoples. Of all the many people she could have chosen to carry out this plan, she selected a poor, uneducated peasant. This is Mary’s way. Think of Loudres, of Fatima, of Banneaux. In each case Mary bypassed the rich and the powerful, and hand-picked the poor and the lowly – often mere children.

As the archangel Gabriel once appeared to the poor, young, unknown wife of a carpenter in a tiny town in Nazareth with a mission of cosmic significance, so Mary appeared to Juan Diego, entrusting to this humble instrument a mission that would, in less than a decade, convert millions of souls to the worship of her Son, and end the scourge of human sacrifice.

How different was the new religion from the old, and how different Mary’s maternal and loving message from that of the blood-lust of the Aztec gods! “No longer,” wrote Fr. Marx in the late 90s, “did the people need to cower in abject terror before the bloodthirsty gods who demanded the death of their children – the destruction of their families. They found refuge beneath the gracious protection of a gentle Mother.”

Mary spoke comforting and compassionate words to Juan Diego. “Am I not here, I who am your mother?” she asked Diego, when she met him as he hurried to find a priest for his dying uncle, who was miraculously cured, as she promised. “I am the merciful Mother,” she said, “the Mother of all of you who live united in this land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who seek me, of those who have confidence in me.”

The Bloodthirsty Gods of the 21st Century

How great is our need for the comforting, maternal hand of Our Lady of Guadalupe now! For in our age, the bloodthirsty spirits of the Aztec gods have arisen anew. Yes, the gods have taken new shapes and new names, but the blood-lust is the same.

“In ever greater numbers,” wrote Fr. Marx, “society sacrifices our young and aged at demonic altars, hurrying them to destruction through abortion, sex education, prostitution, pornography, infanticide and euthanasia; foolishly believing that just a little more contraception, just one additional population control program, and we will be blessed with the happiness and peace that we so desire.”

We shudder as we read the descriptions of the Aztec sacrifices. And yet, every day sacrifices of equal barbarity are conducted in every major city in every Western country, with the full endorsement of the law, and even paid for by our tax dollars. Accounts of Aztec parents voluntarily delivering their children to the knives of the priests curdle our blood – and yet so many mothers and fathers do the exact same now.

Would Bernal Diaz have been any less horrified by this coldly clinic testimony of late-term abortionist Leroy Carhart, describing how he conducts his late abortions? He tries, he says, “to take the fetus out either foot or skull first, whatever end I can get to first,” then grasps “the portion that you can get a hold of” at which point he “dismember[s] the shoulder or the hip or whatever it would be.” “Is the fetus still alive?” someone asks Carhart at this point. “Yes,” Carhart responds coolly. “I know that the fetus is alive during the process most of the time because I can see the fetal heartbeat on the ultrasound.”

Trust in Our Lady

Like Juan Diego, we now live in a world in which child sacrifice is embedded deeply in the substructures of our culture. Our gods of wealth, pleasure, and independence demand so much blood in exchange for their poisonous gifts. And like Juan Diego, we may be tempted to wonder what we can possibly do to make a difference, to assume that the case is hopeless. Are we not too weak, too uneducated, too far from the centers of power, too few? We will remain faithful, sure, but we cannot possibly hope to win this fight. The odds are against us. The age of miracles is past.

Fr. Marx addressed this fear. Our Lady of Guadalupe, he said, is the solution. Turn to her. “In contemplating her simplicity we find the strength to emulate her faith,” he said, “and proceed with confidence in the knowledge that God will overcome the seemingly insurmountable barriers looming over the world today.”

It is quite true that we cannot hope to win this fight. But if, like Juan Diego, we submit ourselves humbly to our Lady, and to ask her to use us as her humble instruments, miracles will happen! “Am I not here, I, who am your Mother?” says Our Lady to us, as she said to Juan Diego. “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.”

We Christians are called to be leaven in the very heart of society. We cannot rest content because we feel there is little we can do to change the course of everyday life and entrenched anti-life mindsets. God will multiply enormously the effect of our small offering of work, prayer, and initiatives.

Let us, like Juan Diego, obey our Blessed Mother in the little things, as well as the big. And let us rely, not upon our own strength, but upon the strength of she who – against all human odds – converted an entire continent to the love of her Son in the space of a few short years. What she accomplished once, she can accomplish again.

“Queen of Apostles accept our complete readiness to work for the restoration and fulfillment of your Son’s kingdom. May we not withhold anything at all in helping bring his salvific Will to fruition. May we be completely dedicated to the cause of the Gospel and of ultimate peace in the world. May our struggle be firmly grounded on justice, and be a stimulus for reciprocal charity among men and women and all nations.” ~ St. Pope John Paul II, January 27, 1979

Our Lady of Guadalupe: pray for us!

As president of Human Life International, Fr. Boquet is a leading expert on the international pro-life and family movement, having journeyed to nearly 90 countries on pro-life missions over the last decade. Father Boquet works with pro-life and family leaders in 116 counties that partner with HLI to proclaim and advance the Gospel of Life. Read his full bio here.

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3 Comments

  1. Kathleen on November 19, 2018 at 3:41 PM

    I attended the conference last night In which Dr. David Keys gave a scientific talk on the image of Guadalupe!
    Father Bruce Nieli was allowed it to undermine the message of our Lady of Guadalupe by promoting single-payer health system which forced Catholics to pay for contraceptives! This socialist system is against our faith since it is not voluntary and causes people to go against their faith or face huge financial fines and maybe even being imprisoned for standing up for their faith!
    Father Bruce was also trying to stir up support for the migrant caravan or United Nations invasion paid for by the United Nations and George Soros to undermine our country and our constitutional right to defend our border!
    All people must go through our immigration process and present papers so they can be vetted since Isis members and M13 members are embedded within the caravan! 95% of the people in the caravan are young men! They waived the flags of their own country and they have been offered asylum along the way! The only people that we can give asylum to legally is the Mexicans -unless they were in the caravan before getting to Mexico!
    President Trump as his duty spelled out in the Constitution must defend the United States citizens from the United Nations invasion with Gand members, Isis and from the drug cartels!
    Father Bruce also tried to publicly tell me what I thought about ecumenicalism -telling me that I meant indifferentism! Since Vatican to our nation our country and our church has disintegrated and it’s falling apart and the sex scandal is a symptom of that happening!
    Well, when our “leader” of the Catholic Church tells us that it is a sin to convert to Catholicism then we have a problem!
    Our Lady came to convert ALL Nations as Jesus commanded that all must be baptized in the name of the father and the son and of the Holy Spirit! Our Lady of Guadalupe image started with the Aztec people who worshipped mother earth and the sun and moon! They sacrificed people to control the weather! They wanted rain so they would sacrifice 20% of the children to get them to cry for rain!
    Our lady of Guadalupe is working to evangelize the entire world! It is the message of Fatima, Akita, Lourdes, etc.…We must pray the rosary which is Gods plan for peace on earth! By meditating on the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ we obtain The graces to live for Christ! When doing so we are ready for the Kingdom of God HERE NOW because we will have been converted and we’ll be able to convert!
    Kathleen C. Di Valerio

  2. Rita Biesemans on December 11, 2017 at 2:08 PM

    HIMNO A LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE

    O MARIA, PORTADORA DE LA LUZ
    AYUDA NOS PORTAR NUESTRA CRUZ
    A TRAVES DEL FLUJO TURBULENTE DE LOS RIOS
    TU,NUESTRO FARO EN EL CAMINO HACIA DIOS

    MADRE DE DIOS Y NUESTRA MADRE
    IMMACULADA, CREADA POR EL PADRE
    PARA DARNOS JESUS, NUESTRO SALVADOR
    EL CUAL NO HABIA LUGAR EN EL PARADOR

    TU HIJO TIENE UN LUGAR
    NUESTRO CORAZON ES EL ALTAR
    DONDE LE ADORAMOS Y LE OFRECEMOS
    NUESTRO AMOR Y LABOR DIARIOS

    TE QUEREMOS MUCHO O DULCE MARIA
    POR FAVOR BENDIGA NOS CADA DIA
    FIN DE QUE PODEMOS OBTENER
    LA VIDA ETERNA PARA AGRADECER

    RITA BIESEMANS, EL 12 DE DICIEMBRE 2014

    • Carmen Perez on December 12, 2017 at 11:34 AM

      Thanks and praise God for giving us Her blessed loving mother. She is truly a miraculous Lady. She had done great things for me and I pray She gives me a second time to visit her shrine in Mexico with my whole family. I pray for all the people of Mexico for peace, love and unity.

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