Tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was more than 500 years ago that the Mother of our Lord appeared to Juan Diego on his way to attend a Mass outside Mexico City. Standing in a radiant cloud, she looked like a beautiful Aztec princess; and in his own language she implored Juan to ask his bishop to build a chapel where she stood.
The bishop didn’t believe Juan’s story at first. Then Our Lady gave Juan a bunch of roses to take to the bishop. Juan put them inside his cape and made the delivery. When he opened his cape, the roses fell to the ground – and the bishop fell to his knees. The roses had left an image on the cape: Mary, as she had appeared to Juan.
Needless to say, the bishop built the chapel; and within a short time, nine million Native Americans became Catholic. It is worth noting that this all took place during a time the indigenous peoples were treated badly by their Spanish conquerors.