Most of us Catholics have known about the apparitions of our Virgin of Guadalupe, almost 500 years ago, which year after year we remember and celebrate with all our fervent devotion, grateful for having been chosen by her, as Mexicans, to having her as our dear Mother, which represents our strength of religious faith and which also gives us identity.
The mysteries and celestial events in these apparitions, according to history, tell us that they began on December 9, 1531, on the Tepeyac hill, in Mexico City and after our country had been conquered by the Spanish. They were precisely the ones who instilled in us devotion to this Catholic religion, leaving it as a heritage of faith, which we have embraced with great fervor to this day.
We accept as a divine mystery, first, the preference that the Virgin had in the humble person of Juan Diego, when she chose him as the bearer of her messages. She spoke to him in her native language, Nahuatl, asking him to appear with the Archbishop, Juan de Zumárraga, to ask him to build her a little house on the hill of Tepeyac and from there to be able to listen and support the prayers of her children. .
Second, the sign that the Archbishop asks Juan Diego to believe him and accept such a request, to which Juan Diego has to return and ask the Virgin for such a sign, this proof being the appearance of the roses of Castile, rare for the season, as a sign of the presence of the Virgin on the hill of Tepeyac.
The celestial visions are also a mystery and the surprising appearance in painting of his image on the tilma of this humble character, which caused the immediate and surprising conversion of Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who at first doubted the statements of the Indian Juan Diego and who ended up kneeling before the beautiful image before his eyes.
Third, the appearance of the Virgin to Bernardino, Juan Diego’s uncle, who being in signs of death, receives her visit and is miraculously healed by her.
And like every year, thousands and thousands of pilgrims from all over Mexico and all over America, we walk to her to thank her for her presence in our lives and her intercession with Our Almighty Father, before our most heartfelt needs.
Such a demonstration of faith was manifested, once again, throughout Mexico, and here in our community was no exception, because an important part of Parralense society, from different sectors, went on a pilgrimage and told them how grateful we are for all the blessings. received.
For all this, most of us Mexicans feel proud to have her as one of the highest symbols of our religion and spirituality, because not only in Mexico, but throughout America, she represents the force that sustains us in difficult times.
And making a historical remembrance, we welcome as our own, the response of the Virgin to Juan Diego: “Don’t worry my son, I’m not here, that I’m your mother?”
Jose Felix Bueno | Politician, Social Activist
Idealism in a Reality | Apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe