Sunday, December 11, 2011

Celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe

Every December 12 there is a special feast day celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe.

If you are not familiar with this image and the story surrounding its origin, I encourage you to read here, where it explains how the Mother of God first appeared to a poor farmer named Juan Diego on December 9, 1531 in Mexico. ( If you click on the links above, they will take you to a summary for younger children.  I am sharing this link to share with my own children, but it also does a nice job of summarizing Juan Diego's life changing experience in a simple and short way.) 

The image above was what appeared on Juan Diego's tilma when the bouquet of roses cascaded down from Juan Diego's cloak as he was showing others who were skeptical about his story.

A few years ago our family went to Mass to celebrate this feast day at a church named "Our Lady of Guadalupe".
The altar was filled with hundreds and hundreds of roses and was so beautiful.  When our Blessed Mother appeared to Juan Diego at the hill of Tepeyac, there was a field of roses where roses did not bloom naturally before or during the season of winter.  Hence, when people celebrate this feast day, many decorate their homes and churches with roses.


After Mass one year we went to a Mexican restaurant with 6 adults and 13 children!  (3 families total).  I brought a candle with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it and burned it during our dinner to help celebrate such a special outing with family and friends.


We enjoy reading The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie de Paola each year because Juan Diego's story about how he was blessed by Mary's presence is too miraculous not to share with my children.  When I read this book, I am always so impressed by the great faith and persistence Juan Diego had even when others doubted his story and experience. 

We also watch the CCC video, Juan Diego-Messanger of Guadalupe, sometime between St. Juan Diego's feast on December 9 and Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day on December 12. 

The image from Juan Diego's tilma is on display in Mexico and has not deteriorated since the 1500s when the image first appeared.  There are many other miraculous facts about this image.  To read some of these facts, you can read the post, "Little Known Facts About Our Lady of Guadalupe".

You can also read "Our Lady of Guadalupe ‘completely beyond' scientific explanation, says researcher", which is an article that explains how researchers to this day say "there is no scientific explanation for the 478 years of high quality-preservation of the Tilma or for the miracles that have occurred to ensure its preservation. "


No Ordinary Blog Hop

5 comments:

Patty said...

I remember this post from last year. Our local Target sells those candles (as well as a variety of other saintly candles). I wish I would have been thinking and picked one up for today. But, I can always pick one up for next year, right? Enjoy this feast day! We are going to have Tacos for dinner :)

Unknown said...

Just a couple hours left to join our got Mary? T-shirt giveaway...in honour of our Blessed Mother! There is even an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the back!! Please check it out and "like" the got Mary? facebook page!
http://www.equippingcatholicfamilies.com/2011/12/got-mary-shirt-giveaway.html

Mom2Seven said...

Love these teaching posts, Tracy! Don't you love Tomie de Paola? We own many of his books. Happy feast day! Love, Annita
+JMJ+

Tiffany said...

Your parish looks just lovely! Happy Feast Day, Tracy!

noreen said...

Hi Tracy, thank you for the great resources. I think it's lovely that you brought an Our Lady of Guadalupe candle to dinner!nnWe love Tomie DePaola books here! I wish our library had the CCC video!

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Subscribe and never miss an update and post!




Hello! Thank you for your Visit!

Hello!  Thank you for your Visit!
I'm Tracy. I love my faith, family and on most days, homeschooling my 5 blessings. When I'm not busy baking cakes for my family or making memories in real life or dreaming I had a housekeeper or professional chef, I enjoy documenting a slice of Smith life in blog land.

Looking for Something? Search My Blog

Follow Me

http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5144881https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Slice-of-Smith-Life/119996718052404?ref=hlhttps://plus.google.com/u/0/+TracyBuaSmith2029/postshttps://www.pinterest.com/tracybuasmith/

Followers

Please Visit My Sponsor

Amazon Affiliate Search Box

You can support my blog and my family by purchasing through my Amazon affiliate link by using this Amazon Search Box to find products and I will receive a small percentage from your order at no cost to you!

Visit My Friends and Affiliate Links!

I get a small percentage from your purchases!
Thank you!




CCC of America

Brita Baby Boutique

Brita Baby Boutique
IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES !

Follow Me on Pinterest!

Member of Catholic Bloggers Network

Saintnook: Check It Out!

Saintnook: The Saints are Always Online

Curious about the Catholic faith? Click Below

My Blog is Listed at Blog Mommas

My Blog is Listed at Catholic Mommy Blogs

Healthy Moms Magazine Recognition

100 Top Homeschooling Blogs | Healthy Moms Magazine

Blog Post Categories

Blog Archive

Design by My Heart's Desire Creations Copyright © A Slice of Smith Life. Powered by Blogger.

Grab My Button

http://asliceofsmithlife.com

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright © [2010 and forward]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material and images without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.