Our Lady of Guadalupe shows us most gloriously how to live as feminine and beautiful women. She brings the gift of motherhood to everyone, regardless of social status, thereby providing an example to all women of the gentleness and openness we must use in approaching our neighbor. She is soft and motherly, and her promise is that she will pour out her care on her children. Notice her rich mantle, the mantle that she will use to wrap around those who pray for her protective embrace; it is covered with stars, for she wraps her arms around the entire world! This is why she appeared to St. Juan Diego, so that the extent of her dominion of love (which has been revealed by the Church from the earliest times) might continue to be known by all. Also, in the traditional veneration of this image, Our Lady is surrounded by flowers! In a recent film, the father of one of the main characters observed, "All women love flowers." We do, because they are a symbol of beauty so fresh and perfect it can only come from God. They symbolize what we ourselves must do to the world, to enliven it with color, to fill it with wonderful fragrance, to live out our bloom and our fading with dignity. Let us ask for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe to fulfill our feminine vocation and fill us with the love that knows no bounds.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe shows us most gloriously how to live as feminine and beautiful women. She brings the gift of motherhood to everyone, regardless of social status, thereby providing an example to all women of the gentleness and openness we must use in approaching our neighbor. She is soft and motherly, and her promise is that she will pour out her care on her children. Notice her rich mantle, the mantle that she will use to wrap around those who pray for her protective embrace; it is covered with stars, for she wraps her arms around the entire world! This is why she appeared to St. Juan Diego, so that the extent of her dominion of love (which has been revealed by the Church from the earliest times) might continue to be known by all. Also, in the traditional veneration of this image, Our Lady is surrounded by flowers! In a recent film, the father of one of the main characters observed, "All women love flowers." We do, because they are a symbol of beauty so fresh and perfect it can only come from God. They symbolize what we ourselves must do to the world, to enliven it with color, to fill it with wonderful fragrance, to live out our bloom and our fading with dignity. Let us ask for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe to fulfill our feminine vocation and fill us with the love that knows no bounds.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Absolutely one hundred percent right, Sylvia! Thank you. That was beautiful.
Post a Comment