I have no Hispanic background, so I wasn’t that aware of this amazing Feast we are blessed with today.
We’re commemorating the 1531 appearance of Our Lady to a peasant named Juan Diego in Mexico. Juan was sent to a place where roses were blooming – in the middle of winter – to gather them up and show them to his bishop.
Here is more of the amazing story.
In the roses, the image of Mary appeared.
As a result, these miracles have been a powerful image of Mary’s influence to us in the Americas. And I can understand why!
The whole biblical history is so tied up with the area around Israel that it’s easy to feel like it’s foreign to us. It’s something that happened “over there” which might not apply to us here. Or now.
Mary is showing us that that’s not true. Jesus is just as accessible any-where and any-time as He ever was.
Salvation is for us all.