Dec 12, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Roses in The Snow

December 12, 2014

A priest writes to a fellow priest from the Shrine:

How magnificent it is! But during my holy hour I was thinking. What is better: The visit Our Lady gave to Juan Diego, or one hour in the Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament?

Roses bloomed in the snow. A poor garment is imprinted with an image of Our Blessed Mother. It has lasted for centuries and no scientist can figure out how the image is on the cloth. She is the woman clothed with the sun. The sun is symbolic of her Eucharistic Son. Both hearts beat as one. Look at her request to the Bishop. Build a chapel. Who is in the chapel? Her Eucharistic Son! Mary brings all of her children to the Eucharist.

During our holy hour of prayer there is always the beauty of Guadalupe. No matter how cold our heart, the roses of holiness bloom. The fragrance of sanctity will last for all eternity. Each moment we spend in His presence we grow, we bloom; we blossom like the roses in the snow.

And with each holy hour there is anew and special image indelibly imprinted on our soul. This image is far more beautiful than the one here at the shrine, where people come from all over the world and look with awe-inspiring amazement.

All the angels of heaven gaze in ecstasy at the image left on our soul, after each holy hour we make in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

But just as Juan Diego had to wait until he got to the Bishop’s Palace to realize what precious, priceless,possession he carried, so will we have to wait. Then, like Juan Diego, when he opened the cloak to show the Bishop the roses and was astounded to see the image, we will be flabbergasted for all eternity to see the effect of a single holy hour of prayer.

Pope Paul VI states in Mysterium Fidei that a single holy hour of prayer before the Eucharist gives us “incomparable dignity.” People look for dignity in seeking social status,financial security, popularity, nationality or the number of academic degrees.But like the song says, everyone is “looking for love in all the wrong places.” Dignity is found in the Presence of the Supreme Being who raises us up higher and higher to Himself. The height and prestige of one’s real dignity is one’s degree of union with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. This is why I have a life-size image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in my office, to remind me of where my true dignity is.

Barth Bracy is an American who recently came to my office with his friend Michael. A couple of years ago a holy layman named Dan Lynch brought a missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Barth’s home at the request of his mother Linda. It had a profound effect on Barth and helped change his life. He is now studying to be a priest for the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament.