This is a presentation for a speaker to present the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to a group or congregation. It explains the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the original miraculous image and the Missionary Image and its journey with the signs, wonders and healings that accompany the image. It is approximately 20 minutes long and may be edited if there are time constraints.
Presentation with Missionary Image
[To the Leader: This is a presentation for a group or congregation. It explains the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the original miraculous image and the Missionary Image and its journey with the signs, wonders and healings that accompany the image. It is approximately 20 minutes long and may be edited if there are time constraints.]
Leader: Please be seated sit. This is a presentation on the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, her Missionary Image and Its Journey with Its signs, wonders and healings.
On behalf of Dan Lynch Apostolates who sponsor this Visitation and my Team, I thank you for coming to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe in her Missionary Image that you see here before you.
This Missionary Image is one of only four images in the world commissioned by the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to journey as a Missionary Image on a mission to bring conversions and a Culture of Life and Civilization of Love, for which St. John Paul II prayed.
So, this image is rare, special and extraordinary! Because of her special commissioning and it has traveled the world bringing miracles, conversions and signs and wonders such as manifesting tears of oil and holy glitter.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in Mexico as the pregnant Mother of God to Saint Juan Diego, a Chichimeca Indian, on December 12, 1531. She left a Miraculous Image of her appearance on his tilma (a cloak), which still exists today for all to see in the Basilica Shrine in Mexico City. The Missionary Image is an exact size and color replica of the original miraculous image.
St. John Paul II asked Our Lady of Guadalupe “to ‘visit’ as a ‘pilgrim of faith’ each and every diocese, parish and family in America.” In response to this, the Missionary Image has journeyed on Visitations throughout the world and to each state of the United States to over 1000 parishes. It has received the venerations of hundreds of thousands.
The image visits churches and wherever else Our Lady’s motherly love is needed. The image brings works of mercy to convents, prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and abortion centers. Because of the presence of the image, many abortions have been prevented and over twenty abortion centers have closed through Our Lady’s intercession.
Many signs, wonders, conversions, healings and graces have been reported. The Image has manifested signs such as detections of a heartbeat of an unborn baby in her womb, confirmed by doctors and nurses with stethoscopes and the shedding of tears of oil and holy glitter. God manifests these signs at his pleasure and delights to give them to help to strengthen our faith and our confidence in the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe had a Mission hundreds of years ago, just as she does today. In 16th-century Mexico, the Aztec Indians practiced human sacrifice as an offering to their false gods. In 1521, Hernando Cortez and the Spanish conquered and evangelized them.
After the Conquest, in 1531, the Spanish rule of the natives was so severe that a bloody revolt was imminent. It is believed that Bishop Zumarraga, the New World’s first Bishop, prayed for Our Lady to intervene to prevent an uprising, to bring conversions, to end the remnants of human sacrifice and to bring a culture of life to the natives and reconcile them with the Spanish in peace. It is believed that he asked that he would receive roses native to his homeland of Castile, Spain, as a sign that his prayer would be answered.
Ten years after the Conquest on Saturday, December 9, 1531, fifty-seven year old St. Juan Diego began his nine-mile walk to church from his home in to Mexico City. As he walked at dawn near Tepeyac Hill, the former site of worship to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin, he heard the music of singing birds.
Then, from the top of the hill, he heard a sweet feminine voice affectionately call him by name, “Juan, dearest Juan Diego.” He quickly climbed to the top of the hill to see who was there. He saw a beautiful young lady. Her dress shone like the sun and transformed the appearance of the rocks and plants on the barren cactus hill into glittering jewels. The ground glistened like the rays of a rainbow in a dense fog.
The lady identified herself to him and entrusted to him a mission to request that Bishop Zumarraga build a church on the hill so that she could manifest her Son to all of the people. She said,
“I am your merciful Mother, the merciful Mother of all who live united in this land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. Here I will hear their weeping and their sorrows, and I will remedy and alleviate their sufferings, necessities and misfortunes”.
This is the only apparition in which Our Lady identified herself, through her image and words, by all the privileges conferred on her by God: her Immaculate Conception; her Perpetual Virginity; her Motherhood of God and of the Church and her Glorious Assumption. Our Lady wanted to show her merciful love to all of her children. Juan went to the Bishop as she requested, but the prudent Bishop asked Juan to ask the lady for a sign. Juan did so and Our Lady promised to give him the sign.
On December 12, Our Lady again appeared to Juan on Tepeyac Hill. She said,
“Listen and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son, let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? What else do you need?”
Our Lady told Juan to pick the Castilian roses that suddenly and miraculously appeared there in the winter. These flowers were native to Castile, Spain, Bishop Zumarraga’s homeland, and not to Mexico. Our Lady asked Juan to bring them to the Bishop as a sign for him to believe her request. Juan gathered the roses into his tilma and brought them to the Bishop.
Juan opened the tilma to show the roses to the Bishop and, to everyone’s astonishment, the Image of Our Lady appeared on it. Our Lady had answered the Bishop’s prayers and his request for a sign with the Castilian roses that were native to his homeland. This sign was augmented by the incomparable gift of Our Lady’s own portrait.
Two weeks after that, the Bishop completed the building of the church that Our Lady had requested. Our Lady of Guadalupe brought the natives faith, hope and consolation. Their hearts were melted. This was the greatest mass evangelization in the history of the world. Nine million natives were converted and baptized to the one, true faith within the next nine years. The Indians and Spanish reconciled, inter-married and became the Mexican people.
Bishop Zumarraga later wrote to Cortes, “In our day, God and His Blessed Mother deigned to shower the land which was won by you, with His great mercy.”
The Tilma and Science
Saint Juan Diego’s tilma is a miraculous image. It Is not a painting. There is no under-drawing, sizing, or over-varnish. An infrared study concluded that there is no way to explain either the kind of color pigments utilized or the maintenance of color luminosity and the brightness of the pigments over the centuries. It is scientifically inexplicable.
Scientific studies of the eyes of the tilma revealed 13 people in the iris and scientific studies of the stars on her mantle revealed that they coincided with the stars as they appeared on the date of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12, 1531!
In 1979, Dr. José Tonsman, a Peruvian engineer, used computer technology to magnify the irises of the eyes in the tilma 2500 times and, through mathematical and optical procedures, was able to identify at least 13 people imprinted in the eyes. Some of these people have been identified as St. Juan Diego, Bishop Zumarraga and his interpreter, a family, including various children, and a woman carrying a baby on her back, which was common in that time and region. It would have been impossible to have painted so many people in the eyes of the image.
God reserved these phenomena for the modern world to demonstrate to scientific skeptics that the tilma is not a painting, but Our Lady’s icon and God’s miraculous gift to humanity. These are the crowning scientific validations of the miracle of the tilma.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Health of the Sick
St. John Paul II called Our Lady of Guadalupe “Health of the Sick” and said, “The Church, in her pastoral concern for those who are suffering physically, is close to them with the tenderness and love of Christ. Sickness is a cross, sometimes very heavy, but when united with Christ’s Cross it becomes a source of salvation, life and resurrection for the sick person himself and for others. This is why I invite all those who are suffering to offer this trial generously in union with the suffering of Christ and with Mary. St. Juan Diego heard the Blessed Virgin say, ‘Am I not your health?’ ”
On the Journey of the Missionary Image, Our Lady of Guadalupe has interceded to heal the sick and the dying, to prevent abortions and to heal mothers who suffer from post abortion stress syndrome.
A four-year-old girl named Alex lay dying in a Kentucky hospital of a rare lung disease in which the airways scar down so that the patient cannot breathe and eventually suffocates. A Guardian brought the Missionary Image to Alex’s hospital room on the day that doctors had predicted that she would die. Alex was lifted up to the Image and she tenderly touched and kissed Our Lady.
The next day, the doctors went to Alex’s room and were shocked to find her playing and eating a hamburger! Her x-rays showed no signs of scarring at all of the bronchial airways. Alex recovered and went on to win the Presidential Fitness Award. Her mother credits this saving healing to Our Lady of Guadalupe through her Missionary Image.
Saved from Post Abortion Stress Syndrome
Through her Missionary Image, Our Lady has melted the hearts of many mothers who aborted their children and many have been healed from post abortion stress syndrome.
Cathy became pregnant in college. She was confused, hurt, misinformed and went to an abortion center for help. After being shuffled through some paperwork, tests and a “counselor”, she was told, “It will be okay.” She was not counseled on the option of giving birth and adoption.
“It was not okay.” She said. “I felt a ripping torment, hurt and devastation beyond description for killing my baby. Days turned into months that turned into years and I continued to carry the burden of shame, grief and guilt for 10 long years. Then I attended a Marian Conference as a free-lance journalist where a special blessing awaited me from Our Lady of Guadalupe through her Missionary Image. I went before her to pray and the next day I interviewed Dan Lynch, the director Dan Lynch Apostolates that promotes devotion to her.
“During the interview, Dan talked about how Our Lady would stop abortion and I thought, well that’s just silly, it’s just an image. An image can’t stop abortion. So then I asked Dan, “Well, how is Our Lady going to do that? How does an image stop abortion?
“He replied, ‘She will melt hearts and the melted heart of a mother would never consider killing her innocent helpless child, she will reverence the life within her and bring it forth.’ At this point, I broke down crying and told Dan, ‘I had an abortion ten years ago. You are the first person in the whole world that I have told. I named my son Joshua and I have asked him to forgive me.’ I couldn’t believe that I had shared it with him because I had shared it with no one at all that this had happened. Our Lady placed in my heart God’s mercy.”
“Dan quickly arranged for me to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist that day for the first time since my abortion 10 years before. I felt great joy for responding to Our Lady’s call to come back to the Sacred Heart of her Son and His holy Church.”
A few years later, Cathy married and became pregnant. Her doctor told her that her placenta was damaged and that she would probably have a miscarriage. She called Dan Lynch Apostolates and asked for prayers to Our Lady of Guadalupe. When Cathy returned to her doctor, the ultrasound showed a healthy placenta! She later gave birth to a healthy son, Alexander.
Veneration of the Missionary Image
Thank you all so much for being here. You are here for a reason. Our Lady brought you here because she needs your help to continue the mission to bring a Culture of Life and a Civilization of Love. You are the hands and feet of Christ.
There are many more stories of signs, wonders, conversions and healings in Dan Lynch’s book and DVD, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of Hope. Please visit the religious goods table and check them out. Consider buying something to share with your friends and family to spread the good news.
Please take the time to come forward now to venerate the Missionary Image, to show your love for Our Lady of Guadalupe and to ask her for her help. Bring her your joys, your sorrows and needs. Have confidence that they will be answered. She told St. Juan Diego, “I am the mother of all those who have confidence in me!”
There should be Petition and Donation Envelopes available in your pews. Please write out your petitions, enclose your donations for Our Lady’s Journey and drop the envelopes in the basket. Dan Lynch Apostolates will place your petitions in their chapel and pray over them.
Please don’t be shy about coming up to venerate the Missionary Image like a man named Benny. He was a severe asthmatic who was healed through Our Lady of Guadalupe’s intercession. He went to visit the Missionary Image and testified, “After the Mass my wife asked me if I should go up and perhaps touch Our Lady and ask her for her help. I was very reluctant to go, but my wife said, ‘What do you have to lose you almost died three times!’ ”
“So, I went up and I put my hand on her chest and I asked her to help me with my asthma. I told her, ‘I’ve been very sick and almost died three times.’ Then we left the church and I have not had any problems since then. I have to thank Our Lady of Guadalupe so much for that. It’s just been unbelievably wonderful. It’s all because I had faith in Our Lord and Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
May we all have such faith!
Thank you again for being here and for being faithful!
