On Thursday, December 12, 2024, we will celebrate the 493rd Anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Aztec peasant St. Juan Diego. And with this in mind, I would like to share with you my own personal experience and reflections of my beloved Virgen Morena.
Ever since I was a little boy, at the age of three, I remember my mother had this beautiful picture frame (37″ x 24″) of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging on the wall. This was in 1949. My mother would tell me that this picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe hung in the Basilica in Mexico City. Naturally, I believed her. During the horrific Laredo flood of 1954, the rising waters of the Arroyo El Zacate, a tributary of the Río Grande that flows in a northwesterly direction, tore down the west wall of our modest two room house at 402 San Pablo Avenue in Laredo, Texas. But the small section of the wall that held the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe was not harmed.
After my mother passed away in 2003, the picture frame hung in her bedroom until we sold the house in 2015 when my older sister Lupe, who was living there, had to be committed to a nursing home. I retrieved it immediately and took it home. After a close examination of the beautiful color picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I noticed for the first time two inscriptions that caught my attention. On the lower left hand side reads: (refer to the image)
