My post is a little late today. I’m in the spirit of the feast!

One can’t help but admire the faith of Mexico, despite the all-too-often unknown Cristero War and a currently rather unfriendly and unhelpful government essentially controlled by cartels.

Pius XI was very intensely concerned about Mexico. He wrote not one, not two, but three encyclicals on the situation…

I have a friend who once did a walking pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe… from Poland or somewhere in Europe. Yes. He walked to Portugal, got on the first ship that would take him across the ocean for free (he was not carrying money, if I recall), then walked up through the jungle of Central America. It took him 3 months.

People love the Guadalupana.

It is truly a miraculous image in numerous ways, and the apparition (in 1531) was Our Lady’s answer to the Protestant Reformation… While Europe was falling away, the Americas were being strengthened. Heaven has its own answers. Sometimes we need to remember that it’s okay for Christ to sleep in the boat. He’ll rebuke the storm if and when He wants.

St. Juan Diego, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!