Our Lady of Guadalupe
Celebrated December 12

"Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

Elizabeth uttered these words to Mary in recognition of her great faith. Indeed, what profound faith it must have taken for Mary to believe the words of the Angel Gabriel! The miracle that took place in Mary's body when the Christ was conceived in her would have been easy enough to believe once the pregnancy was starting to show. But before that concrete "evidence" was present, what a tremendous thing it was to be asked to accept. That Mary could conceive in her womb through the power of the Holy Spirit--outside of all human and scientific explanation--only a person of extraordinary faith could accept such a thing.

Perhaps this is why Mary chose to speak to St. Juan Diego. He too was a person of extraordinary faith. Like her, he was asked to accept something that defied human and scientific explanation when he listened to this lady from heaven up on the hill of Tepeyac. And like Mary, this simple peasant man chose to believe. He didn't dismiss his vision as a hallucination or the result of mental illness. Instead, he took Mary at her word and did what she asked him to do, even when other people thought he was delusional or dishonest.

In our day and age, just being Christian often takes an act of extraordinary faith. So many people have become skeptical of anything that can't be proven by science, that accepting Christ's divinity can be a challenge. When we are tempted to question or doubt the truths of faith, may we turn to the powerful intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego, models of faith.