Advent & A Feast

This year, the third week of Advent starts on the same day as the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated.

The third week of Advent is traditionally celebrated as a pause in Advent fasts due to the nearness of the Birth that is approaching. Catholics call this week "Gaudete" (Joyous), and a traditional set of purple candles for Advent contains one pink that is lit this week. It is fitting then that this year the third week begins with a Marian feast.

Marian apparitions are not a requirement of faith -- for anybody, not even Catholics -- and it is not a requirement that we as Filianis believe they occurred. The most famous Marian apparitions (Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe) were part of early Madrian and Filianic calendars but we are not required to believe in their validity or celebrate them ourselves. It is up to every individual to decide where they stand on the various apparitions.

Guadalupe is one of the apparitions I lean most heavily toward accepting -- but as an apparition of a pagan Goddess. While there are some skeptics who think the man who saw the apparition, a native who was baptized Juan Diego, may not have actually existed, if one takes the basic facts of the apparition I find it more plausible this was a native Goddess appearing to one of Her children.

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in 1531 on a hill where a temple for a Goddess of the conquered Aztecs had once stood. A commonly given name for this Goddess is "Tonantzin" meaning "Our Sacred/Revered Mother", though this is likely just a title that was given to any number of Goddesses. She spoke in the native Nahuatl language to Juan Diego, who is sometimes called a peasant and sometimes called a descendant of royalty depending on where you're looking.

To this day, in Nahuatl-speaking communities...the Virgin continues to be called “Tonantzin” and her appearance is commemorated on December 12 each year.

Juan Diego spoke through at least one translator to tell a bishop of the appearance and show the tilma with the miraculous image. While there are skeptics out there, the tilma where the image appeared does seem miraculous to me, especially as later additions to the original have flaked off and aged over time, in contrast to the original (while many think the image shows Mary crushing or winning over the sun and moon gods by standing on the moon's crescent and blocking the sun -- hence the rays around her -- all of those elements were added later by artists. It appears the crown that used to be on the image was also a later addition).

The word 'Guadalupe' itself predates the New World missions, referring to a place in Spain where a statue of Mary had been rediscovered. The veneration of Our Lady of Guadalupe at first referred to this location in Spain rather than the New World, and only after the rapid growth of interest in the apparitions did the name Guadalupe become irrevocably attached to Mexico.

Therefore "Guadalupe" is commonly believed to be what the Spanish-speaking bishop and clergy thought they heard Juan Diego and any translators say. Nahuatl as a language does not have the voiced consonant "g" or "d" sound you hear in the world "Guadalupe", so the original Nahuatl was likely something else entirely. There are a number of guesses as to an original version, the most basic being that 'Coatlicue' and 'Guadalupe' are quite similar; but ever since the mid 1600s there have been attempts to reconstruct what may have been a Nahuatl phrase that simply sounded like Guadalupe. Of these, Coatlaxopeuh is the most commonly accepted, the name meaning "She Who Has Dominion over Serpents" and likely related to the Goddess Coatlicue ("Serpent Skirt"); other possibles are "Tequantlanopeuh" (She who originated from the summit of the rocks), or "Tlecuauhtlapeupeuh" (She who emerges from the region of light like the Eagle from fire).

The region of light was the dwelling place of the Aztec gods, and the eagle was a sign from the gods. To the Spaniards, it sounded like ‘Guadalupe’ and reminded them of their Virgin at home.

There are further miracles associated with the image, such as a bombing that did not damage the image in any way, and the requisite number of healings that tend to associate themselves with Marian apparitions, but the story of the apparition itself is the most fascinating part. How she told Juan Diego that she is his mother, that she wanted the church built [again] so her people could come to her and be comforted -- it speaks volumes. There are again, those skeptics who believe that the entire story is fabricated, but if it was actually invented entirely by Catholic believers, they did a fantastic job at making this apparition of Mary sound like a Goddess in her own right -- there is very little to do with Jesus in this apparition.

I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions, and sorrows.

What do you think of Marian apparitions? What do you make of Our Lady of Guadalupe? Have you ever looked into the details of this apparition before? 

I hope your Advent is going well!