Legion of Mary

OUR LADY of GUADALUPE - 6 • If her cloak were unfolded completely, the Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown), would be over Our Lady’s forehead, indeed crowning her with stars (Rev. 12:1). The arc of this crown is created by 7 major stars and 6 lesser stars, 13 in all. • The constellation Virgo would be placed over the area of Mary's heart, signifying her immaculate and virginal purity. • The constellation Leo, representing Our Lord (the Lion of the Tribe of Judah) would be placed over her womb (Rev. 5:5). Leo’s primary star is ‘Regulus,’ meaning ‘little king’ (the Christ Child). • Gemini (the Twins), would be over Our Lady’s knees or lap, often called the Seat of Wisdom. Many depictions of Our Lady with Our Lord show Him sitting or standing in her lap. • Orion (the Warrior/Hunter) would be over the angel at the bottom of the image, who perhaps represents the great warrior Prince of the Heavenly Host, Archangel St. Michael.

OUR LADY of GUADALUPE - 5 The Invisible Constellations • 15 constellations were visible in the night sky on the night of December 12, 1531. Some of the folds in Our Lady’s cloak obscure the full view of some constellations, while others wrap around her back, making 5 constellations invisible, the four that are on the back of the cloak and the one that covers the top of Our Lady’s head.

OUR LADY of GUADALUPE - 4 Our Lady Clothed in Stars • The stars that appear on Our Lady’s cloak are astronomically correct and correspond precisely to the constellations of the winter sky in Mexico on December 12th, 1531. The Julian calendar, ten days off from the modern calendar, was still in use in Mexico. This actually places Our Lady’s appearance, according to the Gregorian calendar, on the morning of the 22nd of December – the Winter Solstice – which is the longest night of the year. After the Solstice, the days grow longer. Our Lady appeared at dawn on the Winter Solstice, bringing “the dawn from on high” Christ Himself, and signaling an end to the darkness of paganism. • The precise apex of the Solstice was at 10:40 a.m., likely the precise moment when the visionary, Juan Diego, was unfolding the tilma and showing it to the bishop of Mexico. • The constellations on the cloak appear as if viewed from outside the universe, in other words, as if being viewed from above by the eyes of God, with north being south and south being north, rather than from below as would be seen from earth.

OUR LADY of GUADALUPE - 3 The Name Now, the language the Aztecs was Nahuatl. It is thought that the name ‘Guadalupe’, the site of a prior Marian miracle in Spain, was a misinterpretation of the Nahuatl name that Our Lady had given to herself, ‘[Te ] Coatlaxopeub’, which means "she who bruises the serpent”, and sounds the same as ‘Guadalupe’. Tepeyac, the site of Our Lady’s apparitions, was the former location of an important pagan temple honoring an Aztec goddess with the name ‘Our venerated Mother Woman-Snake’. This was commonly known by the local population in 1531. While ‘Guadalupe’, a location in Spain and a name derived from Arabic would have had no meaning for them, ‘[Te ] Coatlaxopeub’, an Aztec name, would have been very meaningful. The Image In her miraculous image, Our Lady appears to be standing in front of a sun, thus crushing, and proving herself more powerful than, the most important god of the Aztecs, and the layers of miracles within the image itself, and associated with it, are many, including: • Infra-red studies which reveal that the image was not painted and the color does not penetrate the fibers. The image is iridescent. Studies have not succeeded in discovering the origin of the coloration of the image. Microscopic examination has revealed that there are no brush strokes. • There is no under-sketch or under-drawing on the image. • The image has remained intact for 492 years and shows no signs of deterioration. Under normal conditions, the tilma, woven of agave popotule fiber from the ixtle plant, should not have lasted for more than 60 years.

OUR LADY of GUADALUPE - 2 1531 By 1531, fueled by long-standing and uncorrected abuses within the Catholic Church, large sections of Europe were in the midst of a religious revolt and millions were apostatizing from the one, true Faith. The earliest dissenters appeared in the 14th century. By 1517, Martin Luther had posted his infamous Ninety-five Theses on the church door in Wittenburg, leading to revolt in other parts of Europe. In 1531, King Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church in England, and then proceeded to steal every piece of church property that had been built in England for more than a thousand years, closing all of the monasteries, rendering thousands of monks and nuns homeless, and destroying any aid to the poor supplied by this vast network of religious houses. In Mexico, things were also not going so well for the Church. The Aztecs, having been conquered in 1521, were on the verge of an uprising, due to the severity of Spanish rule. Few had converted to the Catholic faith, and human sacrifice to the Aztec ‘gods’ (we would rightly identify them as demons) continued. So, in 1531, Our Lady personally came to the New World to convert the entire Western Hemisphere. She appeared on a low-lying hill on the outskirts of what is today called Mexico City. It is not the middle-point of the country of Mexico, but is instead the geographical center of the entire hemisphere of North, Central, and South America, or “the Americas.” Much of what we know about these events comes from what was, for many years, oral history. As the story is told, on December 9, 1531, the day after the Feast of her Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a humble and devout peasant named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, a recently converted Aztec. He first beheld this beautiful young woman while walking to Mass. She identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary, and asked that he take a message from her to the Bishop, a Franciscan friar by the name of Juan de Zumrárraga. She requested that a church be built in her honor on the barren hill of Tepeyac, now part of Mexico City, where she appeared to Juan Diego, to be a sign of her love, and promising to bless those who came there to pray. When asked by Zumrárraga to procure a sign from the Lady to confirm her identity, Juan Diego returned with his cloak full of Castilian roses, unknown in Mexico at the time, that had miraculously bloomed at the command of the Lady. Legend has it that she arranged them with her own hands in his cloak. This was on December 12, 1531. Imagine the astonishment of all in the room as Juan Diego opened his cloak (tilmahtli), allowing the roses to spill forth onto the floor, their gazes captivated by the miraculous image our Our Lady herself which had instantaneously appeared on the tilma where the roses had been. The church was built, as Our Lady had requested. Our Lady also appeared to the uncle of Juan Diego, Juan Bernardino, who was close to death and miraculously cured by her. He said that Our Lady should be properly called ‘the Perfect VIrgin, Holy Mary of Guadalupe.’

December 12th ~ OUR LADY of GUADALUPE Empress of the Americas A Brief History

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 12th The Long Darkness (continued) 3. If I had lived then, what should I have been? Even with all my countless graces and advantages, what a poor specimen I am of one made by God, for God, and in the image of God! In heathen days should I not have been among the most depraved? Should I not have recklessly indulged my own inclinations, irrespective of the voice of God warning and reproaching me? What chance should I have had of saving my soul in those days of dark corruption and depravity? ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

PRAYER to OUR LADY of GUADALUPE O Holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God, who as Our Lady of Guadalupe didst aid in the conversion of Mexico from paganism in a most miraculous way, we now beseech thee to bring about in these our times the early conversion of our modern world from its present new-paganism to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of thy divine Son,Jesus Christ, starting in the Americas and extending throughout the entire world, so that soon there may be truly “one fold and one shepherd,” with all governments recognizing the reign of thy Son, Jesus Christ the King. This we ask of the Eternal Father, through Jesus Christ His Son Our Lord and by thy powerful intercession—all for the salvation of souls, the triumph of the Church and peace in the world. Amen. With Ecclesiastical Approval.

December 12th ~ OUR LADY of GUADALUPE O GOD, Who hast willed that, placed as we are under the special patronage of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, we should accumulate perpetual favors, grant to us, Thy suppliant people, whose joy it is this day to honor her upon earth, the happiness of seeing her in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Collect, December 12, Our Lady of Guadalupe ~ St. Joseph Daily Missal, 1956

Immaculate Mary (continued) 7. In grief and temptation, In joy, or in pain, We'll seek thee, our Mother, ⁠Nor seek thee in vain. 8. O bless us, dear Lady, With blessings from heaven, And to our petitions Let answer be given. 9. In death's solemn moment, Our Mother, be nigh; As children of Mary O teach us to die! 10. And crown thy sweet mercy With this special grace, To behold soon in heaven ⁠God's ravishing Face. 11. Now to God be all glory And worship for aye, And to Gods Virgin Mother, An endless Ave. ~ Catholic Church Hymnal (1905)

Hymn - Immaculate Mary 1. Immaculate Mary! Our hearts are on fire; That title so wondrous Fills all our desire! Refrain (sung after each verse) Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! Ave, Ave Maria! 2. We pray for God's glory, May His kingdom come; We pray for His Vicar, Our Father in Rome. 3. We pray for our Mother, The Church upon earth, And bless, sweetest Lady, The land of our birth. 4. We pray for all sinners, And souls that now stray From Jesus and Mary In heresy's way. 5. For poor, sick, afflicted, Thy mercy we crave; And comfort the dying, Thou light of the grave! 6. There is no need, Mary, Nor ever hath been, Which thou canst not succor Immaculate Queen.

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 11th The Long Darkness (continued) 2. Yet every man had light and grace sufficient, and more than sufficient, to enable him to walk in the ways of God, and to find his way to the kingdom of heaven. But none save a very few availed themselves of it. "They loved darkness more than light." The world gradually lost all regard for virtue or for God. How grateful should I be to God that I live in happier days! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 10th The Long Darkness 1. The light extinguished at the Fall was rekindled in the hearts of our first parents when the promise was given them of a Redeemer Who should undo the fatal mischief that had been done. But in their children Adam and Eve had to lament the fatal effects of that deadly evil that they had introduced into the world. As generation followed generation, thicker and thicker grew the darkness, farther and farther did men wander away from the light, that gave to each the power of guiding his feet aright from earth to heaven. Thus it is that each ill deed goes on bearing its deadly fruit, often long after the doer is dead and gone. ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel Month of the Immaculate Conception ~ December 9th The Announcement of His Coming (continued) 3. Yet the promise of a Redeemer rekindled the light of hope in the souls of Adam and Eve. They and all their children were ever looking and praying for His coming. God's intention was to keep them in expectancy. So too with His second coming. There has always been a tradition of expectation. "Blessed is the man whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching." Hence learn to watch and pray. Come quickly, O Lord Jesus! ~ Rev. Richard F. Clarke, S.J., The Devout Year (1893)

Our Lady with Bl. Pope Pius IX and Ven. Pope Pius XII, who dogmatised, respectively, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Mother of God

"The Blessed Virgin Mary lived without sin. None of the saints besides Her are without sin [Sancta virgo Maria sine ullo vixit peccato. Nullus praeterea sanctorum absque peccato]. We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin. With the exception of this Virgin, if we had been able to bring together all those saints during their earthly life and ask them if they were without sin, what do we think their answer would have been? [...] Would they not have cried out with one voice at our eventual question: 'If we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us'?" St. Augustine, On Nature and Grace, 42 [PL 44:267]

Today we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary «²⁸And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”» Luke 1:28 (RSVCE) «By the authority of Jesus Christ Our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own: We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful». Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus (1854)

The New Columbian Women’s League: O GOD, Who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst prepare a worthy habitation for Thy Son, we beseech Thee, that as by the foreseen death of that same Son, Thou didst preserve her from all stain, so too thou wouldst permit us, purified through her intercession, to come unto Thee. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. _________________________ Interested? Send an email to womensleague@newcolumbiamovement.org. - Twitter: https://twitter.com/ncwomensleague?s=21 - IG: https://instagram.com/ncmwomensleague?utm_medium=copy_link - FB: https://www.facebook.com/NewColumbianWomensLeague @TheNewColumbiaMovement

December 8th ~ FEAST of the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY O GOD, Who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst prepare a worthy dwelling for thy Son, we beseech Thee that Thou, Who, by the death foreseen by Thee, of the same Thy Son, didst preserve her from all stain, wilt grant us also, by her intercession, to come to Thee pure in heart. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Collect, December 8, Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ The New Roman Missal, 1937