I Who Am Your Mother
By Rachael Geiger
My grandfather was born on December 12th, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A simple, Southern man, his conversion to Catholicism in the evening of his life brought about a great devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, who had so clearly chosen him. He died December 11th, the eve of his birthday and the vigil of her feast.
The card for his funeral had her picture on the front, and a quote on the back that I remember turning over in my 14-year-old hands: “Am I not here, who am your Mother? Are you not under my protection?” The quote still has its place propped up on my mother’s desk in my childhood home. While it’s meaning partially struck me then, it rings even more truly now. As protests and rioting have filled our streets, political divides grow increasingly more hostile, and a virus has ravaged our world, turning to the one who has been deemed Our Lady of the Americas feels like our lifeline.
Who is this woman clothed with the twelve stars, why did she appear when she did, and, in a world of chaos, how do we know for sure that she’s protecting us now? From the hill of Tepeyac to the coast of Florida to the border of Texas to a small lake town in New Jersey, Our Lady of Guadalupe still spreads her mantle over her beloved Americas, and women are here to tell the tale. First, we have to start where the story began.
A HUMBLE APPEARANCE
Not much is known about Juan Diego, the middle-aged convert whom Our Lady chose. Possibly a recently widowed man, Juan Diego was born in 1474 into the Aztec culture near modern-day Mexico City. Baptized with his wife by Franciscan missionaries, Juan Diego was accustomed to walking to the Franciscan mission in the mornings to pray. His route took him past a certain hill at Tepeyac where, on the morning of December 9, 1531, he encountered a vision of a young, pregnant woman who told him she was the ever-virgin Mother of God.
In the midst of Aztec suppression by Spanish rule and Aztec practices such as human sacrifice, Our Lady’s choice of appearing as an Aztec native makes it clear: she wanted to get to the heart of things. Appearing to Jaun Diego was no accident; our Lady chose him, a simple, passionate convert, defying his own culture while also being suppressed by another.
The Blessed Mother appeared as a native and spoke the Aztec language. She didn’t separate herself or place herself above - she took this broken, beaten-down culture as her own. The divide between Spaniards and Aztecs was open and hostile, and she appeared as one of their own right in the middle of it.
She entreated Juan Diego to build a church in her honor and, although it took overcoming obstacles to get there, with the help of the miracle of the tilma the bishop was convinced and a chapel was built outside Mexico City.
OUR LADY’S INTERCESSION TODAY
About 500 years later, Maggie Killackey from Wayne, New Jersey, found herself turning to Our Lady in times of trial. Ending her family rosary every night with her four children with the prayer: “Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us,” Maggie says she was struck by the “microcosmic and macrocosmic” intercession so present in Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“She says to Juan Diego, ‘I am your Mother,’ and appears looking like him. On that microcosmic level, she appears as a local. On a macrocosmic level, she is given to us as patroness of the Americas, to be a mother to us all,” says Maggie.
To her, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the most apparent picture of Mary being our Mother, as she appeared according to the culture and ethnicity of her children. Maggie feels as though Our Lady of Guadalupe has particularly looked after her family because her microcosmic and macrocosmic intercession cannot possibly be a one-time occurrence.
A MIRACULOUS INTERVENTION
Lauren Santos, a resident of El Paso, Texas, also feels particularly cared for by Our Lady of Guadalupe after a near-death experience. Now an artist, Lauren was a senior in high school when she collapsed from cardiac arrest in a back hallway during lunch due to a yet-undiscovered heart condition. She doesn’t know how long she was unconscious, but when her friend Renata found her, her entire body was in hypoxia, meaning she had turned blue. Renata rushed to get help.
EMT’s and Lauren’s parents arrived at the scene, with her father immediately entreating Heaven: “Lord, let Your will be done, but please don’t take my baby.” After this prayer left his lips, the EMT’s found a heartbeat. In order to preserve Lauren from any further possible brain damage, she was put into an induced coma once she arrived at the hospital.
“The doctors actually told my parents that when they took me out of the induced coma, it was possible I could be in a vegetative state or have sustained brain damage from my fall as well,” Lauren explains.
In the tension of this desperate situation, Our Lady of Guadalupe made her intercession known, first to Lauren’s father. When he went home to grab a few things, Lauren’s dad sat down briefly to research Lauren’s new diagnosis: a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Laid against the computer was a prayer card of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
While Lauren’s family is Hispanic, she said they didn’t know much of her story until her accident occurred.
“Funny enough, but because I’m Hispanic and she’s prevalent in our culture, I think it’s become very cultural,” Lauren says. “I’m embarrassed to say that other than very minimal facts, I didn’t know the full story behind her until I was 18. I think for a lot of Hispanics that’s true, that they don’t really know the spiritual background of her. I saw her everywhere, but I didn’t really know her.”
Despite being present in her home for cultural reasons, the prayer card spoke personally to Lauren’s father. He turned it over, and on the back was the same quote that Our Lady spoke to a worried and despairing Juan Diego after taking care of his sick uncle: “Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who am your Mother? Are you not under my protection?”
Lauren’s father experienced immense consolation and took the prayer card with him, placing it right by Lauren’s hospital bed. The family - along with countless others across the world who heard of Lauren’s story - prayed for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
When Lauren woke up, she had no brain damage and was able to walk away from the hospital twelve days after she had been admitted. Her doctors said those with her condition usually left in a wheelchair or blind.
When Renata came to visit with her mom a fews days later, Lauren’s dad spoke of how miraculous it was that Lauren was healthy, and told them about the prayer card and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Renata’s mom was taken aback, and pointing to her daughter, asked, “You know what her name is, right?” They all said no.
“It’s Renata Guadalupe,” she said. “She was born on December 12th.”
Lauren says she feels that Renata, in a way, embodied Our Lady of Guadalupe’s intercession. Now, Lauren practices an incredibly deep devotion to her and speaks of how Our Lady comes to protect the most vulnerable. “Looking at Our Lady, the fact that God would send His own mother to people who were viewed by the rest of the Western world as useless to society is incredible,” Lauren says. "Their lives are so of value that Our Lady would come to protect and save them. Our Lady is someone who values all life, but particularly those who are vulnerable.”
A MOTHER TO ALL
At my university on the coast of Florida, there was a statue of Our Lady of Gaudalupe surrounded by a beautiful prayer garden. I sat in front of her many nights, praying about finals and anxiety, boys and vocations. When Hurricane Irma hit my campus, trees were blown over and our campus torn up, but Our Lady of Guadalupe remained in the storm. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, we stood in front of the same statue, entrusting our health and safety once again to Our Lady. She was there in every moment of my personal mess, and she was there in the midst of catastrophic, national, and global messes as well.
Through these stories and those of countless other women - and men - who find themselves under the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we can all be struck by the personal intercession she gives: she appears in resemblance to her children who feel forgotten, rejected and hopeless.
She doesn’t appear as someone unreachable in her regality; in fact, her regality is in her simplicity.
As with Juan Diego, when even her appearance is not enough, she imprints herself on us as she did on the tilma. Since she takes our image on herself, we can bear hers, too. She appeared in the midst of turmoil, of human sacrifice, of despair - and she’ll do it again, now.
She shows that no one is excluded from her reach; no race, culture, or situation is left out when she says, “Am I not here I who am your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you or disturb you.”
