Roses in the Snow

FESTIVITY OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

12 DECEMBER

J.M.J.

Dear Father Thomas:

There are few advantages when one is a president of something. Generally, it only represents a great amount of hard work. Sometimes, however, there are some benefits. As being a president of Guadalupe Foundation, I was offered a free flight ticket to Mexico.

I'm writing you from the sanctuary. During my holy hour I was thinking. What is better, the visit that Our Lady of Guadalupe payed to Juan Diego, or a holy hour in the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament?

The roses bloomed on the snow. The image of Our Holy Mother is impressed on the poor vestment that lasted for centuries. Scientists can't decipher how is that the image got impressed in the tilma. She is the woman dressed with the sun. The sun is symbol of her Eucharistic Son. Two hearts that beat in unison.

Let's consider his pleading to the bishop. "To build a chapel". Who is in the chapel? Her Eucharistic Son! Mary leads all her children to the Eucharist.

The beauty of Guadalupe is always during our holy hour of prayer. It does not matter how cold are hearts could be; holy roses bloom. The fragrance of holiness will perdure for all eternity. Every moment that we spend in His Presence, we sprout, grow, and bloom, as roses in the snow.

And with every holy hour, a new and special image is indelibly impressed in our souls. This image is much more beautiful that the one in the sanctuary, which people from all around the world go to admire its beauty with imposing awe.

After every holy hour that you do in the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, dear Thomas, all the angels in heaven look ecstatic the image impressed in your soul.

But, in the same way than Juan Diego had to wait until he get to the palace of the bishop to realize of the beautiful and invaluable possession that he brought, so we should wait as well. Then, as Juan Diego, that he was surprised to discover the image when he opened the tilma to show the bishop the roses, so we get astonished for all eternity to see the effects of a sole holy hour of prayer.

This is the reason why Paul VI points in Mysterium Fidei that one sole holy hour of prayer before Sacramented Jesus, grants us 'an incomparable dignity'. People looks for dignity in the social status, financial stability, popularity, or in the amount of accademic titles. Like that song that said: "Everybody looks for love in all the wrong places".

Dignity is found in the presence of the Supreme being, who lifts us up more and more to Him.

The height and prestige of our true dignity is found in the degree of union that we have with Christ in the Holy Sacrament.

From there, that in my office I have an image of a real size of Our Lady of Guadalupe, so it can remind me where resides my true dignity Bracy is an American that came recently to my office with his friend Michael. Since a couple of years a very holy lay man called Dan Lynch brought to Barth's home, at the behest of his mother Lynda, an image in pilgrimage of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This was something that deeply impacted Barth and helped him to change his life. Now he studies in the seminar to be ordained as priest of the Missionaries of the Holy Sacrament.

Fraternally yours in His Eucharistic Love,

Mgr. Pepe