I have thought before about how scared and elated Juan Diego must have felt. In asking my 8 year old if she would like to receive an apparition she without hesitation said, "YES"! I doubt. It would come with great responsibility and social question. I think I'm just too weak.
"Am I not your Mother?" the Virgin is quoted as asking.
"Are you not sheltered underneath my mantle, under the embrace of my arms?"
So Juan Diego did what he was asked to do and today millions of patrons will walk in remembrance and reverence.
A parish priest we once knew told a story at the children's Mass one day. He told of being a little boy in Arizona walking to Mass. Along his walk he looked down in the field and saw something shining in the sun. Kneeling down he saw that the object was a medal. He picked it up and learned that the medal was Our Lady of Guadalupe. Years down the road as he was completing his religious orders, a package arrived for him. He opened the box and found vestments that looked just like the one Juan Diego wore with Mary's image imprinted on it. He never forgot the medal he found or the protection of our Blessed Mother.
I'm sure somewhere in the world he wearing his vestments today with fond memories and joyful hope.
