Our Lady of Guadalupe

One of the new stained-glass windows at St. Mary's Cathedral.
It was early on a rainy morning, yet the brilliance comes through.

I love the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A Lady appeared in 1531 to a peasant named Juan Diego on a hill near Mexico City. The Lady asked him to have a church built in her honor. Juan Diego went to report this to the bishop, who wouldn't believe him and sent him back to ask the Lady for a sign. So the Lady gave this peasant a cloakful of roses—in the dead of winter—as proof for the bishop. When Juan Diego opened his tilma (cloak) to show the bishop the roses, there was an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe miraculously imprinted on it. No modern scientist has been able to determine how the image came to be. The church was built, and the tilma with this now-famous image can still be visited in Mexico City.