Friday, December 12, 2008

Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Family

OLOG
It's been 16 years since the day my husband and I got married on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We chose that feast day specifically in honor of Our Lady. It was a icy cold, windy and snowy Saturday morning that those brave enough to make it out in such dangerous conditions came out for our wedding.

Our immediate family of course were all there. Good friends also made it a point to be there with us.

Those who attended told us that our nuptial Mass was beautiful. I believe it was because it was done in honor of Our Lady. On the altar we had the wedding candle which I had decorated with the image of our Lady of Guadalupe from Holy Cards that I recently started passing out to friends.

Later as is a tradition, my beautiful bridal bouquet made up up pale pink roses, almost peach in color and baby's breath was presented to Our Lady and laid by her statue.

Nuptial Candle
Ever since that December 12th, 16 years ago, my husband and I have felt our Lady's protection over our family. The three of us have a big devotion to her.

Over the years, we had encounters with our Lady of Guadalupe even though we are yet to make a pilgrimage to la Basilica de Nuestra SeƱora de Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Fr. Pablo Straub
A few years ago, at one of the Marian conferences we attended as a family, Fr. Pablo Straub was a guest speaker. You may know him from missions he gives and are shown on EWTN. Father Straub, while wearing a reproduction of Juan Diego's tilma, gave a mesmerizing talk on our lady of Guadalupe. It was more of a one-man show rather than a priest's homily.

The apparitions at Tepeyac were brought to life by Father's talk.

The talk he gave just happened to be on December 12th. Afterward, we had an opportunity to briefly introduce ourselves to him. We mentioned it just so happened to be our anniversary. Without any hesitation Father Straub offered to bless us. Before he started blessing us, he called over our little Joey who couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 years old at the time, and Father Straub, the priest who so loves our Lady of Guadalupe, gave us a beautiful blessing on our anniversary and her feast day!

OLOG Retablo
Our home is filled with different religious items. Many are statues or pictures of our lady given to us mostly by my mom, sisters and my late grandma. We have two that are very dear to us. One is a print of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the way she appeared on San Juan Diego's tilma. The other
is of a Peruvian retablo made Our Lady of Guadalupe.

OLOG home

We pray the angelus at noon and 6:00 PM in front of the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is a constant presence in our lives.

One reason for this is that since this is the only time the Blessed Mother appeared expecting, we have an affection for her carrying baby Jesus in her womb.

We are therefore now adding the following after we pray the Angelus:

"Our Lady of Guadalupe, Protect the Unborn"

Another encounter happened two years ago at the Divine Mercy conference my family and I attended.

The guest speaker at that time was Dan Lynch, he is also an expert on our Lady of Guadalupe. He travels with her image giving talks about the image itself and its awesome symbolism. Dan Lynch

The explanation of all the image's symbolism can be found here
After that talk about the symbolism, seeing the large image of our Lady of Guadalupe and actually being permitted to touch her miraculous image, has made our devotion to our lady grow even deeper than before.

I firmly believe that it is Our Lady of Guadalupe who has blessed and protected our marriage and our family all these years and continues to do so.

BTW, Happy Anniversary to my dear husband!

14 comments:

Therese said...

Happy Anniversary Esther to both you and your husband.

EC Gefroh said...

Thanks so much Therese!

Mimi said...

Happy, Happy Anniversary to you and your Dear Husband. Many Years!

Anonymous said...

Les and I wish you and Dan a very happy 16th and many many more. I thought we would be sitting next to you at Mass this morning, but the rain changed that for us.
Hope all three of you have a great day.

EC Gefroh said...

Thank you so much Mimi!

Betty and Les, thank you so much. I did see you mouth the words :-)

Anonymous said...

Happy, happy Anniversary to Esther and Dan. May the two of you enjoy many more years together, blessed with God's grace and presence, under the protection of Blessed Mother Mary.

EC Gefroh said...

Oh, thank you so much dear Gail!

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary!

May Our Lady of Guadalupe continue to bless your family always!

Jean Heimann said...

Happy Anniversary, Esther and Dan! I pray for special blessings from Our Lady of Guadalupe for you on this day and throughout your marriage.

May you have many more grace-filled years together!

In Our Mother,
Jean

EC Gefroh said...

Dear MM and Jean, thank you so much from the both of us...and Joey!

Joyful Days said...

Happy Anniversary and what beautiful, loving memories you and your husband have created. May Our Lady bless your marriage for many, many more years.

Julie

Easter Almuena said...

Happy, Happy Anniversary, dear Esther and Dan!!!

Many special blessings to you!

Lots of love...

EC Gefroh said...

Thank you very much Easter!

Love,
Esther and Dan

EC Gefroh said...

Thanks so much Julie!