From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Who shall be approved as truly patient [4]   
      
   4. “Be thou therefore ready for the fight if thou wilt have the   
   victory. Without striving thou canst not win the crown of   
   patience; if thou wilt not suffer thou refusest to be crowned.   
   But if thou desirest to be crowned, strive manfully, endure   
   patiently. Without labour thou drawest not near to rest, nor   
   without fighting comest thou to victory.”   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ-- Book 3, Chapter 19   
      
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   December 12th – Our Lady of Guadalupe   
      
   On December 9, as Juan Diego was climbing Tepeyac Hill, he heard   
   beautiful, heavenly music, and saw a glowing cloud encircled by a   
   rainbow. A woman’s voice called to him from the top of the hill,   
   urging him upward. Upon arrival, he saw a beautiful young woman,   
   dressed as an Aztec princess. From the first translation of the   
   accounts of that day: “Approaching her presence, he marveled greatly   
   at her superhuman grandeur; her garments were shining like the sun;   
   the cliff where she rested her feet, pierced with glitter, resembling   
   an anklet of precious stones, and the earth sparkled like the rainbow.   
   The mezquites, nopales, and other different weeds, which grow there,   
   appeared like emeralds, their foliage like turquoise, and their   
   branches and thorns glistened like gold.”   
      
   Our Blessed Mother said to Saint Juan Diego: “Juanito, the most humble   
   of my sons, where are you going?”   
      
   He replied: “My Lady and Child, I have to reach your church in Mexico,   
   Tlatilolco, to pursue things divine, taught and given to us by our   
   priests, delegates of Our Lord.”   
      
   She then spoke to him of her desires and purpose for appearing to him:   
   “Know and understand well, you the most humble of my son, that I am   
   the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of   
   the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth. I wish that a   
   temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all   
   my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful   
   mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the   
   rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; listen there to their   
   lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows.   
   And to accomplish what my clemency pretends, go to the palace of the   
   bishop of Mexico, and you will say to him that I manifest my great   
   desire, that here on this plain a temple be built to me; you will   
   accurately relate all you have seen and admired, and what you have   
   heard. Be assured that I will be most grateful and will reward you,   
   because I will make you happy and worthy of recompense for the effort   
   and fatigue in what you will obtain of what I have entrusted. Behold,   
   you have heard my mandate, my humble son; go and put forth all your   
   effort.”   
      
   Juan Diego left her, reporting immediately to the bishop’s residence,   
   where he informed Father Juan de Zumarraga, a recently arrived   
   Franciscan religious, of the events of the morning. After a   
   significant wait, he was allowed to speak to the bishop, who was kind   
   (but skeptical), and sent him away.   
      
   Disheartened, Juan returned to the Tepeyac Hill, where the Blessed   
   Virgin appeared to him again. Prostrate before her, he apologized for   
   his inability to carry out her request. She smiled upon him, radiant   
   like the sun, and gently said:   
      
   “Hark, my son the least, you must understand that I have many servants   
   and messengers, to whom I must entrust the delivery of my message, and   
   carry my wish, but it is of precise detail that you yourself solicit   
   and assist and that through your mediation my wish be complied. I   
   earnestly implore, my son the least, and with sternness I command that   
   you again go tomorrow and see the bishop. You go in my name, and make   
   known my wish in its entirety that he has to start the erection of a   
   temple which I ask of him. And again tell him that I, in person, the   
   ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent you.”   
      
   Again, Saint Juan Diego agreed to do as he was told, first going home   
   to rest. The following day, he would again visit the bishop. Early the   
   next morning, he returned to the city, seeking audience with the   
   bishop. Again, he was made to wait, this time his sadness and anxiety   
   at not being able to immediately carry out the request of Our Lady   
   reducing him to tears. The bishop, upon seeing his reaction, agreed to   
   meet with him, asking him questions, and remaining skeptical. At the   
   conclusion of the meeting, the bishop requested a sign from the Lady,   
   to prove her identity.   
      
   Saint Juan returned to the hill, and again was graced with an   
   appearance from Our Blessed Mother. Upon recounting the bishop’s   
   request, she said to him:   
      
   “Well and good, my little dear, you will return here tomorrow, so you   
   may take to the bishop the sign he has requested. With this he will   
   believe you, and in this regard he will not doubt you nor will he be   
   suspicious of you; and know, my little dear, that I will reward your   
   solicitude and effort and fatigue spent of my behalf. Lo! Go now. I   
   will await you here tomorrow.”   
      
   Saint Juan Diego returned home, full of joy, as his moments with the   
   Blessed Virgin always left him. Upon arriving home, he was informed   
   that his uncle was ill, and unlikely to live. It was requested that he   
   return to the city in the morning to bring a priest to the home to   
   administer the last sacraments. In the morning, Juan hurried to do so,   
   arriving at Tepeyac Hill, and attempting to skirt it, so as not to be   
   detained by Our Blessed Mother (as time was of the essence). As he was   
   taking an alternate route along the base of the hill, he witnessed Our   
   Lady of Guadalupe descend from above, as if on a cloud, glancing   
   upward to where they typically met. She approached him at the side of   
   the hill and said to him: “What’s there, my son the least? Where are   
   you going?”   
      
   Ashamed, Saint Juan explained the situation, and the reason why he had   
   not kept his “appointment” with her that morning. Smiling, the Blessed   
   Virgin answered: “Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that   
   nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be   
   disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or   
   anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my   
   protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold?   
   What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do   
   not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die now of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)