Guadalupe

“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 it. Be assured that he is now cured” – the words of our Lady to Saint Juan Diego.

In the year 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian peasant named Juan Diego. She told 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.’

She left the miraculous image of herself on his tilma and this image is still venerated in the Basilica deidacated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadelupe in Mexico. This appariton caused the conversion of millions of superstitious natives to Christianity. Our Blessed Virgin and Juan Diego have been called the greatest evangelisation team in histoy because together they converted more than 8 million people in the short span of a few years to the faith. The imprint of the miraculous image on Juan Diego’s tilma tells us the message that if we love her and gather the beautiful roses of meditations on the mysteries of her life and the life of Her Son Jesus, she will leave the impression of her goodness and virtues upon our souls too.

Lourdes

‘No one who drinks this water shall be thirsty again. The water that I shall give will become in him a spring, welling up to Eternal Life.’ (John 4:14) 

In the year 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared to an uneducated girl named Bernadette Soubirous. She left a message of conversion and penance. When asked who she was, she replied, ‘I am the Immaculate Conception’, confirming the fact that Pope Pius IX had declared only four years earlier.

The Blessed Virgin caused a miraculous spring of water to gush forth at Lourdes, the site of her apparitions. Thousands were converted at Lourdes and even till today, it continues to be a site where people from all walks of life journey to experience God under the guidance of the Blessed Mother.

Fatima

‘Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish? And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.’ (Jonah 3:9-10)

In the year 1917, the Blessed Virgin appeared to three shepherd children in the town of Fatima, Portugal. She had a message of conversion and penance and asked for consecration of the world to Her Immaculate Heart. Our Lady revealed herself as ‘The Lady of the Rosary.’ She asked that people say the rosary everyday, reform their lives and make acts of reparation to appease the wrath of God which was ready to destroy the world.