‘Miraculous’ Image of Guadalupe (Skeptic Article)

[Ash Wednesday]

Did St. Juan Diego exist? Juan Jose Barragan Silva and his mother think so. Theirs was the miracle that was approved and brought about his canonization. It's a great story.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/12/st-juan-diegos-miracle/

Keep in mind this is not just folklore, the process for the Church to approve a miracle involves verifying medical fact. (From St. Juan Diego's wiki entry:)

The reputed miracle was investigated according to the usual procedure of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints: first the facts of the case (including medical records and six eye-witness testimonies including those of Barragán and his mother) were gathered in Mexico and forwarded to Rome for approval as to sufficiency, which was granted in November 1994. Next, the unanimous report of five medical consultors (as to the gravity of the injuries, the likelihood of their proving fatal, the impracticability of any medical intervention to save the patient, his complete and lasting recovery, and their inability to ascribe it to any known process of healing) was received, and approved by the Congregation in February 1998. From there the case was passed to theological consultors who examined the nexus between (i) the fall and the injuries, (ii) the mother's faith in and invocation of Blessed Juan Diego, and (iii) the recovery, inexplicable in medical terms. Their unanimous approval was signified in May 2001.^[39] Finally, in September 2001, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted to approve the miracle, and the relative decree formally acknowledging the events as miraculous was signed by Pope John Paul II on December 20, 2001.^[40] The Catholic Church considers an approved miracle to be a Divinely-granted validation of the results achieved by the human process of inquiry which constitutes a cause for canonization.

 

I know they say you can see what you want (from shapes of clouds and the like) -- but I love this: the constellations of Guadalupe

http://www.faithfulanswers.com/new_discoveries_of_the_constellations_on_the_tilma_of_our_lady_of_guadalupe/

[MarysLittleFlower]

I also read that other tilmas disintegrate quickly but this one has stayed intact in not the best conditions. 

[Guest]

17 hours ago, Luigi said:

AShroud of Turin, Guadalupe, St. Louis finding the original crown of thorns, the Nativity appurtenances being miraculously transported to Loreto, Italy - I'm not so sure. And I don't have to be so sure. So I stick with what I know I need.

I will have to check out these other ones. I'm not familiar with this stuff. I just find it lame if the stories aren't true or they're made up. Maybe lame is not the right word. I don't know what word I'm looking for. I guess I'm just taking this all in as I transition to my mid 30's. The Bible, Miracles like these, Dogma, World history and how it's told. It actually doesn't affect my faith in God. I still believe strongly. Although it's from experiences with God in a relationship. 

[Socrates]

Get off teh interwebz and read Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness, by Warren H. Carroll.

[CatherineM]

I've been there. Got whopped upside the head by an elderly Mexican lady when I tried to help her up. Thought she had fallen. She was walking on her knees to the Shrine. 

My Dad once told me that it didn't matter if the Shroud was real or not because centuries worth of pilgrims praying in front of it had made it holy. If the tilma isn't real, it's been made holy the same way by little old ladies who've never really sinned, attended daily mass for decades, and still walk on their knees to the Shrine. 

[Ice_nine]

this is slightly irrelevant, but today my nine year old cousin said "what if Jesus was Mexican and instead of eating holy bread we got a holy taco (so tasty)?!"

stupid kid ;)

[MarysLittleFlower]

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2015‎ ‎9‎:‎23‎:‎23‎, Josh said:

I will have to check out these other ones. I'm not familiar with this stuff. I just find it lame if the stories aren't true or they're made up. Maybe lame is not the right word. I don't know what word I'm looking for. I guess I'm just taking this all in as I transition to my mid 30's. The Bible, Miracles like these, Dogma, World history and how it's told. It actually doesn't affect my faith in God. I still believe strongly. Although it's from experiences with God in a relationship. 

I don't think they are made up though. I believe in things like Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Shroud of Turin, etc.

[Seven77]

http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/st-juan-diegos-miraculous-proof/4581/

The last part of this article got me thinking––how is it that this image is a fake? It was painted by an artist or artists who knew the Aztec culture, Western astronomy, Biblical references, and topography? That's kind of hard for me to believe. And how is it that such a staggering number of converts came about in the years after the image was produced? Everything really does seem to suggest that it is miraculous.  

Why must it look like a photograph to be considered miraculous? I used to be bothered by the fact that it looked like a painting. But God works through things of the current day and age, why not through an image resembling a artistic, painted portrait?  It seems fitting to me. Sure, the angel at the bottom may have been painted in but that doesn't disprove anything about the entirety of the image--- and there's a line in that skeptical article that suggests the image was painted with a single brushstroke (and there's no explanation for it given)! What?? That's amazing!

St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, on this your feast day, pray for us!