Is the Shrine to the Lady of Guadalupe acceptable to God?

Over the centuries since the ascension of Christ, there have been many visions of an apparition calling herself the Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord. One of the most famous of these occurrences is the appearance of the Lady of Guadalupe, near Mexico City, in 1531. Although many devout Catholics believe this spirit calling herself Mary to be who she said she is, I believe this creature was not Mary at all but rather a deceiving spirit. I will make my point shortly; in the meantime, the story of the apparition of ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’can be found at www.michaeljournal.org/guadalupe. There are several reasons to believe that the vision that Juan Diego saw in 1531 was not Mary at all but a demon with the purpose of taking the focus of a devout Catholic believer away from God and redirecting it to itself. That, of course, is a strategy of the enemy of God, to use any means available to distract our attention and devotion away from the living God and place it anywhere but on the Father and the Son.

1. The Lady called herself ‘the ever-virgin Holy Mary of Guadalupe’. The name ‘Guadalupe’ is a Spanish translation from the Aztec Nahuatl word “coatlaxopeuh”. In English, this translates to “crushes the serpent”. The apparition used this claim to describe herself; in reality, it is not Mary who will crush the serpent (Satan), but Jesus (Genesis 3:15). This was just one way the spirit sought to deceive the unwary and usurp the role of our Savior.

2. Her appearance to Juan Diego was one of grandeur and dazzling beauty, as might rival Christ Himself on His return to earth.

3. She allowed Diego to bow before her, something any spirit or person devoted to the One God would never ever permit (Rev. 19:10).

4. She expressed her wish to have a temple to her built for the inhabitants of Mexico.

5. She insisted on the construction of her temple at least three different times to Juan Diego, sending him in her name to the bishop.

6. She referred to herself as the “Mother of God”, a theological impossibility, since God is the beginning of all things and can have no mother. While it is true that Jesus was God in the flesh, Mary gave birth to the physical body of Jesus, not His spiritual identity.

7. Juan Diego assumed the apparition was the mother of Christ, but she neither affirmed or denied his assumption, instead allowing his devotion to her to continue.

8. She told Diego that he was under her protection, and she spontaneously cured his sick and dying uncle.

9. She performed other ‘signs and wonders’ as well. According to the story, she caused a variety of rose bushes to appear to Juan Diego and bloom out of season. As proof of her ‘divine’ status for Diego to take to the bishop, she directed her servant to cut an arrangement of the flowers, which would then appear as ‘real’ only to himself and the bishop, and as a one-dimensional picture on his cloak to everyone else. Upon gaining audience with the bishop, Diego poured the roses out onto the floor. Moreover, the very cloak used to perform this miracle allegedly bears the image of the Marian apparition and is said to be kept today in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, remaining unchanged after more than 450 years.

10. At no time in the story of the encounters between Juan Diego and this spirit did the vision of ‘Mary’ give any glory or show any kind of devotion to God or to Jesus Christ. The real Mary was a devoted follower of Jesus, worshipping Him alongside the other apostles (Acts 1:13-14).

In spite of all these points that should be red flags to all Christians, Marian apparitions still hold a great number of followers who visit shrines to her all over the world. Administrators of these shrines would deny that Mary is worshipped, per se, but visitors to the shrines kneel before images of her and offer prayers to her as an intercessor between man and Christ. Jesus stands side by side with the Holy Spirit as our intercessor before God, not Mary.

The views of one man cannot change so many centuries of Catholic tradition and belief, but God has gifted my heart and mind with the ability to discern between spirits. The existence and use of shrines and temples devoted solely to Mary, or to any other saints, just feels wrong, and I cannot in good conscience stand idly by and know that people who God created for His glory are giving their devotion to anything other than Him, and still not let my concerns be heard.

This entry is certainly not an attack against any part of the Catholic church or its tradition. Rather, it is my prayer that my words will be read and taken to heart by all Christians, and that any who have expressed such devotion to Mary in her shrine or offered prayers to her will turn fully and completely to God and Christ Jesus. Mary stands among the saints, on even ground with believers in Christ past and present, not on a pedestal. To consider Mary or any other saint as anything more than a fellow believer, is to tread on potentially dangerous spiritual ground, and the risk of stepping into idolatry is simply too great. Christ alone is our Savior, and all our prayer, worship and devotion is for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and no other. Amen.