Lovely lady dressed in stars

12/12/12. Okay that's just plain fun. And yes, made even cooler by being the anniversary of an apparition in the Americas too.

I know many people whose relationship with Jesus' mom I wholeheartedly admire. And envy. Including those who have a devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Yet, when I look at pictures of that miraculous image, and even when I've studied the incredible details and symbolism of the tilma, with the cord indicating her Pregnancy and the reflection of Juan Diego in her eye, I still don't have an immediate connection with the image. I see someone depicted whom I know to be beautiful, but who appears to my modern eyes as.. well foreign and historic. Not the lovely native queen the humble man met on a hillside.

I probably felt most connection with Our Lady of Guadalupe when I was Our Lady of Guadalupe. In a homeschool drama club of course. About 25 year ago today (pause here to pass out in shock at my age, somewhat recover and continue typing in a daze) okay some time ago on this date I was dressed in something blue... Pretty sure it had nothing on a starry robe but still. And I was reciting those irresistibly comforting words: "Am I not here who am your mother? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?" (Meanwhile my younger female thespian--still a good friend of mine--was trying to look as impressed and Juan Diegoish as possible.)

I think that's just the long, much more eloquent version of what I say to my baby every day when she wakes up crying from a nap: "Don't worry baby. Momma's here."

I can definitely connect with that, despite my attachment failure with the miraculous tilma, which while supernaturally mind-blowing lacks an immediate familiarity. That's one of the reasons I'm really glad about this.  As a mom I feel the need to connect with my heavenly mother. And no, of course, paintings of Our Lady engaged in the very human tasks of raising a baby in no way replace a miraculous image. But they do remind me if the miracle of motherhood, and the extraordinary ordinary that fills our days.

O beautiful Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us, your little ones. -TLC

PS I just found out my husband's nom de plume is a white fish. This comes as a bit of a shock. Here's praying for you, COD:

Lovely Lady dressed in stars,
Teach us how to pray.
If we from Venus, men from Mars,
All help you give we'll take.

Ah. Men.

(There I go glibbing again...)