Writing
One of the reasons I like studying religions and spiritual worship is that I like to see humans embracing our humility and recognizing our frailty. I like to see us filled with wonder too, and believing in the miraculous and the unseen that defy the usual comforts of today’s rational logic.
And here in Mexico, it’s especially poignant to see people reverencing and expressing awe to a woman and a mother. It’s a refreshing recognition of the divine feminine right in the midst of mainstream, patriarchal heavy Catholicism.
For me, Mary symbolizes letting spirit live through you, how to be willing to let what needs to be born through your life be born inside you…and that maybe, the ultimate design, the results of this, are not even for you but for all the others your life touches. Her generosity and her willingness- this is the story and symbolism I see when I think of Mary and her birthing of Jesus.
All this to say, it was pretty special to go to the most visited Catholic site in the world to honor Mother Mary at the Basilica de Guadalupe. The magical cloak on which her image first appeared in 1531 is on display and is the origin of all the Virgin de Guadalupe images of Mary you’ve ever seen on a taxi driver’s dashboard, on a bodega candle, as a statue, on a tattoo, or in a church. It’s a pretty special story of 5 apparitions, the complexities of settler-indigenous identities colliding, the power of persistence, and ultimately of giving over. My favorite part of the story if when Mary, no doubt a little frustrated with needing to appear to Juan Diego a fourth time to get shit done, says "¿No estoy yo aquí que soy tu madre?" ("Am I not here, I who am your mother?") What a beautiful assurance for all of us because sometimes don’t we all just want our moms?