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Our Lady of Guadalupe: Devotions, Prayers & Living Wisdom
Our Lady of Guadalupe: Devotions, Prayers & Living Wisdom
Our Lady of Guadalupe: Devotions, Prayers & Living Wisdom
Ebook86 pages49 minutes

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Devotions, Prayers & Living Wisdom

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LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 1, 2008
ISBN9781591798354
Our Lady of Guadalupe: Devotions, Prayers & Living Wisdom
Author

Mirabai Starr

Mirabai Starr writes creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. She has received critical acclaim for her revolutionary new translations of the mystics, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and Julian of Norwich. She is the award-winning author of God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation, and Mother of God Similar to Fire, a collaboration with iconographer, William Hart McNichols. Her latest book, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, was published in Spring 2019. She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

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    Book preview

    Our Lady of Guadalupe - Mirabai Starr

    Publisher’s Note

    Sounds True’s Devotions, Prayers, and Living Wisdom series began with a desire to offer the essential teachings of great saints, mystics, and spiritual figures in a format that is compatible with meditation and contemplation. Each book contains poems, prayers, songs, and prose written by or in veneration of a figure who has transcended human confusion, and whose wisdom might awaken our own. It is our hope that these books will offer you insight, renewal, and companionship on the spiritual path.

    Editor’s Note

    Our Lady of Guadalupe is ubiquitous in my homeland of New Mexico and in the heartland of Mexico, where my family spends a great deal of time. While I was born a Jew and have maintained a long-time Buddhist meditation practice, I have always identified with this particular representation of the Divine Mother and have taken comfort in surrounding myself with carved and painted reminders of her. Now, having immersed myself in the stories and teachings surrounding the miraculous apparition of La Virgen Maria for this book, I feel I have uncovered the secret life of an old friend, and I love her more deeply than ever.

    Because Our Lady of Guadalupe did not live in a physical body and therefore did not leave writings of her own, I have drawn on prayers and poems written to her, as well as accounts written about her, including passages from the Nican Mopohua, which conveys the words she is said to have spoken when she first appeared to the Aztec peasant Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill on December 12,151. Readers can find a detailed source list at the back of the book.

    The text is organized into three chapters, reflecting three major themes I find arising in the Guadalupe materials: the miracle of the apparition; mercy and compassion; and social justice. Each chapter opens and closes with a reflection of my own, distinguished by italics, which serves as a contemporary meditation on the theme of that chapter.

    It is my deep hope that in these pages you, too, will either discover or deepen your personal relationship with this great being who reflects the feminine face of the Divine. May Our Lady of Guadalupe guide you on your path home to your sacred self.

    I am deeply grateful for the generous contributions and wise council of Professor Tom Shaw, Professor Larry Torres, Father David Denny, Father William Hart McNichols, Demetria Martinez, Arnulfo and Juanita Mendoza, Kaysi Contreras, Sarah Jane Freymann, Kelly Notaras, Haven Iverson, and Rose Marie Berger.

    —Mirabai Starr

    August 2007

    Image A

    Opening Prayer

    Praise to you,

    Our Lady of Guadalupe,

    who appeared to a humble corn farmer in

    the high desert of ancient Mexico and

    healed the heart

    of a ravaged nation

    with your compassionate glance.

    Please extend your cloak of mercy to enfold us all,

    the weary and disheartened,

    the poor and downtrodden,

    those who work for peace and justice in the world

    and the ones who struggle for righteousness in our own lives.

    Amen.

    —Mirabai Starr

    Image B

    Introduction

    Woman Clothed with the Sun

    She appeared on a remote hilltop in the high desert of Latin America during the height of the Conquest. The indigenous people saw her as a manifestation of Goddess. The Catholic occupiers recognized her as the Virgin Mary. Her compassionate gaze melted the barriers between cultures and faiths, spreading a wave of healing love through a war-ravaged region. She did not come to pay her respects to the privileged and the powerful. She called on the poor and oppressed. She lifted them to their feet, and infused them with dignity and

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