Please join us for Parent Prayer tomorrow at 7:55am in the Hesed Outdoor Classroom. See other SMOS parents and start your day with a little bit of Jesus!

This week I went around to several of the classes to talk about the story of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. While this story took place almost 500 years ago, it still resonates with Catholics around the world today. 

Here are some of the fun facts about the tilma that your child might want to share with you:

1. While it should have disintegrated after about 20 years, the tilma (cloak) of St. Juan Diego is still in good condition after almost 500 years! While the tilma is now kept in a glass frame, it was not given any sort of protection for the first 115 years after Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego, making the tilma’s survival even more impressive. 
2. Scientists around the world (both Catholic and non-Catholic) have studied the tilma extensively. One of the findings is that a microscopic view of Mary’s eyes in the image shows the faces of onlookers on the day that St. Juan Diego revealed his cloak to the bishop. One can see the face of the bishop as well as several others standing in awe looking at the tilma. 
3. In the image Mary appears as a Mestizo woman, a woman with one Aztec parent and one Spanish parent. At the time of Our Lady’s appearance, there was great strife between the Aztecs and the Spaniards. Mary’s reason for appearing was to help bring peace to the region. 

Please feel free to reach out to me for more fun facts (or if I need to offer clarification on some iffy-sounding science!).