Guadalupe: A River of Light

GAROL-ENG-X-WEB

Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico is one of the most popular advocations of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the whole world. Only a few people know that the Virgin Mary appeared to a Spanish shepherd called Gil Cordero several hundred years before appearing to St Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill. The story of the image that Gil Cordero found buried in Extremadura, Spain harks back to the first century. According to well-attested traditions, the first miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was carved by St Luke, the author of the Gospel According to St Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles. Famous men, like Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado, Alfonso XI of Spain, King Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella had a strong devotion for Our Lady of Guadalupe. When the Virgin Mary appeared to St Juan Diego in 1531, the name “Our Lady of Guadalupe” already had a long record of miraculous events. This book traces the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the days of St Luke, then to the apparition of Our Lady on Tepeyac Hill, the entrance in history of the miraculous tilma of St Juan Diego, and the extraordinary scientific investigations that have left so many scientists baffled, and caused the conversion of one Nobel Prize scientist to Catholicism. Our Lady of Guadalupe has a message for all of us in this generation. Millions have found Christ through her advocation. Hers is perhaps the most astonishing story of our age.

People have commented on Guadalupe: A River of Light

_5stars 5 out of 5 stars
A Story for Our Times
29 July 2017
Mr. Michael Leahy (Ireland)
A story of times past, but one which applies to our times more than any other era. This is demonstrated by the startling fact that modern science has revealed information from this apparition which previous generations had no way of knowing. Our Lady left an image of herself on the garment, called a ’tilma’, of a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego. Her eyes have been analysed by modern scientific instrumentation. These eyes show an image of a reflection of a group of people from the time of the apparition, including Juan Diego and his bishop. The bishops eyes themselves have been demonstrated to contain an image of Juan Diego. This is a well-researched and concise book, with a message for our times. I highly recommend it.

_5stars 5 out of 5 stars
Illuminating and inspiring
August 3, 2017
Cathy
I am fascinated by the story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe so I try to read anything about it. I pretty much thought I knew everything at this point but this author has pulled together so much historical, political and religious information and has cohesively tied it all together that my eyes were opened to some incredible hidden mysteries and relationships. This book is well researched and intelligent but still easy to read. It’s obvious the author has a love for his subject as well. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand and appreciate this miracle that continues to reverberate.

_5stars 5 out of 5 stars
Many modern thinkers begin with a premise that there are none and so no time is wasted looking for them
August 11, 2017
J. Hanna
This book tells a story that cuts across the grain of what we think we know. There are only three possibilities to explain our being. Life experience is meaningless in an accidental universe, or life has emerged out of an accidental universe guided by a secular spirit-like urge sometimes called natural selection or progress and having achieved consciousness can assign meaning using will, or lastly that life was created with intention by a Creator. All human philosophies fit into one of those three categories, usually quite neatly. If there is a Creator, the reasonable person might expect some signs of this being to be observable in some manner. Of course a Creator of the universe must reside outside of it and also outside of time as time is part of the creation, but nothing in reason would forbid the possibility of such a being able to influence the course of things to a greater or lesser extent. Is there a spirit that winds through history? If there is, has it left any evidence? Are there footprints of the Divine that we might discover?
Many modern thinkers begin with a premise that there are none and so no time is wasted looking for them. Those who are not looking can not see. For the person that is open to the possibility of Divine action in history, there are countless examples of unexpected events, coincidences and outcomes for which material causes cannot be discovered. The author takes the reader on a tour of a series of historical events and artifacts that twist standard probability models into impossible knots. The tour begins in the first century. It ends just yesterday. The highlight of the tour is the miraculous tilma that carries the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is an icon of Mexican culture. How was the image formed, when and why? And what does it mean? Did Mexican culture form around that image as if it was a catalyst? The author makes a strong case, using the facts that are known and some reasonable speculation to interpolate between the data points that The image is both a catalyst and a revelation. There is more going on in our world than just molecules rubbing together. For those with their eyes open, the tour is an exiting one. There are plenty of hard and verifiable facts to consider along the way, but The implications are nothing short of astounding. Faith should never be based on signs, but when signs are encountered, the faithful can taken them to heart. Life is not meaningless. There is meaning everywhere and the author as tour guide does a good job of pointing out some of the clues waiting to be discovered.

_5stars 5 out of 5 stars
Beautiful bird’s eye view of devotion to the Virgin Mary
August 15, 2017
Andrew Armstrong
A beautiful bird’s eye view of devotion of the Virgin Mary, culminating with the miraculous events at Tepeyac (Mexico). Found the description of how Our Lady of Guadalupe was able to speak directly to the native populations fascinating, and how the apparition was crucial to the formation of the great country of Mexico. Yet somehow the author manages to eloquently convey that the message of The Apparition is just a relevant today.