Paulist Fr. Dave Dwyer, who leads our media ministry Busted Halo, is in Mexico this week for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

He writes about the experience of seeing the St. Juan Diego’s tilma in person:

I have seen the iconic image all of my life – in replica paintings tapestries, statues, even tattoos. But seeing in person, up close, the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe — the one that the Blessed Mother herself left miraculously emblazoned on the cloak of a poor indigenous peasant man 500 years ago — was quite powerful for me. I got choked up upon stepping into the Basilica that enshrines it, merely beholding it from afar. And although it may sound trite, there’s really no way to describe what it’s like to stand right in front of it. Probably the thing that most struck me is Mary’s face. Many commentators have interpreted her downward look as that of humility, but to me it was more: she exuded melancholy and pathos — not sad or somber necessarily, but an almost overwhelming motherly concern for her children.