That Catholics in this country are so little occupied with Our Lady under the title of Guadalupe may, perhaps, be explained by the fact that they know little about the origin of that title, or about the world of devotion of which it is the centre. Then, too, it has been said that these special revelations have a local--when they have not a merely personal--significance; and hence that Guadalupe may be left to the Mexicans. True it is that the hill of Tepeyac, sanctified by the Apparitions, belongs to what is now politically the Republic of Mexico; but it is also to be remembered that when Our Lady came American boundaries were unknown: it was one country from the isthmus to the lakes. The new Christians to whom she spoke were Americans; and the ecclesiastic to whom her message was addressed was then the representative of the Church on this continent. She came, as in past centuries it was well understood and freely expressed, for America and for Americans.

In the older Guadalupan panegyrics and other publications we meet frequent indications of the belief that the Apparitions and the Picture were for the whole continent and all its people. The preachers as well as the poets were constantly exclaiming : "Happy America ! . . . Favored Americans! . . . America, loved of Mary! . . . O Americans! whence was this to you that the Mother of your Lord should come to you?" Historians and canonists spoke similarly. They style Guadalupe "America's glory and crest." The Picture, in the great Cabrera's treatise on it, is entitled "The American Marvel;" and the author expresses the belief that Our Lady wished for a temple at Guadalupe in which she would be served "by the whole New World." The ecclesiastical censor of the same work asserts that the oath of Guadalupan patronage was emitted in the name of "all North America;" and though this is not literally correct--as we may see farther on--it still indicates the sentiment of the time. Carrillo y Perez called Guadalupe the "American Bouquet," and dedicated his work on it to "The Most Special Mother of the Americans." Similarly the censor of Guiridi y Alcocer's Guadalupan treatise writes: "The Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe forms the religious coat of arms of North America." Dr. Campos had earlier declared that "the heavenly Picture illuminates and illustrates the whole of this our hemisphere."

Expressions and titles like those I have quoted--of which examples abound--are a clear indication that the special domain of Holy Mary of Guadalupe in the New World was formerly not supposed to be confined to Mexico or to Spanish America.

That American Catholics will gain much by an intelligent and affectionate cherishing of Our Lady's American title, there can be no reason to doubt. To honor her under any special title is to open for ourselves a rich source of grace; and the more the title is connected with our individual circumstances the more fruitful is it in our devotions. It is like an appointed way, a part of our convenant--as experience can hardly have failed to convince us. Nor should it escape our observation that if origin, length of time, nobility of record, can impart and interpret titular characteristics, then Our Lady's title of Guadalupe is both sacredly and distinctively American.

Moreover, here and now such a devotion is remedial as well as nourishing. It counteracts materialistic tendencies. The very Picture, with its heavenly modesty and delicacy, can be made an efficient bulwark against aggressive worldliness. Its sweet lineaments, kept constantly before the eyes and faithfully transferred to the mind, are capable of attracting to noble purity of character and life. It helps to love the Immaculate Virgin--what then may it not do?

While leading to precious intimacy with Heaven, the Guadalupan beliefs and practices excite admiring gratitude and chivalrous devotedness. Their utter separation from earthly pomp or pretence allies them closely to very simple faith. The devotion makes men interior without their knowing it, and draws them quickly to Divine union. That this should be its effect we need not wonder; for it is proved to be a devotion most pleasing to the hidden one whose beauty was all within--to the New Eve, the only unspotted daughter of our race, without whom there is, providentially, neither beginning, nor continuance, nor consummation, of our union with God.

To honor Our Lord's Mother under the title she chose for herself in this New World, is therefore good for us individually; and while, in any degree, we so honor her we may happily be hastening the day when, for the good of multitudes, Holy Mary of Guadalupe will be universally hailed as Our Lady of America. -- page 4-5 and 284-286