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This reconstruction shows what is possibly the layout of how the original was made to appear (not the face of Our Lady, but the 'crown' and what else surrounds her) about 200 years ago, after the additions were made -- all of these additions having since fallen away, over the years:
I find it interesting that while this version does have the correct number of stars on her mantle, 46, they are improperly distributed, that is, they are in some of the wrong places, and there are 17 on the left and 29 on the right side, whereas there should be 22 on the left and 24 on the right.
The 4 oval pictures, one in each corner, depict a moment in the story of Juan Diego's experience. Using this type of layout, teachers were able to point to each part and tell the story to students. (The next example, below, is a better diagram for what I'm saying here.) The top left is the beginning, when Juan Diego was walking through the hills on his way to morning Mass, the day after December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Recognize that for him to get to morning Mass on time, he would have had to leave his house at about 4:00 am, which is the time today that Masses are begun in many places, in commemoration of Juan Diego's early morning departure to go to Mass.
He was on his way, when he heard a voice softly calling his name, "Diegito! Juan Diegito!" (This means, little Juan Diego! - or, "My little one, Juan Diego!" - as if a mother is calling her son.) He turns off his path to go see what this voice is, and as he passed over the top of a rise, there he saw her, suspended in air, held up by an angel under her feet. This was his first encounter.
Our Lady told him to go to the Bishop in Mexico and tell him that she has a message for him. Juan Diego was afraid that he would be unable to have an audience with the Bishop, and Our Lady assures him that she will assist him to be able to fulfill this request. One wonders if the modern popes have asked Our Lady for her assistance in fulfilling her requests today, in their making the collegial consecration of Rome to her Immaculate Heart?
The second picture, on the right, shows Juan Diego diverting his path in an attempt to avoid facing
La Virgen after he had been unable to see the Bishop as he had feared, and being embarrassed, he did not want to have to explain this problem. We are reminded of our modern popes who have tried to avoid the consecration by consecrating and "entrusting" just about everything imaginable OTHER than Russia to her, or to something like her Immaculate Heart.
Even though he attempts to circuмvent a second encounter,
La Virgen seeks him out and calls his name again, with a tone of mild severity, which disturbs Diego. Not only has he failed to meet with the Bishop, he has failed to avoid having to explain his failure! He tries using the excuse that his uncle is sick and he is on the way to see him.
La Virgen tells him that his uncle is now in recovery from his illness, almost in imitation of the Scripture when Our Lord healed the centurion's servant without having to come in person to his house, "under his roof." This seems to say that she is asking Juan to have greater faith, for the centurion in Mt. viii. 8, spoke words that we have even today in the Mass,
"Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo et sanabitur anima mea." We replace "my servant" with "my soul" -- and Our Lady is asking Juan Diego, and by extension our modern popes, to have faith greater than that of all Christianity, for Our Lord told this faithful centurion, "Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel" (Matt. viii. 10).
Juan Diego goes to visit his uncle and finds him well, and he reports to his nephew the time of his healing, and he recognizes that very moment as the time when
La Virgen had said to him that his uncle was in recovery (cf. viii. 13; xv. 28; Jn. iv. 53). It seems that might be the story behind the small picture in the center, below, under the angel, where Juan went running to visit his uncle who had already been cured before he had arrived.
This second version, above, could be a more accurate depiction of the additional paintings that were made on the tilma of Juan Diego during the first two centuries, all of which additional figures have fallen off the tilma since, leaving only the original Image, which was not painted by human hands.
The small picture on the bottom left shows Juan Diego receiving the roses from
La Virgen on the top of the remote and arid Tepayac Hill.
Finally, the picture on the bottom right shows the eventual delivery of the roses to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga in Mexico City, December 12th, A.D. 1531.
The four small pictures in the corners have the same subject matter in both the first version above and this second version, even though the styles of depiction of the small images are different. It's noteworthy that very little difference is seen in the image of Our Lady in these two versions, even though everything outside of her is of various degrees of variety. This is as a first stage in the variation story, when the artists have been not so daring as to change Our Lady herself. The changes that had been seen prior to Vat.II were all little pictures added OUTSIDE of the image of Our Lady. After Vat.II, however, that all changed.
Here is how the original Image in the Mexican Basilica is displayed today (notice that the frame crops off the top portion where the vestiges of the painted crown are found):
Regarding the variations that have emerged in the past 60 years, some of these changes are innocent enough:
Then, there are the more brazen versions, below, all of which seem to be consequent to the
aggiornamento agenda of the unclean spirit of Vat.II:
There is a subculture element as well, since the Virgin of Guadalupe has been made into a sort of secular national logo for Mexico, even devoid of religious attachment:
As you might imagine, there are utterly scandalous versions worse than that above, which are quite unsuitable for putting up here even for reference.
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