Below is the text our teachers will be using during Morning Meeting during our 12 Days of Peace. In your newsletters this month will be more programs we’ll be doing this month to teach our scholars about generosity, including Angel Fish Families and Book on Every Bed.
Five hundred years ago in Mexico, Juan Diego said that Mary, the mother of his God, had appeared to him on a hill and told him to build a church there. Nobody believed him because he didn’t have any proof. Juan asked Saint Mary to give him proof so that the others would believe him. She told him to bring roses to the bishop, and carry the roses in his cloak, which was called a tilma (teel-ma). He found roses on the hill, which was a miracle because they usually didn’t grow there and it was winter, and he put them in his tilma. He brought them to the bishop, but when he opened his tilma and the roses fell to the ground, there was an even bigger miracle—an image of Saint Mary was on his cloak! The church was built and St. Juan Diego’s cloak now hangs at the Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico for everyone to see.
At the time of this miracle, there was a lot of fighting going on between those who followed the religion that St. Juan Diego followed—Catholicism—and the one of the natives, who were Aztecs. After the miracle, the people came together in peace to celebrate. On December 12, many people celebrate this miracle with the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. They decorate the table with lots of colorful flowers and share a traditional Mexican meal with friends and family.