A MIRACLE OF FAITH

For the past two weeks thousands of bare-footed Mexican Indians have made pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadaloupe. This may seem of slight interest to those whose heritage is Protestant and whose interests are commercial, but in the village just outside the City of Mexico a pageant is being played in the spirit and with the trappings of the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages. If one would understand the power and the immense spiritual fascination of this great tradition then turn and follow this medieval pilgrimage to the gaudy and artificial church of Guadaloupe.

A European Catholic would not recognize his Church in its Mexican form. With its customary realism it has here compromised with the native Indian faith. The Virgin is an Indian girl, with the natural dignity and beauty of her race. She appears to a poor peon and about this miracle the Church has woven all the mystery and hidden power characteristic of the Catholic tradition. In Catholicism the Indian finds the sonorous repetition of a potent formula which is what he asks of religion. His imagination is caught by the gilded altar-piece and he is emotionally confused and stirred by the lighting of the tapers and the windy timbre of the organ which seems to come from nowhere.

Thse who want to understand the Church from which our times are largely sprung and who want to study one of the most powerful spiritual forces even to this day should try to see the Virgin of Guadaloupe as the Mexican Indian sees her.