Joseph House by the Sea: Chapel

Store Chapel

Our store also features a small chapel for private meditation. The chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego.

On a December morning in 1531, Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego on a hilltop outside of Mexico City. Speaking in his native language, she identified herself as the ever virgin holy Mary, mother of the true God for whom we live. She then entrusted Juan Diego with a message for the bishop, Fr. Juan de Zumarraga:

I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful mother, to you and all who love me and confide in me.

As a sign of her presence, Our Lady told Juan Diego to gather the nearby roses that were miraculously growing in winter. She then arranged them in his cloak, called a tilma.

Appearing before the bishop, Juan Diego opened his tilma to present Our Lady’s gift. As the roses fell to the ground, they revealed a second miracle: imprinted on Juan Diego’s tilma was an image of Our Lady as she had appeared to him.

This tilma and the miraculous image exist to this day, enshrined in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Patrons of Our Chapel

Juan Diego was a layperson chosen by God to be an instrument of evangelization. As an Aztec Indian, he bridged two worlds when he accepted Christianity. He met the Virgin Mary on his pilgrimage of faith, and through that encounter millions of people came to know
Jesus.

Juan Diego was canonized by Pope John Paul II on July 31, 2002. In his homily during the canonization ceremony, held in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Pope invoked Juan Diego as an inspiration for all:

Happy Juan Diego, true and faithful man! We entrust to you our lay brothers and sisters so that, feeling the call to holiness, they may imbue every area of social life with the spirit of the Gospel.

Bless families, strengthen spouses in their marriage, sustain the efforts of parents to give their children a Christian upbringing. Look with favor upon the pain of those who are suffering in body or in spirit, on those afflicted by poverty, loneliness, marginalization, or ignorance.

May all people, civic leaders and ordinary citizens, always act in accordance with the demands of justice and with respect for the dignity of each person, so that in this way peace may be reinforced.

Our Lady of Guadalupe helped the Gospel take root in the Western Hemisphere. In 1946, Pope Pius XII declared her the Patroness of the Americas. Pope John Paul II, at the dawn of the new millennium, called upon her as the Star of the First and New Evangelization:

It is my heartfelt hope that she, whose intercession was responsible for strengthening the faith of the first disciples (cf. John 2:11), will by her maternal intercession guide the Church in America, obtaining the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as she once did for the early Church (cf. Acts 1:14), so that the new evangelization may yield a splendid flowering of the Christian life.

For a free Holy Card of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Juan Diego, please send your name and address to:

Joseph House by the Sea
P.O. Box 617
Ocean City, MD 21843

or email us at:
josephhousebythesea[at]yahoo[dot]com

If you would like more than one Holy Card, the cost is $0.50 per card.

Home What's New Ministries Little Sisters Donations Contact Site Map