With this alarming admonishment, Jesus Christ, "the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star (Rev 22.16)", gave notice to every generation of the tragic yet just fate reserved for souls who dare try to "improve" or detract from the Word of God. Since the days of this revelation, woefully and amazingly, there have been many unfortunates, brazen enough to challenge our Creator and Redeemer on this account, but none more foolish, suicidal, and blind than the bevy of modern miscreants determined to undermine the glorious Woman of the Bible's last book, our dearly beloved Mother, Mary of Guadalupe.

This camp of cowards, both naive and deliberate, failing to recognize the sacred truths and divine messages of the Virgin Mary's Most Pure image, not only serve the Archfiend's camp in casting doubt on the authenticity of the Tilma, but perhaps even more shockingly, discredit the Mother of God at the expense of their immortal souls.

Where does such hatred for Mary and insanity originate? What sane person would follow the delusion that he or she could outwit Almighty God and compete with Him as an equal? Who in their right mind would risk eternal damnation for the sake of a few artistic or scientific accolades from an age indifferent to true devotion? Genesis 3.15 provides the answer to all these inquiries.

From the dawn of creation, "Let there be light (Gen 1.3)", the Devil has been intent on bruising Our Lady's heel. He has always raged with fury towards the Blessed Virgin, because a part of the test he failed involved the summons to serve Mary the woman, even before her birth. Lucifer's inadequacy to grasp the "Immaculate Concept," evidenced in his non serviam, led to his secondary assault on Adam and Eve and third-wave attack against Christ on Calvary. Today it has led to his final showdown with Mary in and as the Church.

The Enemy's battle plan is quite simple: ferociously attack Our Lady and the Church everywhere, especially where she is venerated as the Most Pure. Having failed to submit in his trial to the beautiful essence and intent of God's concept of Mary, the Archfiend maneuvers in whatever way necessary to discredit the truth of Mary's Immaculateness for mankind. Why? When souls discover the God-given glory of Mary, the devil's humiliation becomes more complete.

The ugly means Satan has employed are just as heartless and ghastly as he is. Note these infernal strategies:

- Cloud the truth of the Virgin Mary's authentic apparitions at Guadalupe, La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima et al. via false apparitions and charisms.

- Work lying wonders, foretold by the Church fathers, and more recently by Our Lady of La Salette, to distract the pious from the graces of Mary's divine messages and holy places.

- Manipulate imaginations (aimed at the unlettered and simple) to believe his diabolic machinations (locutions, appearances, magic tricks) are from their Lady. Simply put, imitate the Virgin Mary.

- Prey on emotions (both the easily-deceived and elect) in order to direct souls sensually rather than spiritually, and in so doing, destroy the true faith by cultivating lovers of signs and sensations.

- Abolish holiness by diminishing the importance of everything sacred. How? By cunning and conning the unsuspecting, together with witting men and women to serve his wishes and battle plan.

- Torment the righteous by visiting loyal souls with legions of demons to wear down their resistance, resolve, and reserve.

- Work undetected by destroying man's concept and understanding of the invisible world through mockery, slander, bribery and all manner of deceit and guile.

This list of demonic stratagems, enacted with a perfidious zeal, though obviously incomplete, pinpoints why so much of the Church and the world is in turmoil, confusion and war these days. It also clarifies why the Devil harbors a special hatred for Our Lady of Guadalupe's tender words and miraculous untouched image. The Evil One, the Enemy of Christ, His Holy Catholic Church, and Blessed Mother, is successfully executing his tactics and plans on a planet more in love with self, and more attentive to the Prince of Evil and Darkness than ever.

Is it any wonder, that Satan has also subtly blinded so-called and self-proclaimed "Guadalupe scholars" to likewise lose sight of Mary's Immaculateness? He has found many willing listeners to endorse feeble and suspect scientific observations of God's heaven-sent miracle -- Juan Diego's Holy Tilma. Even as you read these words, this frontal assault is occurring, despite the overwhelming evidence of reason, logic and history that refutes these human "discoveries!" Should we be surprised in this age of apostasy, when unsightful and vicious men attempt to analyze by the crudest of means what is Divine? Not hardly. But neither should we stand still for such perilous nonsense. Christ would never tolerate His Mother being maligned. Neither should those who say they love Him.

This treatise might aptly be called Apologia Pro Maria, though Our Lady needs no one to apologize for her. How sad it is, that we must defend her honor among ourselves, when certainly, as Daughter, Mother and Spouse of God she has always been protected by Father, Son and Holy Spirit beyond our poor attempts to pay her homage or contrarily do her harm.

There are many accounts of God's Providence towards the Virgin Mary, both before and after the Incarnation, but on December 12, 1531 in the chambers of the First Bishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumarraga, the Most Holy Trinity permitted sweet Mary to be recognized and proclaimed as the "woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars (Rev 12.1)," by unexplainably and instantaneously imprinting this exact image on the cactus-fibered cape of the humble Mexican convert, Blessed Juan Diego.

Fourteen days later, this celestial fresco was transported in grand procession to a newly completed church built in Mary's honor. On this joyous occasion the first of uncountable miracles was granted to those who sought the Immaculate Virgin's intercession. How remarkable was this event? A citizen slain through the neck by an errant arrow was raised from the dead, and his fatal wound was completely healed, when his lifeless body was laid before Our Lady's beautiful icon.

The events that followed have never been duplicated before or since anywhere in the world, at any time. Eight million Aztecs converted to Catholicism in seven years. Some days as many as 15,000 were reported baptized, and an astounding succession of miracles and conversions continuing to this day. The appearance of the magnificent portrait of the "woman clothed with the sun," marked the heavenly declaration that mankind was well into the Book of Revelations and the final age of time in the sixteenth century. How far have we journeyed since? We only need to breathe to conclude.

The many modernists who have attributed the dawn of the Age of Mary to her 1830 appearance on the Rue de Bac have assuredly failed to research Our Lady of Guadalupe, who emerged 299 years earlier in unmistakable Apocalyptic garb. In the heart of the New World, in new times, to a new people, the news of Mary's predominance for the later day Church was first proclaimed. All Mary's appearances since have been merely echoes. The trumpets blown by the holy angels in 1531 announced her prophetic arrival in time as Mother of Revelations, Mediatrix of Grace and Co-Redemptrix with Christ.

Numerous technical examiners of the Holy Tilma converted not only to the True Faith, but also this awareness, when trying to describe God's Mother in earthly terms, they discovered instead the mystery of her presence and mission. From their objective studies they matured to subjects of Our Lady once they recognized the Virgin Mary's unearthly Queenship in the quiet of their hearts.

For those fixated on applying technological devices and scientific methods to studying the Holy Tilma, I would repeat Christ's warning that began this paper, and add my prayers that you peruse God's sacred, unduplicatible and indestructible image as a powerful entity not to be altered or repudiated. As the plagues of the Book of Revelations will be poured out on those who dare add or subtract one word of it, God have pity on the vain, secular and intellectually proud who challenge the Almighty regarding the woman of Revelations -- Our Lady of Guadalupe. This applies to all those "scientists" claiming that the image has been "improved," "altered," "added to," and even "enhanced" by the "cooperation of men and God" over the ages. BUNK, and shame on them for their deafness and treachery!

Anyone crazy enough to declare otherwise need not read any further. By Jesus Christ's final Scriptural testimony, these detractors have already been cut from the tree of life reserved for trusting believers alone, not for sense-bound technocrats. Their popular misconceptions, that the stars, angel, moon, rays and flowers were painted additions is eloquently contested by the oldest historical account of the apparitions, the battle of Lepanto, common sense, the hundreds of replicas of the original produced for more than 400 years and honest (non-Masonic) laboratory exams. Once again, loud and clear, Our Lady of Guadalupe's image was created by God alone!

Don Valeriano was a governor of Mexico City, a brilliant and erudite man of letters and theology, and a personal friend of Juan Diego, Juan Bernardino, and Bishop Zumarraga. He authored the oldest account of the apparitions of 1531 called by its first two Aztec words the Nican Mopohua. It is given the greatest credibility of all narrations among Guadalupan historians. This record, written between 1540 and 1545, was believed to have been dictated by Juan Diego, and contains a most vivid and accurate description of the Holy Tilma.

"Her veil or mantle, on the outer surface, is a celestial blue: it sets well on her hand, but fully reveals her face; reaching down to her feet, it fits a little more closely midway; the wide border is of gold; and gold stars everywhere, forty-six in all."

He further adds, "The beautiful image, and all the rest, is supported by an angel, who apparently terminates at the waist; none of its lower portion can be seen, being lost in the clouds. The extreme lower part of the tunic and mantle of the Lady of Heaven extend well below her feet and are held by the hands of the angel, whose robe is reddish vermilion in color, with a golden collar, and his extended wings display rich long-feathered plumage of green and other colors. She is borne aloft by the hands of the angel, who seems quite happy to thus carry the Queen of Heaven."

In 1570, a copy of the colorful Tilma was painted as described above, touched to the original, and sent by the Archbishop of Mexico City to Philip II of Spain. The King directed that it be placed placed in the Admiral's cabin of the warship Andrea Doria. In the midst of the Battle of Lepanto and in danger of being destroyed, the Admiral reportedly knelt before this replica and begged Mary's help. The ship's crew attributed the subsequent miraculous defeat of the Turks to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Although this truth became lost with the rosary crusade of St. Pius V, this duplicate image, created only a few years after the original was given to us by God and preserved in Aveto, Italy, also verifies nothing was added to the miraculous image. Everything disbelievers claim was painted in 1629 was already depicted on the Lepanto copy in 1570.

Further proof:

1946 - "No brush strokes or evidence of being painted."

1975 - Dr. Charles Wahlig, O.D. announces that "nothing new was added."

Combine these declaration with the facts that:

An ayate (cactus) tilma ordinarily decays in 20 years

It is impossible to paint on this thin and coarse cloth

The Holy Tilma is untreated or unsized for painting, and shows no evidence of sketching underneath

From the conclusions of the Nobel Prize winning chemist, Dr. Richard Kuhn, the composition of the colors is of a material unknown to man

The Tilma withstood a concentrated nitric acid spill, as well as a bomb blast in 1921.

Beginning in 1929, images discovered in Our Lady's right eye were later confirmed to be Juan Diego, Juan Gonzales, and others present at the creation of the Holy Image.

Can even the most hardened of hearts conclude Our Lady of Guadalupe's image is anything but authentic and holy beyond description? In defense of my Lady, I affirm her glorious portrait is totally original and has never been tampered with by man. It contains infinite mysteries mankind has yet to explore, and holds the key to our required disposition to endure the last days of earth. The Devil's seduction and provocation of seemingly intelligent men to trust science more than faith and tradition, though to be expected, is no counterpunch for the divine infusion of truth reaffirmed with the origin of the Holy Tilma. Our Lady of Guadalupe represents the perfect reflection of God, every scriptural verse and Church teaching, the beauty of Creation, and the hope of the Fatherland.

Evermore attentive and responsive to Jesus' stern alarm to accept the Book of Revelations as written, I desire only that Our Lady of Revelations' defense -- her Sacred Image itself -- stand untainted by suspicious minds. In the purity of Our Lady's Heart may skeptic and believer safely rest, confident that Mary's Divine Maternity is perpetually directed to all her children. May the insidious assaults on the holiness of her portrait cease, and may the entire world come to their senses and hail Mary according to the crucifixion counsel of our Lord,