A SPECIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

The Start of Mary's Touch By Mail

Click on the photograph for larger image

 
On August 15, 1991, the Feast of Our Lady’s Assumption, my family (my mother in her mid-80’s, my wife, our son, and myself) attended the 10:30 a.m. Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother in Portland, Oregon, which is a nationally-known shrine built in 1924 in honor of Our Lady and her Seven Sorrows.  The shrine is in the middle of a forest of massive, tall coniferous trees and different kinds of flowers, and includes a church, the Stations of the Cross, a grotto (with a Pieta and statues of Our Lady and St. Bernadette in Lourdes beside the grotto), a gift shop, and an office building.  The Servite Order monastery is on the upper level above rocky cliffs, which can be reached by an elevator.  The whole shrine is filled with natural beauty and freshness and an air of holiness.

Left: The church at the shrine of Our Sorrowful Mother
Right: Inside the church (August 15, 1991)

After Mass, many people gathered around the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which was temporarily placed in the church next to the altar.  People touched the Image, prayed before it, and took photographs.  We did the same with much joy, as it was a rare opportunity to see and touch the precious Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which was touring different cities in the United States as a special gift from the Catholic Church in Mexico.  It was one of the two photographic replicas of the original image in the Basilica in Mexico City, made in the 1940s.  

After praying for a while before the Image, I took several photographs at different angles and distances.  When I was taking the photograph directly in front of the image, I was worried about the reflection of the camera flash which would appear in the photograph.  I wanted to have a good photographic copy of this Image at home, but the camera flash was going to ruin it.  However, I couldn’t do anything about it, because the image was covered with glass.  Feeling helpless, I took the photograph anyhow.

Then, I forgot about the photographs and, with my 11-old son who was on summer vacation, went to Europe for the first time for a business meeting in Germany.  We departed several days before the scheduled meeting, because we wanted to visit Lourdes, France.  Actually, this visit to Our Lady’s shrine turned out to be the main purpose for our trip, as the business meeting in Germany was not very fruitful.  The marketing manager of a British manufacturing company talked to us briefly and, then, asked me to come to Korea in October, because we were interested in some exports to Korea.  With some reluctance I agreed to meet her again in Korea two months later. 

We arrived in Lourdes by train at about 6 a.m. on August 22.  We realized that it was the feast of Our Lady’s Queenship.  We spent three days in Lourdes before going to Germany.  This pilgrimage to Lourdes was an extremely blessed experience for us, even though my son could hardly eat any food during the trip.

After we came back from Europe, we had several rolls of film developed.  Most of the photographs were taken in Europe.  In one of the photographs of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe taken in Portland, Oregon, there was a reflection of the camera flash as expected, but, totally unexpectedly, we saw an image looking like the Eucharist at the tip of the Blessed Mother’s hands.  We could not understand how this happened.  We went back to the shrine and examined the lights and windows inside the church which might have caused this small round image.  We could not figure it out.  We showed the photograph to several people in Portland and they were amazed also.  Then, additional images were found in the photograph, sometimes by us and other times by others.  The image of the Holy Spirit was found by a lady in Phoenix, Arizona.  

Click on the picture for larger image

Especially the fact that all these images appeared simultaneously in the photograph seemed to rule out the possibility of this happening by chance.  Even the reflection of the camera flash looked appropriate as the sun clothing Our Lady.  We began feeling an awesome intervention by God.  There must be a reason for this!  This must be a part of the divine plan, which we did not know!  We had never experienced anything like this before.  The original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe already was an immense gift from God and played a key role in converting the Mexican people from idolatry and human sacrifices to the Catholic Faith and in defeating the Islam forces in the Battle of Lepanto in Europe in 1571.  It was unthinkable that any human could add anything to this sacred image or that any trivial images just appeared by accident.

The original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as it appears today.
(Click image to enlarge) 

More and more people saw this photograph and asked for copies.  So far, more than fifty thousand photographs have been sent out not only in this country but also to other countries.  Several people told us that they smelled the fragrance of roses from the photograph and asked us if perfumed paper was used.

In mid-October of the same year, I went to Korea as promised to the British executive.  On a weekend in Seoul, I took an express bus to Naju.  It was a five-hour ride.  Here also the visit to Naju turned out to be the main fruit of my trip to Korea.  The business talk did not go well.  After arriving in Naju, I took a taxi to the only Catholic Church in Naju and asked a lady in the gift store there about the location of the Blessed Mother’s Chapel.  The Chapel was only a ten- or fifteen-minute walk from the church, but I spent about an hour trying to find it.  When I entered the Chapel, I was very happy to see the Blessed Mother’s statue and some tears in her left eye.  Her statue was beautiful and smaller than I thought.  After praying for a while, I took several photographs.  A while later a lady entered the Chapel, and I asked a man near me if she was Julia Kim.  I had only seen her in the video: Marian Apparitions of the 20^th Century.  She was Julia.  So, I met her for the first time.  Then, I went back to the Naju Parish Church for the evening Mass.  When I came back to the Chapel after Mass, I began smelling a sweet fragrance both outside and inside the Chapel, which I did not understand.  Soon I remembered having read about the Saints.  It was the fragrance of roses from the Blessed Mother, which was so strong that it was almost intoxicating.  It was a very pleasant smell, of which you never get tired despite its strength.  At first, I even had some doubts and looked around to see if there was any air duct in the Chapel for pumping in the fragrance.  Of course, there wasn’t any.  The fragrance lasted all night and I could still smell it from my clothes after my return to Seoul.  Before my arrival in Naju on October 19, 1991, I did not know that it was the fifth anniversary of Our Lady’s first weeping tears of blood in Naju, and there was an overnight prayer meeting, which I gladly attended, as I did not have to look for a hotel for the night by staying in the Chapel.  The Chapel was packed with joyful, friendly, and prayerful people, mostly Koreans.  They were all brothers and sisters, because they came to their same Mother’s House.  Julia also talked for about two hours.  Her testimony was moving and powerful.  She spoke with a clear, sincere, and friendly voice.  Before I went to Naju, I did not know that she was receiving many messages.  I also saw a booklet in the back of the Chapel which was in English.  I told Julio Kim, Julia’s husband, that I would prepare a new booklet with more information after my return to the United States.  I had no idea at that time how this promise was going to develop.

After I came back, I was busy telling my family and friends about the trip.  I gave them books and photographs which I brought from Naju.  Then, I began translating the messages into English.  A few months later, the translation was completed and, after receiving approval from Fr. Raymond Spies, who was Julia’s spiritual director, was published as a book.  Even though printing was done by Tan Books, translation, proofreading, and typesetting were done at home.  My son did most of the computer work.  After the main message book, we continued publishing more books, videos, newspapers, photo albums, and so on.  I was trained as an economist and had worked at a university, a bank, and an export company.  This work on Naju was very new to us.  We also realized that it was taking most of our time and resources.  It soon became clear that we needed an organizational system to continue this work more efficiently.  Next year (1992), we set ourselves up as a non-profit Catholic corporation under the name of Mary’s Touch By Mail.  Fr. Robert J. Billett, C.M.F., in Los Angeles has been our spiritual director.

It has been ten years since then.  Despite many difficulties, we are continuing this work and trying to reach more people worldwide.  We rely on some contributions and sale of the publications in this country, and also send newsletters and packages free of charge to many people in this country and other English-speaking countries including some in Africa and Asia.  Looking back, we realize that this photograph of Our Lady of Guadalupe and our work to spread her messages from Naju are connected with each other.  To us, this photograph is a sign of the Blessed Mother’s call to help her as well as her promise to be with us. 

Our present hope is that more people see that Mary’s Touch By Mail is not a big organization, but a small family of three (my mother passed away in 1996), which is severely limited in its capability to reach more people and can succeed in carrying out the Blessed Mother’s wish only by working together with other individuals, families, prayer groups, and so on.  At this time, we are the only organization publishing the information about Naju in English.  We have also helped people in other countries to begin promoting the messages in their languages.  We sincerely hope that more individuals will actively participate in this work, because unless each of us functions as an intermediary between the Blessed Mother and people, many of them will never receive her messages.  Big companies and many individuals have their own agenda, too busy to pay attention to Our Lady.  But she can do wonders and achieve her goal if many of us help her.  She is anxiously looking for the little ones who can give her their unconditional love and whom she can cherish forever in Heaven as her own.

May the Lord and Blessed Mother bless you!

Sang M. Lee
July 5, 2001

The same Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, displayed in the church at the Shrine of Our Sorrowful Mother on August 15, 1991. These photos were taken from an angle, therefore showing no reflection of the camera flash

Where is the Blessed Mother's veil?

Besides the many images that are contained in the photograph, there was one other particular feature that puzzled me for the past seven years.  In the original Guadalupe Image, the Blessed Mother’s mantle covers her head also like a veil.  The turquoise color of the mantle is pretty much uniform all over the mantle.  In the photograph taken at the Sanctuary in Portland, the top part of the mantle covering the Blessed Mother’s head is dark, almost black, looking more like hair than a veil or mantle especially when looked at from a distance.  I thought that there had to be a reason for this, but was not able to figure it out.  I even wondered if it had anything to do with any possible Jewish custom for women after childbirth.  But that did not seem likely, because Our Lady in Heaven is Mother to the whole human race, not just to the Jewish people.

Then, just a few days ago, on July 20, 1998, Monday, my wife and I went to the noon Mass in the same Sanctuary.  We usually attend Mass at Holy Rosary Church in Portland (a Dominican parish), but sometimes go to the weekday Mass in the Sanctuary.  While attending Mass at the Sanctuary on July 20, I noticed that none of the women at the Mass was wearing a veil.  Then, I began looking around at the Blessed Mother’s statues and painted images to see if she was wearing a veil.  There are about twenty images of the Blessed Mother in that church.  I realized that, in all of them except one, the Blessed Mother was wearing a veil.  Only in the large painting on the front wall and part of the ceiling describing the Holy Trinity crowning the Blessed Mother as the Queen of Heaven, she was not wearing a veil.  She was standing, looking slightly upward and with her hands folded together on her chest.  It is an extremely beautiful painting of the Coronation of the Blessed Mother, which also signifies her triumph over the enemies of her Divine Son.  In that painting alone, the Blessed Mother was not wearing a veil but exposing her hair, because she was about to receive the crown from God.  I immediately felt that this was the answer I had been looking for seven years.

In the photograph taken at the Sanctuary on August 15, 1991, Our Lady is holding the Eucharist at the tip of her hands; she is with the Holy Spirit above her right shoulder; she is radiating a bright light from her womb like the sun clothing her as mentioned in the Apocalypse; two Hearts and Jesus and Mary are manifested; and she is weeping and praying (perhaps Our Lady of Naju).  In the original Guadalupe Image, only the lower half of this image of Our Lady kneeling is visible.  In this photograph, she seems not wearing any veil.  This photograph, then, may be an image of the victorious Blessed Mother.  It shows a full blossoming of her being and her role as the humble Daughter of God the Father; the ever-virgin Mother of God the Son, and the immaculate Spouse of the Holy Spirit; the Co-Redemptrix, who suffers together with her Son for the salvation of the human race; and the Mediatrix of Graces and the Advocate, who constantly prays for us and obtains from God the graces that we need.  And because she is about to be crowned as the Queen of Heaven, she does not need to wear a veil any longer.

Then, I looked at two other photographs of the beautiful statue of Our Lady holding the Baby Jesus in St. Francis Church in Kowloon, Hong Kong (taken during my trip to Hong Kong in May 1997 as the interpreter for Julia Kim), and another similar photograph taken in the church at the Benedictine Abbey and Seminary at Mt. Angel, Oregon.  In those two photographs, the Blessed Mother is wearing a royal crown without any veil.  In Naju, Julia sometimes sees the Blessed Mother wearing a veil, but, on those occasions, her crown is composed of twelve stars shining above her head.  When the crown is of gold, diamonds, and other precious stones and is placed directly on her head, there is no need for any veil.  In the Chapel in Naju, a small golden crown is placed on the Blessed Mother’s head.  The veil is still there, because it cannot be removed from the statue.  That this photograph of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe taken in Portland on August 15, 1991, shows the Blessed Mother not wearing any veil may be an indication that our age is one in which she will be crowned as the triumphant Queen. 

Sang M. Lee
July 25, 1998