Our Lady of Guadalupe
Thursday, December 12, is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This feast of our Church is specifically significant to our Hispanic brothers and sisters, especially the Mexican community, since it celebrates the appearance of Our Lady to Juan Diego on a hill near Mexico City. A subsequent miraculous sign occurred as St. Juan Diego (canonized in 2002) sought to communicate Our Lady’s request that a church be built in her honor at the site. When Juan Diego returned to this location, he discovered roses not indigenous to the area growing out of season on the normally barren site. On December 12, 1531, he gathered these roses in his cloak and brought them to the Archbishop of Mexico City. As he opened the cloak, the roses fell and the image of Our Lady appeared on the cloak’s fabric. This image is one of Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural images.
For more information about Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrations in the Archdiocese of Louisville, go here.
For families, below is an excerpt from a prayer of Blessed John Paul II, which he prayed in 1979 as his visited, during the first year of his pontificate, the new basilica built to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe:
PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
O Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas,
grant to our homes the grace of loving
and respecting life in its beginnings,
with the same love with which
you conceived in your womb
the life of the Son of God.
Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of Fair Love,
protect our families so that
they may always be united
and bless the upbringing of our children.
Our hope, look upon us with compassion,
teach us to go continually to Jesus,
and if we fall
help us to rise again and return to Him
through the confession of our faults
and our sins in the Sacrament of penance,
which gives peace to the soul.
We beg you to grant us a great love
of all the holy Sacraments,
which are, as it were,
the signs that your Son left us on earth.
Thus, Most Holy Mother,
with the peace of God in our consciences,
with our hearts free from evil and hatred,
we will be able to bring to all others
true joy and peace,
which come to us from your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
who with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
Blessed John Paul II, Mexico City, 1979
ORACIÓN DE JUAN PABLO II – A LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE
¡Oh Virgen de Guadalupe, Madre de las Américas,
Concede a nuestros hogares
la gracia de amar y de respetar la vida que comienza.
con el mismo amor con el que concebiste en tu seno
la vida del Hijo de Dios.
Virgen Santa María, Madre del Amor Hermoso, protege a nuestras familias,
para que estén siempre muy unidas, y bendice la educación de nuestros hijos.
Esperanza nuestra, míranos con compasión,
enséñanos a ir continuamente a Jesús y, si caemos, ayúdanos
a levantarnos, a volver a El, mediante la confesión de nuestras culpas
y pecados en el sacramento de la penitencia,
que trae sosiego al alma.
Te suplicamos que nos concedas un amor muy grande a todos los santos sacramentos
que son como las huellas que tu Hijo nos dejó en la tierra.
Así, Madre Santísima, con la paz de Dios en la conciencia,
con nuestros corazones libres de mal y de odios,
podremos llevar a todos la verdadera alegría y la verdadera paz,
que vienen de tu Hijo, nuestro Señor Jesucristo,
que con Dios Padre y con el Espíritu Santo,
vive v reina por los siglos de los siglos.
Amén.
México, enero de 1979.
IOANNES PAULUS PP.II
