Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe
Among the many prayers to the Virgin Mary, and other Marian devotions, the prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe merits to be mentioned. Her apparition is recorded to have happened in Mexico, in 1531. She visited St. Juan Diego (Cuauhtlatoatzin) on Tepeyac Hill, and imprinted Her image on the bishop’s cloak (his 'tilma'). Because She appeared pregnant with Jesus Christ in the vision, Our Lady of Guadalupe became a symbol of protection for families and unborn children. Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated on December 12. She is also considered to be the Patron Saint of the Americas.
Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe by Pope St. John Paul II
“O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church!, who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity to all those who ask for your protection, hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust, and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer.
Mother of Mercy, Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice, to you, who come to meet us sinners, we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love. We also dedicate to you our life, our work, our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows. Grant peace, justice and prosperity to our peoples; for we entrust to your care all that we have and all that we are, our Lady and Mother. We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church; hold us always with your loving hand.
Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, we pray to you for all the Bishops, that they may lead the faithful along paths of intense Christian life, of love and humble service of God and souls. Contemplate this immense harvest, and intercede with the Lord that He may instill a hunger for holiness in the whole people of God, and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious, strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God's mysteries.
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, 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, to return to Him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins in the Sacrament of Penance, which gives peace to the soul.
We beg you to grant us a great love for 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 conscience, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, which come to us from your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.”
The Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe
Between December 9 and 12, 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared many times to an Aztec priest called Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. These apparitions took place in North Mexico, on Tepeyac Hill. To prove Her apparitions to St. Juan Diego’s Bishop, the Virgin Mary instructed the priest to gather beautiful roses. When he came back, St. Juan Diego opened his cloak to show them to the Bishop Monsignor Zumárraga as proof. When St. Diego revealed the roses to the Bishop, both men saw that an image of the Virgin Mary had been imprinted on the priest's tilma (cloak). St. Juan Diego’s tilma is still intact today, it is exhibited in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
On Her portrait, the Virgin Mary is dark skinned; She was a symbol of peace in times when conquistadors and native americans were fighting over the New World. Her image represents peaceful evangelisation, done with respect to the continent of America. The Virgin Mary is particularly revered in Latin America.
Pray a Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe with Hozana!
Grow your faith in God and practice daily prayer with Hozana. Discover the many prayer communities designed to unite you with your Christian brothers and sisters around the world:
Hozana offers a wide variety of communities dedicated to honoring Our Blessed Mother. Say a novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, consecrate yourself to the Virgin Mary for a month, and more!
