Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Patroness of the Americas
“Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.”
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These were the words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St Juan Diego (feast day: Dec 9th) when she appeared to him in 1531. They are still relevant today as Archbishop (now Cardinal) Burke reminds us in a homily he gave at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe that he helped establish in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Some insights...
“…our late and most beloved Pope (Saint) John Paul II placed the mission of the Church in America, at the beginning of the Third Christian Millennium, under the protection of the Virgin of Guadalupe and commended her to us as the Star to lead us to Christ and, in Christ, to the conversion of our personal lives and the transformation of our world.” ...
(Cardinal) Burke calls this apparition “the mystery of the Visitation as it was experienced on our continent in 1531. The woman clothed with the sun, bearing the Infant Savior, the Anointed, in her womb, appeared to Saint Juan Diego, from December 9 to 12, 1531, in order that a chapel be built in which she might manifest the all-generous and never-failing merciful love of God for us, incarnate in her womb and alive for us in the Church, above all, in the Sacrament of the Real Presence, the Holy Eucharist.”
“…she has desired to remain with us always, in order that the mystery of the Visitation might be always new for us. She has miraculously left her living image on the tilma or mantle of St Juan Diego. In the magnificent basilica built to her honor, in which the tilma of St Juan Diego is enthroned, the Mother of God continues to visit pilgrims and to announce to them the great mystery of God’s all-loving and never-failing mercy.”
“… in 1531, she inspired her sons and daughters to abandon the horror of human sacrifice and to respect the inviolable dignity of every man, both the Native American and the European, so now she inspires us to be tireless disciples of the Gospel of Life, working to end the horror of procured abortion and so-called “mercy-killing,” and to promote the respect for the dignity of every human life from the moment of inception to the moment of natural death.”
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas,
Star of the New Evangelization
and Tireless Champion for life, pray for us!
MUST READ:
Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness Warren H Carroll
featuring Our Lady of Guadalupe as patroness of the Americas
and asking for her intercession for the cause of religious liberty.
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Let us pray together NOW:
"O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life: Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time." - St John Paul II
Second week of Advent: PEACE
