“Listen and let it penetrate your heart…do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain.  Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?” (Our Lady’s words to her servant Juan Diego.)

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Ave Maria Meditations

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 pity, teach is 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.

Pope St. John Paul II

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Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, we pray for your intercession in the defense of life and family in the United States. We pray for the election of political leaders who will respect the dignity of each person from conception until natural death. And we pray for the conversion of all members of Congress, and all those working in the U.S. government who are promoting the culture of death here and around the world. Through your intercession, may our elected officials in the U.S. reverse the policies that use taxpayer money to destroy life, marriage, and the family worldwide.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us! Amen.

From Human Life International

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Ave Maria Meditations

Our Lady of Guadalupe:  Christianity established a continuity with regard to places of worship, while at the same time renewing other cults through its own contributions. The most impressive example of such continuity within change is the picture of our Lady of Guadalupe. The venerations of the tilma began at the place where once had stood a distinguished image of “our venerable mother, lady snake,” an important native goddess. It is significant, though, that she wears no mask and that her face is visible.

In the figures and symbols with which (Our Lady) appears, the entire wealth of the previous religions is taken up and unified around a new center, which descends from new heights. She stands above the religions, so to speak, but does not trample them. Thus Our Lady of Guadalupe is in many respects an image of the relationship between Christianity and the religions of the world: all of these streams flow together into it, are purified and renewed.

Pope Benedict XVI (from Benedictus)

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Mary, your apparition at Guadalupe teaches me that devotion to you is a source of great graces. The church has always taught that God has entrusted to your hands heavenly blessings. I have got to ask for them for the salvation of my soul. There is nothing you want more than to give them to me, because you are even more anxious to save my soul than I am, for you know better than anyone else the price your Son paid for it and the precious worth of each grace He so graciously offered to me through you.

Devotion to you brings with it consolation for the soul. As a child runs to his mother in every need, and finds comfort in her glance and kind word, I can turn to you for help when I need it, for you are truly my mother, whose heart is overflowing with kindness and mercy.

Bless the people of the Americas, to which uncounted thousands have come to seek refuge and livelihood (at the apparition site of Guadalupe). Preserve their faith, assailed by the forces opposed to Christ. Petition God that their hope my never fail amid the troubles and cares of this life.

We beg you for a burning charity for God to imitate the works of Christ. We ask you to procure for us, but your prayers, the great grace of final perseverance so that those who are joining to honor you in the kingdom of your Son on earth may be together always in heaven. Amen

From the Complete Marian Prayerbook

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Our Lady of Guadalupe, we turn to you who are the Protectress of unborn children and ask that you intercede for us, so that we may more firmly resolve to join you in protecting all human life.

Let our prayers be united to your perpetual motherly intercession on behalf of those whose lives are threatened, be they in the womb of their mother, on the bed of infirmity, or in the latter years of their life.

May our prayers also be coupled with peaceful action which witnesses to the goodness and dignity of all human life, so that our firmness of purpose may give courage to those who are fearful and bring light to those who are blinded by sin.

Encourage those who will be involved in the March for Life; help them to walk closely with God and to give voice to the cry of the oppressed, in order to remind our nation of its commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people.

O Virgin Mother of God, present our petitions to your Son and ask Him to bless us with abundant life.

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Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, that in thy celestial apparitions on the mount of Tepeyac, thou didst promise to show thy compassion and pity towards all who, loving and trusting thee, seek thy help and call upon thee in their necessities and afflictions. Thou didst promise to hearken to our supplications, to dry our tears and to give us consolation and relief.

Never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, either for the common welfare, or in personal anxieties, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, we fly unto thee, O Mary, ever Virgin Mother of the True God!

Though grieving under the weight of our sins, we come to prostrate ourselves in thy august presence, certain that thou wilt deign to fulfill thy merciful promises. We are full of hope that, standing beneath thy shadow and protection, nothing will trouble or afflict us, nor need we fear illness, or misfortune, or any other sorrow.

Thou hast decided to remain with us through thy admirable image, thou who art our Mother, our health and our life. Placing ourselves beneath thy maternal gaze and having recourse to thee in all our necessities we need do nothing more. O Holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer us. (Here mention your petition.)

Five Hail Marys…in gratitude for the four apparitions to Juan Diego and the one to Juan Bernardino.

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Virgin of Guadalupe, Patroness of unborn children, we implore your intercession for every child at risk of abortion. Help expectant parents to welcome from God the priceless gift of their child’s life.

Console parents who have lost that gift through abortion, and lead them to forgiveness and healing through the Divine Mercy of your Son. Teach us to cherish and to care for family and friends until God calls them home. Help us never to see others as burdens.

Guide our public officials to defend each and every human life through just laws. Inspire us all to bring our faith into public life, to speak for those who have no voice. We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who is Love and Mercy itself. Amen.

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 Everything begins with a conversation between the Virgin and the Archangel Gabriel: “How shall this be, since I have no husband?” (Lk 1:34). Answer: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you: the Child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Lk 1:35). At the same time as physical motherhood, Mary’s spiritual motherhood began, a motherhood which filled the nine months of waiting, but which was prolonged also beyond the moment of the birth of Jesus to embrace the thirty years spent between Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth, and then also the  years of Jesus in His public life, when the Son of Mary left His home in Nazareth to preach the gospel of the kingdom: years which culminated on Calvary in the supreme sacrifice on the cross

Dear brothers and sisters! Receive Christ from the hands of Mary! May the mystery of the redemption reach you through her soul! May all the salvific plans of consecrated hearts always be manifest before the heart of the mother! Unite with her with your glance focused on her. In her there is a special resemblance to Christ, the Spouse of your souls. 

Saint John Paul II from his Book of Mary

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