NINE-MONTH NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

NINE-MONTH NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
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NINE-MONTH NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

The prayer below was said by the Cristeros of Jalisco at the end of the Rosary.
My Jesus Mercy! My sins are more numerous than the drops of blood that Thou did shed for me. I do not deserve to belong to the army that defends the rights of Thy Church and that fights for her. I desire never to sin again so that my life might be an offering pleasing to Thy eyes. Wash away my iniquities and cleanse me of my sins. By Thy Holy Cross, by my Holy Mother of Guadalupe, pardon me.

Since I do not know how to make penance for my sins, I desire to receive death as





 

a chastisement merited by them. I do not wish to fight, live or die except for Thee and for Thy Church. Blessed Mother of Guadalupe, be at my side in the agony of this poor sinner. Grant that my last shout on earth and my first canticle in Heaven should be Viva Cristo Rey! Amen

Dear Richared,


Today, we begin our Nine-Month Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe.


The first lesson which Our Lady of Guadalupe teaches us to equip us for today’s grave crisis is the inseparable unity of truth and love. We cannot truly love another person while also disregarding or betraying the truth which should inform every relationship. The fundamental approach to the crisis of the family, of society, and of the Church is the knowledge of truth and the practice of it with love.


Please find the remainder of this first reflection, as well as a short video, at the link below. The video concludes with me praying the Official Novena Prayer. I hope you will join me in praying it.


GO TO THE REFLECTION


For those who have ordered the Official Novena Prayer Card and have not received it, I thank you for your patience as the Flores Mariae Gift Shop at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe works diligently to fulfill each order. If you wish to order an Official Novena Prayer Card, or if you wish to download an electronic version, you will find information about doing so at the bottom of every page on the Official Novena website.


You can expect another email from me on March 24.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke



Saint Juan Diego[1]

 

St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474-1548). Little is known about the life of Juan Diego before his conversion, but tradition and archaeological and iconographical sources, along with the most important and oldest indigenous document on the event of Guadalupe, "El Nican Mopohua" (written in Náhuatl with Latin characters, 1556, by the Indigenous writer Antonio Valeriano), give some information on the life of the saint and the apparitions. Juan Diego was born in 1474 with the name "Cuauhtlatoatzin" ("the talking eagle") in Cuautlitlán, today part of Mexico City, Mexico. He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the more culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley. When he was 50 years old, he was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries.

 

On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true.

 

On 12 December, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was wintertime, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac. With the Bishop's permission, Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut near the chapel where the miraculous image was placed for veneration. Here he cared for the church and the first pilgrims who came to pray to the Mother of Jesus. Much deeper than the "exterior grace" of having been "chosen" as Our Lady's "messenger", Juan Diego received the grace of interior enlightenment and from that moment, he began a life dedicated to prayer and the practice of virtue and boundless love of God and neighbor.

 

He died in 1548 and was buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was beatified on 6 May 1990 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City. The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman with native features and dress. She is supported by an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image graphically depicts the fact that Christ is to be "born" again among the peoples of the New World and is a message as relevant to the "New World" today as it was during the lifetime of Juan Diego.

 

Things to Do[2]

·         Read Pope John Paul II's homily at the canonization of St. Juan Diego.

·         Meditate on Our Lady's beautiful words to St. Juan Diego: "Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son; let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also, 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 crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?"

·         Cook some Mexican dishes for dinner and bake a Rose Petal Pound Cake or other rose theme for dessert in honor of St. Juan Diego.

·         From the Catholic Culture Library:

o    On The Canonization Of First Native American

o    Mexico Has Seen a Great Light

o    Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

·         Recommended Reading: For children: The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie dePaola. For adults: The Wonder of Guadalupe by Francis Johnston.

·         For music for Juan Diego's and Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast, see www.savae.org. The San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble have two cds of authentic music by Mexican medieval composers. Very beautiful!

·         Visit Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas for detailed accounts on the apparition to Juan Diego.

Saint Juan Diego[1] 

St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474-1548). Little is known about the life of Juan Diego before his conversion, but tradition and archaeological and iconographical sources, along with the most important and oldest indigenous document on the event of Guadalupe, "El Nican Mopohua" (written in Náhuatl with Latin characters, 1556, by the Indigenous writer Antonio Valeriano), give some information on the life of the saint and the apparitions. Juan Diego was born in 1474 with the name "Cuauhtlatoatzin" ("the talking eagle") in Cuautlitlán, today part of Mexico City, Mexico. He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the more culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley. When he was 50 years old, he was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries. 

On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. 

On 12 December, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was wintertime, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac. With the Bishop's permission, Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut near the chapel where the miraculous image was placed for veneration. Here he cared for the church and the first pilgrims who came to pray to the Mother of Jesus. Much deeper than the "exterior grace" of having been "chosen" as Our Lady's "messenger", Juan Diego received the grace of interior enlightenment and from that moment, he began a life dedicated to prayer and the practice of virtue and boundless love of God and neighbor. 

He died in 1548 and was buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was beatified on 6 May 1990 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City. The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman with native features and dress. She is supported by an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image graphically depicts the fact that Christ is to be "born" again among the peoples of the New World and is a message as relevant to the "New World" today as it was during the lifetime of Juan Diego. 

Things to Do[2]

·         Read Pope John Paul II's homily at the canonization of St. Juan Diego.

·         Meditate on Our Lady's beautiful words to St. Juan Diego: "Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son; let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also, 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 crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?"

·         Cook some Mexican dishes for dinner and bake a Rose Petal Pound Cake or other rose theme for dessert in honor of St. Juan Diego.

·         From the Catholic Culture Library:

o    On The Canonization Of First Native American

o    Mexico Has Seen a Great Light

o    Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

·         Recommended Reading: For children: The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie dePaola. For adults: The Wonder of Guadalupe by Francis Johnston.

·         For music for Juan Diego's and Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast, see www.savae.org. The San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble have two cds of authentic music by Mexican medieval composers. Very beautiful!

·         Visit Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas for detailed accounts on the apparition to Juan Diego.

Dear Richared,


Why, some may ask, make a Novena and Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe? What help does the Mother of God bring to our world in these tumultuous times? What help did she bring at Tepeyac in 1531?


Our Lady’s mission for Saint Juan Diego’s time and place is just as much for ours today. Her mission, which is in total union with the saving mission of her Divine Son, is ongoing, until the Last Day. Our Lady does not propose some idea or some political action to address the various crises confronting us. No, she proposes a person, the person of her Divine Son. She proposes the most intimate union of heart with Him, with His Most Sacred Heart, as the only way to obtain mercy and ultimately eternal life. She tells Juan Diego that Christ is in fact her “compassionate gaze,” even as He is her “help,” her “salvation.”


Please find the remainder of this second reflection, as well as a short video, at the link below. Let us continue to pray, together, for Our Lady’s intercession!


GO TO THE REFLECTION


On April 12, next month, we will reflect upon Our Lady’s second apparition to Saint Juan Diego and discuss its significance for this Nine-Month Novena and Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,




Dear Richared,


As our first month of the Nine-Month Novena concludes and our second month begins, some of us may be experiencing the worst temptations from Satan to surrender and stop praying the Novena Prayer every day.


In the battle for the truth, we must never give way to discouragement, which is always the first temptation of the devil. When we are tempted to be discouraged or to be defeated, let us recall the vision of the final victory of Christ’s Redemptive Incarnation, recounted in the Book of Revelation.


Please find the remainder of this third reflection, as well as a short video, at the link below.


GO TO THE REFLECTION


As with last month’s reflection, you will find another video, which concludes with me praying the Official Novena Prayer. I hope you will watch the video and join me in prayer.


If you have not ordered or downloaded your Official Prayer Card, please see the links at the bottom of this month’s reflection page to secure yours today.


For anyone who has not joined the Nine-Month Novena, it is not too late. Please join today, begin the Novena on any day, and pray the Official Novena Prayer every day. You might also invite someone to join us in this novena by forwarding them this email. Expect the next reflection on April 23.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke


Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke



Dear Richared,

Making the Nine-Month Novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, entrusting ourselves to her guidance and protection and confiding to her intercession our many intentions for the Church and for the world, we rejoice in the perfect union of her Immaculate Heart with the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son, Our Lord and Savior.


From Our Lady of Guadalupe, we, together with Saint Juan Diego, learn that we are called to become bearers of God, heralds of Christ, in the world. As bearers of God, we, like Saint Juan Diego, are servants of the Mother of God. Through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, may we become ever more her faithful servants, so that all of our brothers and sisters may know her as the Mother of God and may experience her unconditional maternal love for them, so that, through her maternal care, they may know, love, and serve her Divine Son.


I hope you will share this message—the full version of which is on the Novena website—with others.


I also hope you will watch the video with this email and, as it concludes, pray with me the Official Novena Prayer.


GO TO THE REFLECTION


You may expect my next email on May 12th, as we begin the third month of this Nine-Month Novena.


For anyone who has not joined the Nine-Month Novena, it is not too late. Please join today. You may begin the Novena on any day, committing yourself to pray the Official Novena Prayer every day from that day forward. Our Lord, in His never-failing mercy and love, will not fail to hear and answer your prayer, offered together with the thousands who are taking part in the Nine-Month Novena.  


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

Dear Richared,


As the second month of our Nine-Month Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe concludes, and as we, today, officially begin the third month, let us thank God and Our Lady for the grace of perseverance that Our Lord, through the maternal mediation of Our Lady, has given to us so that we might fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the Faith (cf. 2 Tim. 4, 7).


In our daily struggle to be faithful and generous co-workers with Christ in His saving work, let us call upon the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and her heroic messenger, Saint Juan Diego, even as we seek to follow their example. Christ will never fail us. He will render efficacious for our salvation and the salvation of the world our every good thought, word, and deed. When we are tempted to give up in the battle, let us bear in mind Our Lady’s words to Saint Juan Diego for they are motherly words which will comfort and encourage us as well: “I will reward the care, the work and the fatigue that you have put into this for me.”


I hope you will watch the video reflection for this month and join with me in praying the Official Novena Prayer.


GO TO THE REFLECTION


If you do not have an Official Novena Prayer Card, one can be ordered or downloaded at the “Reflection” link above.


Please continue to share this novena with others.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke


Dear Richared,


We consider Saint Juan Diego, heroic messenger of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as our model in showing forth the mercy of God in our homes, in our local communities, and in our world. At the same time, we call upon the help of his prayers, so that we may be able to carry out the Christian mission of merciful love with fidelity and generosity, as the Virgin of Guadalupe instructs us.


The best way to know Saint Juan Diego is to study the account of the apparitions of the Mother of God to him. The Nican Mopohua, the account of the apparitions written by Antonio Valeriano, a good friend of the Saint and a well-respected Native American scholar of the time, is the fruit of their many conversations about the apparitions. Saint Juan Diego dedicated the 17 years of his life after the apparitions to describing Our Lady and her message to pilgrims of her “sacred little house,” in which they could venerate her miraculous image on his tilma or mantle.


Please watch the video accompanying this message by following the link below and, at the conclusion of the video, join me in praying the Official Prayer of this Nine-Month Novena and Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe. If you do not have an Official Novena Prayer Card, one can be ordered or downloaded from the website.



GO TO THE REFLECTION



As we persevere in carrying out Our Lady’s intention during this Nine-Month Novena and Consecration, let us pray that God, through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, will drive away from us, from the Church, and from the world all the influence of the Evil One. Satan makes bold to sow his lies, the seeds of confusion and destruction, especially within the Church.


Let us pray, through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that Christ Who alone is King of Heaven and of Earth may reign in our hearts, may reign throughout the world.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke



Great are the difficulties we are called to face in the Church and in the world. When such difficulties seem overwhelming, prayer might appear to be one more difficulty, but that is a snare of Satan. The truth is that prayer, which is a union of our hearts with the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, is the balm of all our burdens. The great test of our total dedication to the mission that we have taken up is to persevere for six more months as we pray for the conversion of the world. 


Our Lady brought great comfort to Saint Juan Diego when he faced uncertainty. We, too, receive Our Lady’s assurance in those same encouraging words: What afflicted you is nothing; do not let it disturb you; do not fear; she is here; she is your mother; she protects you; she is the source of your joy; she is holding you.



Our Lady’s words of comfort to Juan Diego are words that should comfort us as well whenever we experience the temptation to doubt the importance and immediacy of carrying out all that Our Lady desires and has asked of us.


Please watch the video reflection for this month and join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer. If you do not have an Official Novena Prayer Card, one can be ordered or downloaded from the Novena Website.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke


Dear Richared,


Our Lady does not propose some idea or some political action to address the various crises facing man. No, she proposes a person—the person of her Divine Son. She proposes the most intimate union of heart with Him as the only way to obtain mercy and ultimately eternal life. She tells Juan Diego that Christ is in fact her “compassionate gaze,” even as He is her “help,” her “salvation.”


In this way, too, she shows us that He, Jesus Christ, is the help that we are to offer to the world and to the Church in a time of great turmoil. As much as is possible, we desire that all people will see the face of Christ and be drawn to Him Who alone can save them.



I invite you to watch the video reflection for this month, at the conclusion of which you can join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer. If you do not have an Official Novena Prayer Card, one can be ordered or downloaded from the official Novena website.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke


All of us can easily give way to doubt and fear before the challenge of living in Christ in our totally secularized culture. There is the tendency to doubt God’s grace and to give way to fear in responding to its “costly” demands. There is the temptation to think that we must devise some program, “some magic formula,” to transform the world. Yet it is Christ, alive for us in the Church, Who alone shows us the way. It is our humble and confident following of Christ which will transform us and our world. To help us follow Him, as He was dying upon the cross, Our Lord gave His Mother to us as our Mother.


By the mystery of the Divine Maternity, the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, assumed into glory, never ceases to beat with love for us, the children whom her Divine Son gave to her, also as He was dying upon the Cross. When Our Lord pronounced the words, “Woman, behold thy son” (Jn 19, 26) to His Mother and “Behold thy mother” (Jn 19, 27) to Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, standing at the foot of the cross, He expressed an essential reality of the salvation He was winning for us: the full cooperation of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in His saving work.





In five months, on December 12, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, during the Holy Mass at 12:15 pm Central Time, I will be making the Official Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe by reciting the Official Prayer of this Nine-Month Novena. I invite you to come to the Shrine to make your Official Act of Consecration with me.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke




Take Saint Juan Diego as your model in your every thought, word, and action, so that you may serve God in all things, both great and small. Commit yourselves to be, with the Mother of God, a messenger of God’s merciful love in your homes, in your offices or schools, and in any place in which you find yourselves. Be humble, recognizing that all that you are and have comes from God. Be confident that, if you respect God’s plan for you and for our world, you will be blessed, and you will bring a blessing to others. 

As true children of God, with humility and confidence, like Saint Juan Diego, let us be one with the Virgin Mother of God in giving our hearts completely to the Lord. Calling upon the intercession of Saint Juan Diego, we pray for the humility to be always ready to do whatever God asks of us, and we pray for the trust that He will bring to a good conclusion our humble efforts to serve Him faithfully in even the smallest matters.




I invite you to watch the video reflection for this month, at the conclusion of which you can join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer. I also invite you to come to the Shrine to make your Official Act of Consecration with me on December 12.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke


[1]http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20020731_juan-diego_en.html

https://youtu.be/0HagzLz2nAU?si=bGMIn6fBgmVDmqi


Dear Richared,


In the economy of salvation, the Blessed Virgin Mary, crowned at her Assumption as Queen of Heaven and Earth, is the Mediatrix of All Grace.


Our Lady’s work as Mediatrix became manifest with the establishment of a “sacred little house,” a place of pilgrimage, in Tepeyac in 1531, whence she might show the mercy of God to all of her children of America and of the world. As the great sign of her maternal desire to make us one with her Divine Son and, therefore, recipients of the immeasurable outpouring of God’s mercy, she left her image on the Tilma or mantle of Saint Juan Diego.


To this day, the image, which has no human explanation as to its origin and whose fabric, cactus cloth, should have disintegrated some thirty to forty years after her apparitions, remains intact and radiates a miraculous maternal love.




I have personally experienced her maternal love while gazing upon the Tilma. Through her maternal love, Our Lady of Guadalupe brings her children to her Divine Son, the only Savior of the world, in whom we discover the wonder of our daily life in Christ, for God indeed dwells with us.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke


YOU’RE INVITED!


In four months, on December 12, you will have the opportunity to join Catholics from around the nation at the Shrine of Our Lady Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin. There, you can make your consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe with His Eminence and celebrate the Feast of Our Lady!


To learn more, and to RSVP, please follow the link below.






In what context does the Virgin of Guadalupe propose to teach us the mystery of God’s ever faithful and all-merciful love? It is in the context of our entrance into the House of God to pray and to offer to Him the worship which He Himself inspires in us and strengthens us to carry out, under the maternal gaze of the Mother of God, especially looking upon us from the Tilma, for she draws us to her Divine Son alive for us in the Church, above all, in the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist. “I will show Him,” Our Lady of Guadalupe tells us by her apparitions, and “I will give Him to all people in all my personal love.” 


Being Our Lady’s messengers, bringing people to her so that she can “show Him” and “give Him to all people,” also means offering ourselves as channels of her maternal love, just as she is a channel of Divine Grace. Her image, which God miraculously left for us on the mantle, the Tilma of Saint Juan Diego, makes visible the truth of the Virgin Mother’s unique cooperation in Christ’s work of Redemption.

So, too, as her servants, as her messengers, we must make visible the truth of the Virgin Mother’s work by, in a sense, wearing a spiritual Tilma for all the world to hear through our words and see in our actions.



Accordingly, I am inviting you to make a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on December 12, during the Holy Mass at 12:15 pm Central Time. At that time, under the mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe, created by the artists at the Vatican Mosaic Studio to be a likeness of the image of Our Lady on the Tilma, I will lead the congregation in the act of consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe by reciting the Official Prayer of this Nine-Month Novena. Come to the Shrine to make the consecration with me. 

In the meantime, you are also invited to watch the video reflection for this month and then, at the conclusion, join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke









If we are to be messengers of Our Lady, our hearts must be in union with her Immaculate Heart. Let us, therefore, build a “sacred little house” to Our Lady of Guadalupe in our hearts, setting a spiritual Tilma in a place wherefrom, under the interior contemplation of her maternal gaze, she can prepare our hearts to make a pilgrimage to a holy place, where we can truly encounter her Divine Son, Jesus Christ, come to know Him more fully and to love Him more ardently, especially in the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist.



I invite you on such a pilgrimage. At the Church of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on December 12, during the Holy Mass at 12:15 pm Central Time, I will make the Official Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Make a pilgrimage to the Shrine. Join me on that day. Encourage others to do the same. I hope you can make it, and make this consecration with me.


The Shrine is a Vatican-approved place of pilgrimage, affiliated with the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome and with the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. This affiliation means that anyone who comes to the Shrine on pilgrimage receives the same graces and blessings as if they had gone on pilgrimage to those other Basilicas. 

Until then, please watch the video reflection for this month and join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer at the end.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke



Although the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe occurred nearly 500 years ago, Our Lord still desires that we continue coming to Our Lady of Guadalupe because He desires to speak to us through her as Mother of Divine Grace. 

The situation today is no less urgent than it was at the time of the first apparitions. Our culture is plummeting at an alarming rate into self-annihilation. The situation in our own country is very frightening as the attacks on human life and on the family grow ever more violent and our society is unstable because we have lost our moorings. In other parts of the world, there are terrible conflicts, as there were during the time of Our Lady’s apparitions. We realize that Our Lady’s message is as critical today as it was then.


At the same time, Our Lady’s remedy for the crisis of that time remains our own remedy today.



Our Lady is calling us to be her messengers today, just as she called Saint Juan Diego to be her heroic messenger 500 years ago. Your example of living a holy life by supernatural grace will naturally lead others to Our Lady, who will draw them to the only source of their salvation in Jesus Christ, truly present in their midst.


I encourage you to watch the video reflection for this month and then please join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke







In what context does the Virgin of Guadalupe propose to teach us the mystery of God’s ever faithful and all-merciful love? It is in the context of our entrance into the House of God to pray and to offer to Him the worship which He Himself inspires in us and strengthens us to carry out.

Mary, our Mother, preserved from all stain of original sin, understands better than any of us the wiles of Satan and the profound harm and eternal death itself, which comes to us through sin. She witnessed the effects of the sin of our First Parents and of our actual sins in the Passion and Death of her Divine Son. She, therefore, stands ever ready to point out to us Satan’s allurements and deceptions, and to sustain us in times of great trial and temptation by leading us to her Son alive for us in the Church, especially through the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist.




By drawing close to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother, under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we come to understand ever better the effects of sin in our lives and upon our world; we come to understand our need to go to her Son for the grace of conversion of life and the transformation of our world. In her maternal love, she leads us in the way of the humility which Our Lord teaches us in the Gospel, so that we give our hearts totally to Him, with confident trust in His never failing and all-merciful love. (Cf. Lc 9, 48).


Please watch the video reflection for this month and then join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke






Our Lady of Guadalupe’s direction in 1531 was to build a “sacred little house,” a chapel, a church,” in order to draw people into a profoundly personal encounter with her Divine Son, Jesus Christ, in the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. This is because she understands that the Church exists to call the culture to conversion and to transform it. She knows, too, that in the struggle to row the boat of the Church against the troubled waters of the confusion and error which surround us, there is the temptation to give up and to let the boat move with the times, with the result that the same confusion and error enters into the very life of the Church.


Yet, by giving us her image on the Tilma, so that people might be drawn to see her, so that she can draw them to her Divine Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lady shows that she also fully comprehends that, if we strive every day to give our lives completely to Christ, our great High Priest, Who has made us His brothers and sisters, then we can be confident that the turbulent waters which we are unable to navigate on our own become, with Christ, indeed navigable. 




Contemplating her maternal gaze from the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we see the face of Christ and hear His invitation to unite our hearts to His Sacred Heart, and to unite our lives to His, and, with Mary, give our fiat—“be it done to me according to thy word” (Lc 1, 38)—to our mission, which is daily conversion of life to Jesus Christ, so that, by exercising His pastoral charity, the world might be transformed into a civilization of love. 


I hope you will watch the video reflection for this month and then join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the i


ntercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke






At the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we celebrate the mystery of God’s dwelling with us in His only-begotten Son, conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which the Virgin proclaimed from the moment of her first apparition to Saint Juan Diego on December 9th of 1531. It is the same mystery of God’s immeasurable mercy and love toward us that Our Lady of Guadalupe announced in each of her apparitions over the three days which followed. It is the mystery which she never ceases to announce through her miraculous image which the hand of God Himself left for us on the mantle of Saint Juan Diego on December 12th, the day of her final apparition.


On December 12th, the Virgin provided to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga the sign of the truth of her apparitions, which he had requested from Saint Juan Diego: the miraculous flowering of roses in the middle of winter on a barren and stony hilltop. But, even more wonderfully, God provided the ultimate sign of that truth: He imprinted the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the mantle of Saint Juan Diego, so that, in a certain and true sense, she could continue to appear to His children who would come on pilgrimage to meet her and, in meeting her, to meet her Divine Son, above all, in the Sacraments of Penance and the Most Holy Eucharist.





If you cannot make a pilgrimage to the Shrine, please make your Act of Consecration at your parish church, before the Blessed Sacrament reposed in the tabernacle. The Holy Mass will also be live-streamed to the Official Novena website and to the Shrine’s website, and it will also be broadcast on EWTN. 

For the present, please watch the video reflection for this month and then join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke








It is my hope and prayer that you are well. I keep your intentions in my daily prayers, placing you under the guidance and protection of the Virgin Mother of God, Our Lady of Guadalupe.


I am writing to you today to extend a special invitation.


This coming December 12th, hundreds of Catholics will come on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at La Crosse, Wisconsin, to honor Our Lady on her feast day, to celebrate her apparitions at Tepeyac in 1531, to invoke her intercession for the conversion of their lives and the transformation of our nation and world, and to consecrate their lives as her faithful and courageous messengers. By the Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the pilgrims will give their hearts, one with her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, totally to the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son, Our Lord and Savior. Nearly 190,000 Catholics from around the world have participated in the Nine-Month Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe in preparation for the Act of Consecration. If they are not able to come on pilgrimage to the Shrine on December 12th, they, too will be able to join me in the Act of Consecration from their homes, their parish churches, or even nearby shrines.


Even if you have not faithfully participated in the Nine-Month Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the nine final days of the Novena are a wonderful opportunity to obtain many graces for your daily living, for the world and for the Church.


I invite you to join me in a “final sprint,” if you will, “to the finish line.” For the last nine days of the Nine-Month Novena, beginning on December 3rd, I ask you to join me faithfully in the Prayer of the Novena. To assist you in participating as fully as possible in the Novena, each day, I will offer a special video reflection on a theme we have explored over these nine months. If you are receiving this email, rest assured that you will also receive these final reflections.


In the meantime, I encourage you to forward this email to others, inviting them to join us in fervent prayer for the conversion of our lives and the transformation of our nation and world!





Our Lady wishes to draw you closer to Her Son, because He alone is the source of our salvation, of our joy and peace. She will intercede for us, if only we ask.


I am filled with profound joy and hope at the thought of so many of the faithful expressing their devotion to Our Lady in this way. It is my great hope to see you with me at the finish line. Let us continue fighting the good fight as we keep the faith and finish the race (cf 2 Tm 4, 7).


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke





Pilgrimage is among the most ancient spiritual practices, going back to the Old Testament. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself went on pilgrimage with His Mother Mary and His guardian, St. Joseph.

Every time we pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, we recall how He was left behind in Jerusalem at the conclusion of a pilgrimage from His hometown of Nazareth, and how Mary and Joseph found Him teaching the doctors of the law in the Temple.

Pilgrimage, in fact, is a deeply spiritual expression of the meaning of life itself, which is a journey from the moment of conception to the moment of death. On pilgrimage, we remember that here on earth, we have no lasting city and that our days on earth, be they many or few, are a journey to the lasting home which Our Lord has prepared for us in Heaven (Cf. Jn 14:1-7; and Heb 13:14).When we go on pilgrimage, we leave the familiar surroundings of our everyday life to journey to a holy place.

What do we mean by a holy place? We mean a place in which Our Lord or His Blessed Mother or one of the saints has lived or appeared, or a place that has been set aside to the honor of Our Lord, His Blessed Mother or one of the saints. At the holy place, a shrine or sanctuary is established, to which the faithful journey on pilgrimage.





I hope you can join me in making an Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe in a few weeks. You can make your Act of Consecration in your parish church, before the Blessed Sacrament reposed in the tabernacle. The Holy Mass of the Consecration will be live-streamed on the Official Novena website and on the Shrine’s website, and it will also be broadcast to EWTN. 

For the present, please watch the video reflection for this month and then join me in praying the Official Novena Prayer.


Invoking God’s blessing upon you and your home, while confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, I remain


Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,



Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

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