Before 12 December

Nine days to the Patroness of the Americas.

Prayed from 3 to 11 December, ending on the eve of her feast. She is invoked for the Americas, for the unborn, for the poor, and by anyone who has ever felt overlooked by the powerful — which was precisely Juan Diego’s situation.

Prayer for Each Day

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 for all the holy sacraments,
which are, as it were, the signs 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 others true joy and peace,
which come to us from your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Her Words

Am I not here, I who am your Mother?

About This Novena

The image on the tilma has been examined repeatedly and remains unexplained — the coarse agave-fibre cloth should have decayed within decades. Whatever one concludes about that, the historical effect is not in doubt: a continent’s conversion followed within a generation.