Tenth Reflection |  July 24

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Introduction

We have explored in previous reflections how difficulties experienced in life can give rise to temptations to avoid the summons of Our Lady. When Saint Juan Diego’s uncle, Juan Bernardino, became deathly ill, Juan Diego, seeking a priest to hear his uncle’s confession and prepare his soul for death, tried to avoid a personal encounter with Our Lady, believing that her mission would delay his ostensibly noble cause. Yet notwithstanding his intentions, she appeared to him and offered him her maternal consolation. “Am I not here, I who have the honor to be your mother?” and “Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?” (Nican Mopohua, no. 119) Our Lady assured her heroic messenger that his uncle would not die.

Saint Juan Diego believed her, and his humble trust was more than rewarded, for the final message from Our Blessed Mother would be the capstone of Guadalupe and the heart of the conversion of the Americas. She told him to ascend to the rocky Hill of Tepeyac to gather roses in the winter. For his part, he immediately fulfilled her request, as the incontrovertible proof of Our Lady’s appearances. The account tells us:

And then Juan Diego climbed the little hill, and when he reached the top, he marveled at how many flowers were spread out there, their blossoms were open, flowers of every kind, lovely and beautiful, like those of Castille, when it was not yet their season because it was when the frost was worst. The flowers were giving off an extremely soft fragrance, like precious pearls, as if filled with the night’s dew. Right away he began to cut them, gathered them all and put them in the hollow of his tilma. The top of the little hill was certainly not a place in which any flowers grew, because it was rocky, there were burs, thorny plants, prickly pear, and an abundance of mesquite bushes. And though some small grasses might grow, it was then the month of December, in which the ice eats everything up and destroys it. (Nican Mopohua, no. 127-133)

The miraculous flowers were but part of the reward of Saint Juan Diego’s humble trust. God granted an even more remarkable and enduring sign of all that He wished to accomplish in His merciful love by leaving permanently the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Saint Juan Diego’s Tilma. It was the Tilma that became both the miraculous proof of Our Lady’s apparitions and the catalyst for the conversion of millions of souls. 

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.

Tenth Reflection

Those wishing to read a transcript for the video reflection will find this text and other supplementary reading at the bottom of this page.

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Write in your prayer using the form below. Cardinal Burke will pray for your intentions every day and offer Mass on the 12th of each month for your prayer requests.

Let us pray.

‍O Virgin Mother of God, we fly to your protection and beg your intercession against the darkness and sin which ever more envelop the world and menace the Church. Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, gave you to us as our mother as He died on the Cross for our salvation. So too, in 1531, when darkness and sin beset us, He sent you, as Our Lady of Guadalupe, on Tepeyac to lead us to Him Who alone is our light and our salvation.

Through your apparitions on Tepeyac and your abiding presence with us on the miraculous mantle of your messenger, Saint Juan Diego, millions of souls converted to faith in your Divine Son. Through this novena and our consecration to you, we humbly implore your intercession for our daily conversion of life to Him and the conversion of millions more who do not yet believe in Him. In our homes and in our nation, lead us to Him Who alone wins the victory over sin and darkness in us and in the world.

Unite our hearts to your Immaculate Heart so that they may find their true and lasting home in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Ever guide us along the pilgrimage of life to our eternal home with Him. So may our hearts, one with yours, always trust in God's promise of salvation, in His never-failing mercy toward all who turn to Him with a humble and contrite heart. Through this novena and our consecration to you, O Virgin of Guadalupe, lead all souls in America and throughout the world to your Divine Son in Whose name we pray. Amen.

AUDIO | Cardinal Burke reciting the Latin Novena Prayer
 

Additional Material

Those seeking a transcript of His Eminence's reflection from the above video can find a copy of the text here:

Read the meditation

Those wishing to learn more about the Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe can find the text of the Nican Mopohua at the link below. The translation that we cite in this novena is found in Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love (New York: Doubleday, 2009) by Carl A. Anderson and Msgr. Eduardo Chávez..

Nican Mopohua

Those interested in learning even more might enjoy a presentation that His Eminence recently delivered, which examines the the immense literary and spiritual merit of the Nican Mopohua. It is available at the link below.

the Cardinal's Presentation

Download the Prayer Card