NINE-MONTH NOVENA
Sixth Reflection from Cardinal Raymond Burke May 28th
Let us continue to reflect on the Third Apparition, and on the Bishop’s request that St. Juan Diego present a sign. Our Lord calls “blessed” those who have not seen and still believe. And yet, in His mercy, Our Lord accords us an abundance of signs of His love, so that we may grow in ever greater love for Him. The tilma upon which God miraculously imprinted the image of Our Lady for us, her children, is one such sign, a truly remarkable sign of His love.
Let us take a moment to examine the signs God has given to each of us. Have we allowed our souls to grow dulled and jaded by the myopia of materialism that pervades our society? Or do we believe that God shows signs of His Love for us each and every day?
Are we putting the Lord Our God to the test by demanding exact results according to our own, limited understanding? Or do we work to appreciate God’s grace according to our present station in life?
We should know and believe that, even if we are struggling to see the signs God has shown to us, we can always turn to the wonder and love that are available to us here and now in the miracle of the Sacraments through which God the Son Incarnate acts directly to sanctify us, to bestow immeasurably and unceasingly upon us His grace and life.
He is offering His mercy right now in the sacramental encounter with Him in Confession. He is offering His very life – His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – in the Holy Eucharist.
Our Lady leads us to love ever more and more Her Divine Son. So, I implore you: as we continue in this novena of nine months, set aside more time to spend in adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament, reposed in the tabernacle or exposed for us in the monstrance. The Sacred Host is the greatest sign of God’s love, which we have; may our love for Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament grow livelier and stronger each and every day.
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.
Fifth Reflection – From Cardinal Burke, May 12th
Let us reflect this month on the Third Apparition of Our Lady to St. Juan Diego.
When Juan Diego returned to the Bishop to convey again Our Lady’s intentions, the Bishop asked for a sign — a sign that Our Lady promised would come the following morning.
The Bishop’s request for a sign, reasonable as it may have been, strikes an odd and resonant chord in our deeply materialistic society. So starved is our world for signs of something greater that it tries, pitiably and in vain, to find deeper meaning in politics, in ideologies, in material pleasures — in the things of this world that will not satisfy.
But this is not because there are no signs of God’s love. It is because we have lost our ability to see them.
Our Lady’s apparition gives us the antidote to this materialism: we are called to be signs of Our Lord’s presence in our world today. When we live, one in heart with her Immaculate Heart, in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our Lord accompanies our witness with other signs to confirm us and sustain us on our pilgrim way.
This is no mere platitude. Our Lady is calling each and every one of us to live our lives in such a way that Christ’s truth and love is immediately clear to all those around us. Christ pours forth into our hearts from His Most Sacred Heart the grace to live so.
Living our lives in this way is an obligation we have before Our Mother and before her Divine Son, Our Lord and Savior: we must live our lives in the faithful and generous pursuit of the holiness which pierces the darkness of the world around us.
Make no mistake, this is a great and difficult task. We must ask our Lady to intercede on our behalf so that we can receive the grace to be co-workers with Christ in His work of truth and love.
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.
Novena website: “Return to Our Lady” – https://novena.cardinalburke.com/
