Is there anything we can do? About a world in peril with many Christians confused! This is the question being addressed by American Cardinal Raymond Burke. He is proposing nine months of prayer for divine help. Starting on the 12th of March and running to 12th December, the latter date being the church’s memorial to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Cardinal Raymond Burke has issues and believes it is time for Our Lord and his Mother to come to our assistance. He likens where we are today to where the world and the church were in 1531. That was the year chosen by God to send his mother Mary to St Juan Diego, thus beginning the devotion of the Mexican and worldwide church to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
An image of Our Lady as she was seen by Juan Diego was miraculously impressed on the inside of his cope. It was first seen by his Bishop when he received Juan Diego at his church and heard the story of what Our Lady wanted done.
You may want to research the history of the Guadalupe apparition, Cardinal Raymond Burke, and our nine-month novena. I have signed up and intend to post updates as the nine months go by.
Novena website: “Return to Our Lady” – https://novena.cardinalburke.com/
If you are watching the video you may have to allow time for the video to buffer. Otherwise just scroll up and down for all the information.
I have received the second email from Cardinal Burke, his next one will be on April 12th
March – Second Reflection
During the first apparition to St. Juan Diego, Mary introduced herself as the Virgin
Mother of God and our mother.
These words are as comforting and inspiring today as they were nearly 500 years ago:
“… I am honored to be your compassionate mother, yours and that of all the people that
live together in this land, and also of all the other various lineages of men; those who
love me, those who cry to me, those who seek me, those who trust in me.”
As Catholics, we say that Mary is our Mother a great deal. We call her our Blessed
Mother – enough, perhaps, that we might sometimes lose sight of what an
extraordinary thing it is that we are saying. Mary, the ever-Virgin Mother of God, is our
mother: take a moment today to reflect as deeply as you are able on the beautiful
implications of this statement.
Know in your heart that she is your mother. Know beyond doubt that her maternal care
for you is real. Recognize that she wants what is best for you—and that she desires
nothing more than to bring you in closer relationship with her Divine Son, who,
through her Divine Maternity, has become our Brother. See that it is a sign of the
unfathomable depths of God’s love for us, that He has sent Mary to us in this role, as
mother and Mediatrix of Grace.
Throughout these coming days, make it an express point to ask for Mary’s intercession
to obtain for you the good and holy things you desire, so that what you desire may
conform ever more closely to God’s plan for you.
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.
March – First Reflection
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, consider the first apparition of Our Lady to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill. As we contemplate this story, we are struck by how captivating, how utterly beautiful, and how surprising it is.
What a genuine and perhaps frightening surprise this first apparition must have been for St. Juan Diego. Who was he that Mary, the Mother of God, would appear to him? Why would she invite him, of all people, to cooperate in God’s plan in such a unique way? And yet, in the case of Mary’s faithful messenger, St. Juan Diego, this surprise blooms into a courageous assent to God’s will. How large and truly formidable must Mary’s plan have seemed to poor St. Juan Diego. And yet, he accepted this instruction from Our Lady.
If we honestly and prayerfully reflect on how blessed with grace our lives are, are we surprised? We should be! The occasions of grace with which God gifts us each day are truly countless. In these coming months, Mary is asking you to grow closer to her Divine Son. Let us ask Mary to obtain for us the courage to assent to her joyful plan.
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.
