Our Lady of Guadalupe

and

Litany to Jesus Christ

Living in the Womb of Mary

Our Lady of Guadalupe, from Missionary Image, official digital image

In 1999, Cardinal Rivera, Archbishop Primate of Mexico, authorized the removal of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from the Basilica in Mexico in order to create a new true and exact digital copy. The resulting digital file is the first and only digital rendition of the sacred image in existence created directly from the miraculous image and completed with the full control and approval of the Church. The digital images are exact-size and colour replicas of the original miraculous image. On January 25, 1999, Pope Saint John Paul II (1920-2005) blessed the digital file of these replica images.

The certification printed in Spanish on the bottom right-hand corner of the Missionary Images read as follows:

I certify that this Image is a faithful reproduction from the digital file of the Sacred Original of the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Signed by: Norberto Cardinal Rivera Carrera

Archbishopric Primate of Mexico

Our Lady of Guadalupe is Patroness of the Americas and Protectress of the Unborn

History

On December 9, 1531, in Mexico, Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego (1474-1548), a poor humble Aztec Indian who had recently converted to the Catholic faith. She asked him to go to the Bishop and tell him to build a church where she said “I will show and offer all of my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to my people.” Juan Diego did as she asked, but the Bishop asked for a sign that this message was really from Our Lady.

Mary granted his request. On December 12, she showed Juan where the most beautiful Castilian roses were and told him to gather them. It was a miracle that the roses were there and in bloom because there was frost on the ground, and the ground was an infertile place where only cactus and thistles grew. After he gathered them, she helped arrange them in his tilma, or poncho, and told him to show them to the Bishop.

When he brought them to the Bishop, the Bishop was amazed at the roses, but was even more amazed at what began to happen to Juan Diego’s tilma. Right before their very eyes, the image of Our Lady began to form on the cloth. The picture of Mary was beautiful and the Bishop fell to his knees. He had the church built at her request.

The image left on Saint Juan Diego’s tilma has remained intact to this day with all its original vibrancy for 475 years. This tilda image is in the Basilica of Santa María de Guadalupe, located at the foot of the Hill of Tepeyac in Mexica.

The manner in which Our Lady appeared on the tilma was very significant to the Aztec Indians. God had her dressed in a way that they would understand who she was. She was dressed in royal clothes that showed that she was a queen. She also had the symbol of the cross at her neck which was the same symbol the Spaniards had on their ships and in the churches they built. She had a sash tied around her waist which meant that she was with child, for this was the way the Aztec women dressed when they were pregnant.

The Blessed Virgin Mary’s appearance put an end to the worship of stone gods and the ritual of human sacrifice. We pray for Mary’s help today to bring an end to the human sacrifice of God’s children through abortion and to convert non-believers. Our Lady of Guadalupe is also called the Patroness of the Unborn.

- Above history from Archdiocese of Baltimore. Further information about Our Lady of Guadalupe's appearance and message is included at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe (La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States).

Meaning in the Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

A free PDF of the above explanation and about the apparitions may be downloaded from the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe here.

Additional Information about Our Lady of Guadalupe is at Family Life International Australia, America Needs Fatima and Share Catholic.

Family Life International Australia includes prayers for life and suggested rosary meditations for life and against abortion to be prayed with the different mysteries of the Holy Rosary.

On 8 January 1992 Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Campos (Archbishop of the see of Guadalajara in Mexico) promulgated the following prayer for the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the Image's travel to the United States:

A Prayer for the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Catholic people of Mexico and I pray to God that the paths of the Journey of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe throughout the United States of America, become rays of Our Lady’s love, care, protection and help for all of her children, particularly the unborn.

May she end without exceptions the horrible evil of abortion.

May she convert millions of hearts to the Sacred Heart of her Son Jesus and His holy Church through her Immaculate Heart.

May all pro-life forces unite under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe with her title of “Protectress of the Unborn.”

I bless the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and her evangelical mission that began under her protection almost 460 years ago.

I congratulate all the promoters of such a praiseworthy mission and with pleasure I commend them to the hands of Our Lord.

Lady, help us support your mission with our prayers in order that your Missionary Image may be well received in America for the glory of God and the honour of His holy Mother!

Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe

- From the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington DC, United States), requesting the intercession of the Blessed Mother under her title as the Patroness of Latin America.

Dearest Lady of Guadalupe, fruitful Mother of Holiness, teach me your ways of gentleness and strength. Hear my prayer offered with deepfelt confidence to beg this favour ….

O Mary, conceived without sin, I come to your throne of grace to share the fervent devotion of your faithful Mexican children who call to you under the glorious Aztec title of “Guadalupe” the virgin who crushed the serpent. Queen of Martyrs, whose Immaculate heart was pierced by seven wounds of grief, help me to walk valiantly amid the sharp thorns thrown across my pathway. Queen of Apostles aid me to win souls for the Sacred Heart of my Saviour. I plead this through the merits of your merciful Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Respect Life Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe Virgin of Guadalupe, Patroness of unborn children, we implore your intercession for every child at risk of abortion. Help expectant parents to welcome from God the priceless gift of their child’s life.

Console parents who have lost that gift through abortion, and lead them to forgiveness and healing through the Divine Mercy of your Son.

Teach us to cherish and to care for family and friends until God calls them home. Help us never to see others as burdens.

Guide our public officials to defend each and every human life through just laws. Inspire us all to bring our faith into public life, to speak for those who have no voice.

We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who is Love and Mercy itself. Amen.

The Lady of Mothers (The Pregnant Virgin), Altar, Cathedral of Evora, Portugal, 15th Century

Cardinal Burke's Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe

- This prayer is the Prayer written by Raymond Cardinal Burke which was prayed as a nine month novena from 12 March to 12 December 2024 (the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe). This version omits the reference to the novena and consecration so it is a stand alone prayer.

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. 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. O Virgin of Guadalupe, lead all souls in America and throughout the world to your Divine Son in Whose name we pray. Amen.

Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe

- Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, 12 December 2024.

O Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God and my compassionate Mother,1 I, with Saint Juan Diego, your faithful and courageous messenger, prostrate myself before your Beloved Image.2 With all my heart, I, too, desire to be your messenger. With Saint Juan Diego, may my heart be totally one with your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, perfectly united to the glorious pierced Heart of your Divine Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Conscious of my sins, of the evils oppressing the world and threatening the Church, and of the unrelenting guile of Satan, “the father of lies,”3 I come before you, seeking your protection and invoking your intercession, that I may belong totally to your Divine Son, King of the Universe and King of my heart. Incarnate in your womb at Nazareth and born of you at Bethlehem, He came into the world to save me from sin and everlasting death. Obtaining my eternal salvation by His death on the Cross, He gave you to me to be my mother forever.4 As His Mother, bring Him to me, and, as my Mother, bring me to Him Who alone is “the way, the truth, and the life,”5 teaching me, as you taught the wine stewards at the Wedding Feast of Cana: “Do whatever He tells you.”6

Before the troubles, the miseries, and the pains which afflict me, the world, and the Church,7 I am tempted to give way to discouragement and to claim helplessness.8 In moments of temptation, remind me that you have chosen me to be your messenger and that Our Lord, without measure and without cease, sustains with the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit a humble and contrite heart.9 Help me to remain, with you, one in heart with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, trusting that God’s promises to me will indeed be fulfilled.10 Keeping me “in the hollow of your mantle” and “in the crossing of your arms,”11 let no trouble, no misery, no pain obscure or diminish my service as your faithful messenger. Rather, with maternal love, encourage and strengthen me to take up steadfastly and joyfully the cross of pure and selfless love, which is indeed my only hope, my only way to joy and peace here and now, and to its fullness in the eternal life of Heaven.12

Under your protection and through your intercession, may I, every day and at every moment of the day, give myself anew to Jesus, “my Lord and my God,”13 and may I, with you, draw to Him the many who do not yet know Him and the many who have known Him but are now far away from Him. Please intercede for me, that, through my conversion of life to Him and through His grace at work in my heart, my every thought, attitude, word, and action may attract others to Him Who alone is their salvation. Please intercede for my family and my homeland, that Christ the King may rule in all hearts from His Most Sacred Heart, pierced by the soldier’s spear as He died on Calvary and now seated in eternal glory at the right hand of the Father, dispelling all darkness, all sin, and all attraction to sin.

O Virgin Mother of God and my compassionate Mother, prostrate before your Beloved Image, I now unite my heart forever to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, finding my true and lasting home in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. I consecrate myself to you, the Perfect Virgin, Saint Mary of Guadalupe.14 I promise to be your ever faithful and courageous messenger on earth. Thus, at the end of my earthly pilgrimage, may I be forever in your company, together with the angels and all the saints, praising and glorifying God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Please accept my Act of Consecration and never let me betray the gift of myself to you which, today, I make with all my heart. Amen.

1 Nican Mopohua, nos. 26 and 29. 2 Nican Mopohua, no.183. 3 Jn 8, 44. 4 Cf. Jn 19, 26-27. 5 Jn 14, 6. 6 Jn 2, 5. 7 Cf. Nican Mopohua, no. 32. 8 Cf. Nican Mopohua, nos. 54-56 and 111-116. 9 Cf. Is 57, 15. 10 Cf. Lk 2, 45. 11 Nican Mopohua, no. 119. 12 Cf. Mt 10, 38; 16, 34; Mk 8, 34; Lk 9, 23; Jn 12, 25-26. 13 Jn 20, 28. 14 Nican Mopohua, no. 208.

The Nican Mopohua is the earliest account of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531. The text’s authorship is widely, though not definitively, credited to the Indigenous scholar Antonio Valeriano (1521–1605) and the Nican Mopohua’s cultural and theological significance is without question and is considered one of the most influential Nahuatl texts of the Spanish Colonial period. One English translation of this text is on the website of the Knights of Columbus and can be downloaded as a PDF.

The Visitation, Raphael, 1517

Litany to Jesus Christ Living in the Womb of Mary

Jesus, knit so wonderfully in the womb of Mary. Have mercy on us.

Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. Have mercy on us.

Jesus, uniquely human from the moment of conception in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, present at creation, conceived in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, revealed by the Father, concealed in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, subject to human development in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, Whose precious Blood first flowed through tiny arteries and veins in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, hidden nine months in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, leaping from eternity into time, in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, revealing with His Father and the Holy Spirit all wisdom and knowledge to His Most Holy Mother, in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, aware of His role as Redeemer in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, Eternal Word, Divine Child, embraced by the Father, in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, everlasting delight of Heaven, in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, manifesting His Incarnation to His Holy Mother, in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, adored and contemplated by His Mother in the sanctuary of the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, before Whom the Angels prostrated themselves, in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, in Whom the very Angels beheld the humanity of the Infant God and the union of the two natures of the Word in the virginal womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, our Protector and Saviour, asleep in the inviolable womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, Whose Godhead the world cannot contain, weighing only a few grams in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, Whose Divine Immensity, once measuring only tenths of an inch in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, Whose Divine Grasp outreaches the universe, cradled in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, Who was to suffer the agony and passion of death, accepting the human capacity for pain and grief, in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

Jesus, foretelling His Eucharist Presence, in the womb of Mary, Have mercy on us.

V. Jesus, Lamb of God, in the womb of Mary,
R. Spare us, O Lord.

V. Jesus, Holy Innocent in the womb of Mary,
R. Graciously hear us, O Lord.

V. Jesus, Son of God and Messiah in the womb of Mary,
R. Have mercy on us, O Lord.

Let us pray:

Jesus, notwithstanding Your Divine Nature as Son of God, equal and one with the Father, You deemed to become incarnated as the Son of Man, assuming the condition of a pre-born child in the womb of Your Holy Mother, the womb for all time and every human, whose life is begun at conception.

Jesus, manifest Yourself in the hearts of Your people as the Eternal Son of God who began Your earthly life in the womb of a woman called Mary. You could have chosen to commence Your Messianic mission in another manner; however, You showed Your love for us by becoming a pre-born infant in the womb of Your Holy Mother. You took on the total human existence from conception to death. You consented to be carried in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and then, after birth, saved us by Your suffering and death on the cross. From conception to death we live and have our being in You.

Jesus, we adore and thank You for choosing to become incarnate in the womb of Your mother, Mary. We beseech You to bless all mothers and intercede with the Holy Spirit and Your Father that every infant in the womb receive Your precious gift of life. Jesus, conceived in the womb of Mary, grant that Mary’s loving mantle overshadow these precious pre-born infants in the wombs of their mothers and assist in their birth. We ask this, Jesus, in Your name, who with the Father and Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forever. Amen.

- This version of the Litany was prayed on 23 March 2025 (International Day of the Unborn Child) at a procession from St. Mary's Cathedral Sydney to the New South Wales Parliament to oppose proposed further extreme abortion legislation in the State. The procession was led by Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP and an address was given by Cardinal Mykola Bychok CSSR. It is very similar to a version of the Litany in the Life Witness Prayer Book.

- A longer version of this litany is on the website of Father Boniface Hicks OSB, as well as a Litany of Powerlessness and a Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary.

Catholic Procession Against Abortion, NSW Parliament, Australia, 23 March 2025

Other Prayers for Life - Prayers for the ending of the murderous evils of abortion and euthanasia here .

Please consider Spiritually Adopting an unborn child - Spiritual Adoption Prayer here.

Mother Teresa's Defence of Life, Speaking Truth to Power 3 February 1994 - Article and full Transcript of Speech here.

Immaculate Queen of Peace, pray for us.

Immaculata Regina Pacis, ora pro nobis.