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Day 5 - Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for a New Culture of Life

Day 5 Novena Reflection

In 1999, on his fourth pilgrimage to Mexico, Pope John Paul consecrated the entire American Continent to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

He arrived in Mexico on January 22, 1999, the anniversary of the infamous Roe and Doe United States Supreme Court decisions which denied the fundamental right to life of our youngest neighbors in the womb and effectively legalized abortion in the United States.

The late pope signed a powerful Apostolic Exhortation called The Church in America.

After signing this prophetic call, he literally placed it at the feet of the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

St John Paul wrote these words:

"In this moment of her history, the Church in America is called to respond with loving generosity to the fundamental task of evangelization..."

John Paul continued, "The starting-point of such a program of evangelization is in fact the encounter with the Lord. Given by Jesus Christ in the Paschal Mystery, the Holy Spirit guides us towards those pastoral goals which the Church in America must attain in the third Christian millennium."

The Pope referred to America as one continent and charged all of us in this exhortation:

"Open to the unity which comes from true communion with the Risen Lord, the particular Churches, and all who belong to them, will discover through their own spiritual experience that the encounter with the Living Jesus Christ is the path to conversion, communion and solidarity.

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To the extent that these goals are reached, there will emerge an ever-increasing dedication to the New Evangelization of America."

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us.

Novena Prayer Asking the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Beloved Father, through the life, death and resurrection of your only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ, we have become your adopted sons and daughters.

Through Baptism we are now members of His Body, the Church, which is Your family.

Before your Son and our Savior gave up the last drop of His Sacred blood - and breathed his last breath - to set us free from sin and death -

He turned to His Beloved Mother at the foot of the Cross.

And said
'Woman, behold your son.'
Then he said to the disciple whom he loved with a special affection, John, and said,
'Behold your mother'" (John 19: 26-27).

The Mother of Jesus is the Mother of His Church - and our Mother.

And Now Dear Father, in the name of Jesus, and under the maternal care of Mary, His Mother, under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we ask for the end of the culture of death.

We ask for the spread of a new culture of life in the Americas.

We pray for the new evangelization of the Church and the conversion of the Americas to Jesus Christ and His Church.

And here, I present my own personal intention:

PAUSE FOR YOUR PRAYER INTENTION