O God, Father of mercies, who placed your people under the singular protection of your Son’s most holy Mother, grant that all who invoke the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe may seek with ever more lively faith the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and of peace.
The icon of Mary revealed on the tilma of Saint Juan Diego shows the “depth of her love for humanity…her maternal love” [for all peoples]. The Virgin “…desires intimacy with us, just as the Father desires intimacy with us, just as Jesus does… [Mary] is the one who leads us more fully to Jesus,” said Archbishop Samuel Aquila in Rome in a address, “The Encounter with Jesus Through Mary” on December 10, 2012.
I’d like to entrust the soul of Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, who died on this date in 2008. He was a good man, holy priest, and a faithful friend. May the Virgin of Guadalupe bring him to Jesus.
