St Juan Diego -9th December

Saint Juan Diego

Born an impoverished free man in a strongly class-conscious society. Farm worker, field labourer, and mat maker. Married layman with no children. A mystical and religious man even as a pagan, he became an adult convert to Christianity around age 50, taking the name Juan Diego. Widower in 1529. Visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared at Guadalupe on 9 December 1531, leaving him the image known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Prayer to St Juan Diego

O St. Juan Diego, in appearances of Our Lady of Guadalupe, you, a humble peasant, were chosen as Her messenger. Your faithfulness in this task is evident still today, in the miraculous image the Virgin left upon your tilma. Intercede for me, I pray, that I might have your childlike trust in the mother of God, and that my heart might respond to her maternal promptings. Through such simple confidence, obedience, and love, may I join you one day in sharing everlasting joy, where our heavenly Mother reigns in the glory of her Son.
Amen.

Prayer to Saint Juan Diego

Saint Juan Diego, you are our first American indigenous saint.
Please pray that God the Father would protect all migrants through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Ask the Father to pour out the love of the Holy Spirit upon all
who are isolated, alone and separated by choice or necessity from their native lands.
May those torn away from their families and forced to leave their country to find work elsewhere be reunited: husbands with wives and parents with children.
We ask especially for migrant women and children who are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of human trafficking. Give them your protection and shield them from evil.
May we as a Church receive the grace to welcome with love migrants who enter into our country, seeking a home in our parishes and communities.
We ask for your prayers and intercession for all immigrants
who are desperate, alone and in need of God’s loving support.
And we ask Our Lady, who appeared to you as your Mother and Mother of all in our land, to wrap her mantle of protection around all migrant people.
We beg for her love, compassion, help and protection on all immigrants who today experience great sufferings, sorrows, necessities and misfortunes.
Amen.

Prayer to St. Juan Diego (adapted from a sermon of Pope John Paul II)

St. Juan Diego, we entrust to you our lives so that, feeling the call to holiness, we may imbue every area of social life with the spirit of the Gospel. Bless our priests, deacons, sisters, and brothers. Bless families, strengthen spouses in their marriage, help parents to give their children a Christian upbringing. Look with favor upon the pain of those who are suffering in body or in spirit, on those afflicted by poverty, loneliness, marginalization, or ignorance. May all people, civic leaders and ordinary citizens, always act in accordance with the demands of justice and with respect for the dignity of each person, so that in this way peace may be fostered. Beloved Juan Diego, show us the way that leads to the Virgin, that she may receive us in the depths of her heart, for she is the loving, compassionate Mother who guides us to the true God.
Amen.

St. Juan Diego, pray for us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Prayer to Saint Juan Diego

Saint Juan Diego, you were chosen by Our Lady of Guadalupe
as an instrument to show your people and the world
that the way of the Christian is one of love, compassion, understanding, values, sacrifices, repentance of our sins, esteem and respect for the creation of God, and above all, one of humility and obedience.
You, who we know are in the Kingdom of our Lord and near our Mother, be our angel and protect us, stay with us while we fight in this modern life without knowing, most of the time, where to place our priorities.
Help us to pray to God, through the Heart of our Lady of Guadalupe
towards the Heart of Jesus, to obtain the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
and to use them for the good the humanity and the Church.
Amen.

Litany to Saint Juan Diego

Lord have mercy on us. Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us. Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us. Lord have mercy on us.
Christ hear us. Christ hear us.

Christ graciously hear us. Christ graciously hear us.
God, our Heavenly Father, Have mercy on us.
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary of Guadalupe, Pray for us.
Virgin of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, Pray for us.
Virgin of Guadalupe, star of the new evangelization, Pray for us.

Saint Juan Diego, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, instructed in the doctrine of Christian love, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, eager to learn from the missionaries, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, pilgrim of faith, hope and charity, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who abandoned the shadows of paganism, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who loved poverty, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who practiced humility, Pray for us.

Saint Juan Diego, who remained pure of heart, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who saw paradise at Tepeyac, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who witnessed the apparitions, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, faithful messenger of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who heard the sweet voice of Mary, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who beheld the beauty of Mary, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who felt the tenderness of Mary, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, awestruck by the heavenly joy radiating from the lips of the most Holy Virgin, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who spoke with childlike trust in Mary, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, the most beloved son of Mary, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who obeyed Mary promptly, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who respected the divine authority of the bishop, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who suffered ridicule and rejection, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who knew how to be humble, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who knew how to be patient, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who knew how to persevere, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who knew how to be peaceful, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who renounced privileges, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who took care of your uncle Juan Bernardino with loving kindness, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who climbed the hill of Tepeyac, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who picked the roses on Tepeyac hill, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who offered yourself to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who witnessed the miracle of the roses clinging to your cloak, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, in whose cloak the Virgin remains always with us, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who venerated the Virgin of Guadalupe with heartfelt devotion, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who built a humble shrine in honor of the Virgin Mary, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who cared for her until your death, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, you who loved your wife, Maria Lucia, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who helped her embrace the truth of the Gospel, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who practiced perfect chastity in your marriage, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, worthy example for your brothers and sisters, Pray for us.
Saint Juan Diego, who devoted yourself with tender love to the holy service of God, Pray for us.

Let us pray

Oh, God, Perfect Father, that in the person of Saint Juan Diego you gave us a living example of simplicity, fidelity and love, through his intercession, grant us the requests we make with piety. Through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.