PRAYER OF THE DAY

John Paul II’s Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe

O Immaculate Virgin, 

Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church!, 

who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity to all those who ask for your protection, 

hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust, 

and present it to your Son Jesus, 

our sole Redeemer.

Mother of Mercy, 

Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice, 

to you, who come to meet us sinners, 

we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love. 

We also dedicate to you our life, 

our work, our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows. 

Grant peace, 

justice and prosperity to our peoples; 

for we entrust to your care all that we have and all that we are, 

our Lady and Mother. 

We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church; 

hold us always with your loving hand.

Virgin of Guadalupe, 

Mother of the Americas, 

we pray to you for all the Bishops, 

that they may lead the faithful along paths of intense Christian life, 

of love and humble service of God and souls. 

Contemplate this immense harvest, a

nd intercede with the Lord that He may instill a hunger for holiness in the whole people of God, 

and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious, 

strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God’s mysteries.

Grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings, 

with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God. 

Blessed Virgin Mary, 

protect our families, 

so that they may always be united, 

and bless the upbringing of our children.

Our hope, 

look upon us with compassion, 

teach us to go continually to Jesus and, 

if we fall, help us to rise again, 

to return to Him, 

by means of the confession of our faults and sins in the Sacrament of Penance, 

which gives peace to the soul.

We beg you to grant us a great love for all the holy Sacraments, 

which are, as it were, 

the signs that your Son left us on earth.

Thus, Most Holy Mother, 

with the peace of God in our conscience, 

with our hearts free from evil and hatred, 

we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, 

which come to us from your son, 

our Lord Jesus Christ, 

who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, 

lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.

His Holiness John Paul II

Mexico, January 1979.

Visiting Her Basilica during his first foreign trip as Pope.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Reading

Zec 2:14-17

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!

See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.

Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,

and they shall be his people,

and he will dwell among you,

and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.

The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land,

and he will again choose Jerusalem.

Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the LORD!

For he stirs forth from his holy dwelling.

Or Ps 1:1Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

God's temple in heaven was opened,

and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,

with the moon under her feet,

and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.

Then another sign appeared in the sky;

it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns,

and on its heads were seven diadems.

Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky

and hurled them down to the earth.

Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth,

to devour her child when she gave birth.

She gave birth to a son, a male child,

destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.

Her child was caught up to God and his throne.

The woman herself fled into the desert

where she had a place prepared by God.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

"Now have salvation and power come,

and the Kingdom of our God

and the authority of his Anointed."

Responsorial Psalm

Jdt 13:18bcde, 19

R. You are the highest honor of our race.

Blessed are you, daughter, by the Most High God,

above all the women on earth;

and blessed be the LORD God,

the creator of heaven and earth.

R. You are the highest honor of our race.

Your deed of hope will never be forgotten

by those who tell of the might of God.

R. You are the highest honor of our race.

Gospel

Lk 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God

to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,

of the house of David,

and the virgin's name was Mary.

And coming to her, he said,

"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."

But she was greatly troubled at what was said

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her,

"Do not be afraid, Mary,

for you have found favor with God.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his Kingdom there will be no end."

But Mary said to the angel,

"How can this be,

since I have no relations with a man?"

And the angel said to her in reply,

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,

has also conceived a son in her old age,

and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

for nothing will be impossible for God."

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word."

Then the angel departed from her.

Or Lk 1:39-47

Mary set out

and traveled to the hill country in haste

to a town of Judah,

where she entered the house of Zechariah

and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,

the infant leaped in her womb,

and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,

cried out in a loud voice and said,

"Most blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And how does this happen to me,

that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,

the infant in my womb leaped for joy.

Blessed are you who believed

that what was spoken to you by the Lord

would be fulfilled."

And Mary said:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

my spirit rejoices in God my savior."

SAINT OF THE DAY

December 12

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story.

A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady.

He was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared and within it a young Native American maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared.

Eventually the bishop told Juan Diego to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan Diego’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Diego to try to avoid the lady. The lady found Diego, nevertheless, assured him that his uncle would recover and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or tilma.

When Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground and the bishop sank to his knees. On Juan Diego’s tilma appeared an image of Mary exactly as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac. It was December 12, 1531.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open my lips.

And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 99 (100)

Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Rejoice in the Lord, all the earth,

and serve him with joy.

Exult as you enter his presence.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Know that the Lord is God.

He made us and we are his

– his people, the sheep of his flock.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Cry out his praises as you enter his gates,

fill his courtyards with songs.

Proclaim him and bless his name;

for the Lord is our delight.

His mercy lasts for ever,

his faithfulness through all the ages.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Hymn

The Advent of our God

With eager prayers we greet

And singing haste up on the road

His glorious gift to meet.

The everlasting Son

Scorns not a Virgin’s womb;

That we from bondage may be won

He bears a bondsman’s doom.

Daughter of Zion, rise

To meet thy lowly King;

Let not thy stubborn heart despise

The peace he deigns to bring.

In clouds of awful light,

As Judge he comes again,

His scattered people to unite,

With them in heaven to reign.

Let evil flee away

Ere that dread hour shall dawn.

Let this old Adam day by day

God’s image still put on.

Praise to the Incarnate Son,

Who comes to set us free,

With God the Father, ever One,

To all eternity.

Psalm 38 (39)

A prayer in sickness

We groan inwardly and await the redemption of our bodies.

I said, “I will watch my ways,

I will try not to sin in my speech.

I will set a guard on my mouth,

for as long as my enemies are standing against me.”

I stayed quiet and dumb, spoke neither evil nor good,

but my pain was renewed.

My heart grew hot within me,

and fire blazed in my thoughts.

Then I spoke out loud:

“Lord, make me know my end.

Let me know the number of my days,

so that I know how short my life is to be.”

All the length of my days is a handsbreadth or two,

the expanse of my life is as nothing before you.

For in your sight all men are nothingness:

man passes away, like a shadow.

Nothingness, although he is busy:

he builds up treasure, but who will collect it?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

We groan inwardly and await the redemption of our bodies.

Psalm 38 (39)

Lord, hear my prayer: do not be deaf to my tears.

What, now, can I look forward to, Lord?

My hope is in you.

Rescue me from all my sins,

do not make me a thing for fools to laugh at.

I have sworn to be dumb, I will not open my mouth:

for it is at your hands that I am suffering.

Aim your blows away from me,

for I am crushed by the weight of your hand.

You rebuke and chastise us for our sins.

Like the moth you consume all we desire

– for all men are nothingness.

Listen, Lord, to my prayer:

turn your ear to my cries.

Do not be deaf to my weeping,

for I come as a stranger before you,

a wanderer like my fathers before me.

Turn away from me, give me respite,

before I leave this world,

before I am no more.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

Lord, hear my prayer: do not be deaf to my tears.

Psalm 51 (52)

Against calumny

I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.

Why do you take pride in your malice,

you expert in evil-doing?

All day long you plan your traps,

your tongue is sharp as a razor –

you master of deceit!

You have chosen malice over kindness;

you speak lies rather than the truth;

your tongue is in love with every deceit.

For all this, in the end God will destroy you.

He will tear you out and expel you from your dwelling,

uproot you from the land of the living.

The upright will see and be struck with awe:

they will deride the evil-doer.

“Here is the man who did not make God his refuge,

but put his hope in the abundance of his riches

and in the power of his stratagems.”

But I flourish like an olive in the palace of God.

I hope in the kindness of God,

for ever, and through all ages.

I shall praise you for all time for what you have done.

I shall put my hope in your name and in its goodness

in the sight of your chosen ones.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.

Lord our God, turn us round.

– Show us your face and we shall be saved.

Reading

Isaiah 25:6-26:6

On this mountain,

the Lord of Hosts will prepare for all peoples

a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines,

of food rich and juicy, of fine strained wines.

On this mountain he will remove

the mourning veil covering all peoples,

and the shroud enwrapping all nations,

he will destroy Death for ever.

The Lord will wipe away

the tears from every cheek;

he will take away his people’s shame

everywhere on earth,

for the Lord has said so.

That day, it will be said: See, this is our God

in whom we hoped for salvation;

the Lord is the one in whom we hoped.

We exult and we rejoice

that he has saved us;

for the hand of the Lord

rests on this mountain.

Moab is trodden down where he stands

as straw is trodden in the dung pit;

and there he stretches out his hands

like a swimmer stretching out his hands to swim.

But the Lord curbs his pride

and whatever his hands attempt.

Your arrogant, lofty walls

he destroys, he overthrows,

he flings them in the dust.

That day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;

to guard us he has set

wall and rampart about us.

Open the gates! Let the upright nation come in,

she, the faithful one

whose mind is steadfast, who keeps the peace,

because she trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord for ever,

for the Lord is the everlasting Rock;

he has brought low those who lived high up

in the steep citadel;

he brings it down, brings it down to the ground,

flings it down in the dust:

the feet of the lowly, the footsteps of the poor

trample on it.

Responsory

I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne:

Now God’s home is with men!

He will live with them,

and they shall be his people and he will be their God.

The Lord God will swallow up death for ever,

and will wipe away tears from all faces,

and they shall be his people and he will be their God.

Reading

St Augustine's commentary on psalm 109

God's promises are given to us through the Son

God decreed a time for making promises and a time for the promises to be fulfilled. The time for making promises was the time of the prophets, ending with John the Baptist, the last prophet. From then until the end is the time for the fulfilment of promises.

God is faithful. He has made himself our debtor, not by receiving anything from us but by promising us so much. The promise alone was not enough for him: he wanted it in writing, so that he could be held to it, practically entering into a contract with us that listed the promises he was making. In that way, when he began to fulfil his promises, we could see the order of their fulfilment by looking in Scripture. 
Therefore the time of the prophets was (as I have said so often) the time of making promises.

He promised us eternal salvation and an unending life of blessedness with the angels, and an imperishable inheritance, the joy of seeing his face, a dwelling-place with him in heaven, and the fear of death removed from us through the resurrection. This is, if you like, his ultimate promise. We look forward to it, and when we reach it, we will want nothing more. But as to how this final end is to be reached, 
he has also told us in promises and prophecies.

He has promised to men that they will be like God; to mortals he has promised immortality; to sinners, righteousness; to the lowly, glory.

Indeed, brethren, because what God promised seemed incredible to men – that from mortality, decay, weakness, lowliness, dust and ashes they should become equals of the angels of God – he did not only sign a contract with them to convince them. He sent, not just any prince, not just any angel or archangel, but his only Son. The road by which he was to lead us to the end he had promised us – 
through his Son he would show us that road.

Even so, it was not enough for God to send his Son to point out the way – he made his Son the way itself, 
so that we can go on our journey guided by him as he walks along his own way.

So the only Son of God was to come to men, to take on humanity, and thus to die, to ascend to heaven and sit at the right hand of the father, and so to fulfil what he had promised among the nations. After that promise to the nations had been fulfilled, he would fulfil his other promise, to come, to demand the return of what he had given, to separate the vessels of anger from the vessels of mercy, 
to give the wicked what he had threatened and the righteous what he had promised.

All this had to be prophesied and foretold. It had to have its coming announced. It could not come suddenly and unexpectedly, 
causing terror and alarm: people had to be awaiting it with faith.

Responsory

Once more have pity on us, O God.

Tread down our faults;

to the bottom of the sea throw all our sins.

It is to Jesus that all the prophets bear this witness:

that all who believe in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.

Tread down our faults; to the bottom of the sea throw all our sins.

Let us pray.

At your bidding, Lord,

we are preparing the way for Christ, your Son.

May we not grow faint on the journey

as we wait for his healing presence.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.

– Thanks be to God.