On Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Bishop O’Connell urges call to prayer for immigrants, refugees

A Day of Prayer with a focus on the plight of refugees and migrants will take place across the United States on December 12, 2016, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It will be a time to place before a merciful God the hopes, fears, and needs of all those families who have come to the U.S. seeking a better life. 

O Jesus, who in the very first days of your earthly life was compelled, together with Mary, your loving Mother, and Saint Joseph, to leave your native land and to endure in Egypt the misery and discomforts of poor immigrants, turn your eyes upon our sisters, brothers and their families who, far away from their own country and from all that is familiar to them, are not infrequently constrained to struggle with the difficulties of a new life, and who are likewise often exposed to grave spiritual dangers.

Be their guide in their uncertain journey, their help in trouble, their comfort in sorrow; keep them safe in their faith, holy in their lives, and faithful to their children, their spouse, and their parents; grant, O Lord, that we may be able to embrace them affectionately once more in their native land, and hereafter to live inseparably united to them, with you, in our heavenly homeland. Amen.

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