Each day of the novena consists of an excerpt from Guadalupe’s letters to Saint Josemaría (from the book Letters to a Saint), a point for reflection, and a short prayer.
Prayer card to Blessed Guadalupe
O God, grant me through the intercession of Blessed Guadalupe that, like her, I may learn to carry out my ordinary work with love, and spread faith and joy to everyone around me, so that many more may come to know You and love You. Deign to grant the canonization of Blessed Guadalupe, and through her intercession grant my the favor I ask of you... (make your request). Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.
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Day 1: studying with order
“Dear Father, I’d love to be able to tell you something good, but as usual, there’s so little that I’ll keep it for the end. As you know, I find it really hard to keep things tidy and in good order; not just my personal things, but the things I’m given to do (...). I keep forgetting where I left my keys, so that I sometimes make my sisters waste their time. I've done lots of other things like that, but I don't get discouraged, and I think, if God helps me (pray that He will!), I’ll manage to correct myself.”
“When you bring order into your life your time will multiply, and then you will be able to give God more glory, by working more in his service” (The Way, no. 80).
Guadalupe, I ask you to help me study the material of my courses in an orderly way. May I know how to give glory to God with my work and grow in the virtue of order, with joy, so that I can accomplish the goals I set for myself and also help my classmates.
Day 2: learning from mistakes
“Father, pray a lot for me, and for all these things (…) For me to finish my doctorate now, although I’m studying so little! (...) I think I’ve now told you everything I wanted to, and I’m happy, really happy. Help me a lot, tell me everything I do wrong, point-blank; maybe that’s the only good thing about me so far, that I’ve always taken it very well and been happy when people correct me (even though I’m sad that I’ve done things wrong), and I love the person who corrects me even more than before, and am really grateful to them.”
“Your interior life has to be just that: to begin... and to begin again” (The Way, no. 292).
Guadalupe, I ask you to help me be open to corrections and to realize all the ways I can improve, with cheerfulness and optimism, without getting discouraged or tired of my mistakes. I ask you to intercede for me so that I may learn to see God in all the people and circumstances that help me be better, and that I know how to offer to God the outcome of my exams, regardless of the mark.
Day 3: strength to continue
“I’m spending a few days in Valencia for my work, and I want to write to you briefly from here. I came here to give a lecture at the Home Textiles Fair 1973. It’s over, and I think it went well. These things don't keep me awake at night, but I do prepare them and try to put my best efforts into them. (…) I sometimes think I don’t have the strength anymore, physically, for all the hustle and bustle involved, but I keep on doing it and it looks as if our Lord is determined that I should, because the whole runs on wheels and I don’t find any way of saying no. (…) Pray for us, and especially for me, that I may always do what our Lord wants.”
“Let those very obstacles give you strength. God's grace will not fail you: ‘Inter medium montium pertransibunt aquae! You shall pass through the mountains!’ Does it matter that you have to curtail your activity for the moment if afterwards, like a spring which has been compressed, you will reach incomparably farther than you ever dreamed?” (The Way, no. 12)
Guadalupe, I ask you to help me recognize and take advantage of all the occasions that allow me to learn to be stronger, so as to study, work, and serve others better.
Day 4: learning to serve
“Father, today I’d like to write to you a bit about myself; you know how, generally, I’m over- detached from myself and in my letters I tell you how things are going,which is really what fills my interior and external life (…) I love God very much. More everyday, more strongly and surely. (…) I want so much to serve Him! – materially, by working as much as my body is capable of (…); and spiritually, by giving myself totally and helping my sisters and all the people I do apostolate with, to give their utmost! That’s the only thing that makes me suffer, my incapacity (because of my lack of…I don’t know what, I can’t judge myself and don’t want to) to be more effective.”
“If you are to serve God with your mind, to study is a grave obligation for you” (The Way, 336).
Guadalupe, I ask you to help me see the joy that comes from making the effort to give my best and to serve others. Be my intercessor before God, asking Him to give me strength and joy so that I may always go forward, even though at times thinking of and serving others is challenging.
Day 5: time for everything
“Father, it’s quite some time since I last wrote to you; I was waiting till the competitive exams were over so I could tell you I got through. I’ve spent a large part of this past year studying (about 2,000 hours) and the last term was almost all exams (I’ve been through 15 exams, all on an eliminatory basis: oral, written, practical…). In the first ones I took, which were “Secondary Teaching,” they failed me on the second-last exercise… (whereas I think it’s the one I did best). No way! But in the ones for ‘Professional Teaching,’ which were the ones I most wanted to pass because it could mean staying in Madrid and teaching in the Women’s School of Industrial Sciences, I passed.”
“Joy, and supernatural and human optimism, can go hand in hand with physical tiredness, with sorrow, with tears (because we have a heart), and with difficulties in our interior life or our apostolic work. He who is perfectus Deus, perfectus Homo — perfect God and perfect Man — and who enjoyed every happiness in Heaven, chose to experience fatigue and tiredness, tears and suffering... so that we might understand that if we are to be supernatural we must also be very human” (The Forge, no. 290).
Guadalupe, I ask you to teach me to study and work with the same intensity that you did. May I learn to give each task the time it requires, including the necessary rest.
Day 6: always joyful
“Dear Father, I’m happy, I pray, I do apostolate with quite a lot of people, and I study as well as teach. In the Faculty we’re preparing — one or two are already finished — short studies where we combine practical work in household administration with scientific underpinning.”
“"I want you to be happy always, for cheerfulness is an essential part of your way. Pray that the same supernatural joy may be granted to us all” (The Way, no. 665).
Guadalupe, today I want to ask you to help me to always be cheerful. May I know how to spread the joy of being close to God everywhere and in all circumstances. Intercede for me so that, when I get angry or sad, I remember to count on God’s help to be a saint in everything I have going on.
Day 7: holy professional ambition
“Father, about myself: as usual, I’m very happy and full of desires to do things well and serve in what has been entrusted to me (…) And my professional work is still teaching in the Maeztu Institute, but I hope soon to be teaching at a Women’s College. I love teaching, and it’s amazing how much one can do… I do the norms (of the plan of life) with love, I pray for everything…”
“Don’t forget that before teaching one must act. Coepit facere et docere, the holy Scripture says of Jesus Christ: ‘He began to do and to teach.’ First, action: so that you and I may learn” (The Way, no. 342).
Guadalupe, help me not to be content with the minimum. May my study and work be the best I can do, out of love for God.
Day 8: Heaven is the goal
“Dear Father, in the coming academic year I want to concern myself thoroughly with my sisters, the apostolate, and the house. At work I also have several goals: to take another step towards a professorship in Official Professional Teaching, and the possibility of a research award by publication of a book on textiles… all focused on domestic science.”
“An aspiration: May we spend the days the Lord grants us only in pleasing Him!” (The Forge, no. 35).
Guadalupe, help me to aim high in my studies and in the profession I hope to carry out. At the same time, teach me how to make this intense study and work compatible with charity, and to not let myself be absorbed by my responsibilities. Help me not to neglect my attention and affection for my family and friends.
Day 9: happy with what we do
Dear Father, I am grateful for this time of intensive formation. I love studying and teaching. Whether it’s the philosophy classes, where I’m a student, or the physics and chemistry classes I teach (for my job), I enjoy it all very much indeed.”
“Don’t forget that sometimes one needs to have smiling faces around” (Furrow, no. 57).
Guadalupe, be my intercessor before God so that I may know how to be happy with what I have at hand. I also ask you to help me to spread this happiness and joy of life that you transmitted to your family and friends. I ask you to help me know how to respond to each person with a smiling and friendly face. And I especially ask for your help in the classes and assignments that I don’t like, so that I know how to put more love for God there.
