Our Lady of Guadalupe, we have congregated under your tender motherly care to protect, respect, serve and defend human life, a wonderful gift from God. You, the believer, in whose womb the word who is Life became flesh, and whom lovingly you carried inside you, the Ark of the Alliance.

You filled the house of Zacariah and Elizabeth with joy at the announcement of the good news of the child God, which you conceived in humble availability imprinted forever by the incomparable nobility of motherhood.

Blessed among women, bless all the mothers in whose wombs life begins and grows.

Holy Virgin, Light, Tenderness in the Sanctuary of the Family of Nazareth, example and perfect model of the community of the family which has as its center the Son Jesus, and which teaches all homes to be the Domestic Church, Sanctuary of Life, in which the unborn is loved and respected as Jesus as a human person who grows protected and dignified in a love which knows the fruitfulness of pain and of the cross.

Bless all the movements that work for life, that announce the Gospel of Life, so that no one will dare to usurp dominion over life which only God, Lord of Life, has.

Merciful Mother, you who loved the weak, the poor and the needy in a very special way, protect the lives of all of those who are in great danger in this culture of death, those that have been conceived but not yet born, the weak and the infirm, the elderly, all of whom are so often considered a heavy burden. May their right to live, as images of God, be recognized.

Mother of the Church, who in pain beside the cross kept in your heart the wonders that God continuously reveals, be with the families and defend them. You who was chosen, suffered the persecution of the selfish, terrible and cruel king, teach the powerful of this world to care for life and strengthen the family, on which the future of the world depends.

Move the hearts of those who have abundant means toward an active solidarity open to all human beings our brothers and sisters, so that there will be work, food, shelter and education for all.

Intercede so that so many powers, organizations and institutions who plot, perhaps even thinking that they are in collaboration with humanity, will realize their error and fall on their knees before your Son, life of the world and before the life that springs as a gift of God, close to all mothers' hearts.

Our Lady, receive our prayer, and intercede for all your children before Jesus your son, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit and who is God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This prayer for life and family was written by His Eminence Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family. It was issued during the closing of the First Pro-Life Latin American Conference organized by the Council, which took place in Monterrey, Mexico in 1992.