2023 Roses to Our Lady of Guadalupe

First Post-Roe Delivery of Roses to Our Lady, Patroness of the Unborn

In 1531 the Mother of God appeared in what would become Mexico City to one of the sons of the Aztecs. She came to put an end to the diabolical practices of the Aztec Nation which included human sacrifice. Our Lady of Guadalupe amazed and marveled the Native Indians through Her beauty and through the kindness and mercy of Her message. The Aztec Empire fell, the diabolical practices ceased and within 9 years, more than 6 million Aztecs converted to the True Faith.

Our Lady overthrew the Empire but then it became an effort to win one soul at a time. Today, we have witnessed something similar. No one thought Roe v. Wade would be overturned, yet to everyone’s surprise on June 24th 2022 (the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), the unexpected happened. For years prior, America Needs Fatima supporters beseeched Our Lady through its campaign of presenting roses at Her Shrine in Mexico City on behalf of the unborn for the end of the modern diabolical practice of human sacrifice that we euphemistically refer to as abortion. This pious effort complimented the valiant and heroic efforts of thousands of pro-life organizations and millions of pro-lifers toward this goal.

Once again, the Blessed Virgin Mary stepped into history and showed Her great power. Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the pro-life movement and pro-lifers have been reinvigorated. Now the effort and the focus is to defeat this evil state by state, just as in the past it was soul by soul.

An almost impossible feat begins!

It all starts with YOU, an America Needs Fatima Supporter who decides to send a rose or roses to Our Lady of Guadalupe for the unborn. ANF tallies the many thousands of requests and contacts our florist team in Mexico City.

Dona Ara and her team spend almost an entire week sourcing, ordering and preparing the terracotta pots, the oasis, the wire frames and the greenery that hold and frame the bouquets of roses. Simultaneously, the quest for thousands of roses begins! This year, every flower market and every supplier of roses in Mexico City was scoured to obtain the 16,231 roses that ANF supporters requested. The flower world of Mexico City was abuzz! After all, try buying more than 1,350 dozen roses on the days following Valentine’s Day!

For two long and exhausting days preceding the presentation of roses to Our Lady, 4 generations of Dona Ara’s family kick into high gear. Each rose is individually inspected to ensure its quality, any damaged petals are removed, thorns and extra leaves are stripped from the stem which is then cut to size for its exact place in its assigned arrangement. Each arrangement consists of 90 to 100 roses of varied color, size and shape.

A Tribute… on a whole other level!

Early on the morning of Saturday the 18th of February, the now completed 168 arrangements – comprised of 13,333 multicolored roses along with 2,898 red roses, 16,231 roses in all – are carried on the broad shoulders of many men to the Basilica of La Virgen de Guadalupe.

This is the trigger for the next phase of this massive logistical operation: the representatives of the Basilica’s Security team approach Dona Ara. They have prepared the area to the left and right of the miraculous image of Our Lady inside the Basilica for this great floral tribute. They now direct the placement of the 168 arrangements, lovingly carried once more on the tired and sore shoulders of the same men.

All this was done before the eyes of a multitude of pilgrims who filled the Basilica and watched in amazement as the thousands of roses were presented to the Virgin.

As is our custom, along with the presentation of the roses to Our Lady, we light a candle for each year that Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land. This year we lit 50 votive candles in gratitude to Our Lady for the overturning of Roe v. Wade in its 50th year.

Next year we will again light 50 candles but these votive candles will burn before the Queen of Heaven and earth in supplication to help the struggle to abolish abortion in each state.

The thousands of petitions and intentions submitted were then presented to Our Lady and a Mass was offered for them.

And a little something extra… In 1921, a young man named Luciano Perez Carpio placed a bouquet of flowers concealing a bomb before the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The subsequent explosion destroyed the marble altar and damaged a large crucifix. The miraculous image of Our Lady was completely unscathed. Following this event, a great devotion rose up to Our Lord Jesus Christ under the invocation of “Santo Cristo Del Atentado” (roughly translated as: Jesus Christ, Victim of the Violent Attack). A practice of this devotion consists in writing one’s intentions on a ribbon and affixing it before this damaged crucifix. Many graces and miracles have been attributed to this devotion. So, we took a moment to entrust all the ANF supporters who sent a rose to Our Lady of Guadalupe asking Our Lord Jesus Christ to protect them, just as He protected His Holy Mother.

Later in the afternoon we carried your concerns and intentions to the old Basilica where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for public veneration....

A Gift from a Mother to Her Son

To our surprise, while doing a holy hour with these intentions in mind, an extraordinary event occurred. While kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the main altar above which the Miraculous Tilma was originally displayed, the sanctuary attendants began filing in with a number of the flower arrangements that we had presented to Our Lady earlier in the day.

Soon after, the attendants started to remove all the flower arrangements that were in the sanctuary and on the altar and replaced them with the stunning arrangements of roses sent by ANF supporters. In a matter of minutes, the altar and the sanctuary were transformed with roses of every color.

As the final touches of this transformation were made by the attendants, we spontaneously turned to look at each other, with a wide smile on our faces. The same thought had occurred to both of us: Our Blessed Mother had just sent roses to Her Divine Son!

Faith and Love

Throughout the day, the public reaction was astounding.

It was beautiful to see the surprise and awe in the eyes of children enchanted by the sight of so many colorful roses. They wanted to touch them, sit in front of them and to have their photos taken with them.

A constant flow of families, young and old alike stopped to behold the marvel and inquire what the reason for so many roses was. Our explanation that these roses had been sent to Our Lady of Guadalupe by Marian devotees from all across the USA and around the world was met with exclamations of wondrous joy and delight and even some tears of gratitude.

Countless individuals made sure to tell us that they would pray specifically to Our Lady for those who had sent such a magnificent floral tribute.

Young pro-lifers from Texas were inspired and reinvigorated in their own devotion and commitment to Our Lady by the show of faith that fueled our floral presentation, they just could not believe that something like this could actually happen and were grateful that this was being done in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Thank You

We would like to thank each and every one of you who sent roses and entrusted us with your very special intentions to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Without your help, support and prayers, none of this would have been possible.

We also again send a big thank you to Dona Ara and her family team of florists for the days of hard work in preparing the magnificent floral tribute to La Virgin de Guadalupe.

Going forward....

Roe v. Wade was overturned, now let’s stop abortion everywhere! Let’s redouble our efforts in prayer to The Virgin of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, Empress of Latin America, Queen of Mexico, Protectress of the Unborn, and show Her our gratitude for winning the battle against Roe v. Wade and our profound desire to protect the unborn and put an end to abortion once and for all.

So if you would like to be one of the first to present roses to Our Lady on behalf of the unborn and place your intentions at the top of the list for 2024, click here now!