Our Lady of Guadalupe Prayer: December 12, Las Mañanitas and how to pray to her
If your family is Mexican, you didn't learn about Our Lady of Guadalupe. You just always knew. She was on a candle in the kitchen, on a medal, on the wall behind the television.
This page has her prayers in English and in Spanish, what December 12 is and why it's sung at midnight, and how to actually pray to her — step by step, in case nobody ever walked you through it.
Who she is
In December 1531, ten years after the fall of Tenochtitlan, an indigenous man named Juan Diego said a woman appeared to him on the hill of Tepeyac, outside what is now Mexico City. She spoke to him in Nahuatl, his own language, and called him the smallest of her children. She asked for a church to be built there.
The bishop wanted proof. On December 12 Juan Diego gathered roses that were blooming out of season, carried them in his tilma — the cloak indigenous men wore — and when he opened it before the bishop, the image was on the cloth. That cloak hangs today in the Basilica in Mexico City.
Two things are worth saying plainly. The Church promotes this devotion and canonized Juan Diego on July 31, 2002. But the apparitions are private revelation: no Catholic is required to believe in them. And among historians there's a real, open debate about the sources. Both things are true at once.
The prayers you'll need
These devotions are built out of a few short prayers. If you heard them in Spanish growing up and never learned them in English, here are both. Pray in whichever language is actually yours.
The Sign of the Cross
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo. Amén.
The Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
The Hail Mary
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
The Glory Be
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.
A decade means one Our Father, ten Hail Marys and one Glory Be. If nobody ever explained that term to you, that's all it is.
How to pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe
Praying to Our Lady of Guadalupe, step by step
- Light a candle if you have one, and put her image where you can see it.
- Make the Sign of the Cross.
- Greet her the way the story has her greet Juan Diego — as a mother. Say who you're praying for.
- Pray the main prayer below.
- Pray one decade: one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, one Glory Be.
- Close with: Santa María de Guadalupe, ruega por nosotros. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.
- Make the Sign of the Cross again.
On December 12 many families do this at midnight, when Las Mañanitas is sung. If you're working that night, the morning does just as well.
Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe, mother of the Americas, you who appeared to Juan Diego and asked that your children be heard: look on me now. You said to him, "Am I not here, I who am your mother?" Let me believe that is said to me too. Take what I'm carrying into your hands and bring it to your Son. Watch over my family, the ones here and the ones far away. Keep me from losing heart. Amen.
Virgen de Guadalupe, madre de América, tú que te apareciste a Juan Diego y pediste que tus hijos fueran escuchados: mírame ahora. Tú le dijiste: «¿No estoy yo aquí, que soy tu madre?». Déjame creer que también me lo dices a mí. Cuida de mi familia, la que está aquí y la que está lejos. No dejes que pierda la esperanza. Amén.
Prayer for the family
Holy Mary of Guadalupe, you are the mother of this house. Hold it together. Where there is distance between us, close it. Where there is anger, cool it. Protect the ones who are far from home and the ones who can't come back yet. Keep the children in the faith they were baptized into, even when their lives look nothing like ours did. Amen.
Prayer for December 12
Blessed Mother of Guadalupe, on this your day I come to thank you before I ask for anything. Thank you for the year that's ending and for everyone who got through it. Receive the flowers, the songs and the Masses offered to you today across this country and in Mexico. Protect me and mine through the year that begins under your mantle. Amen.
December 12 in the United States
This is the biggest day of the Latino Catholic year here. In parishes with large Mexican communities — Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, San Antonio, Phoenix, New York — December 12 often draws a bigger crowd than Christmas.
The shape of it is usually the same: people gather before midnight on the 11th, Las Mañanitas is sung to her at twelve, there's a Mass, sometimes matachines dancing, and food afterward. Many people go straight from the church to a shift at work.
If you want to keep December 12 at home
- The night of the 11th, set her image out with flowers — roses if you can find them.
- At midnight, or whenever your household is actually awake, sing or play Las Mañanitas.
- Make the Sign of the Cross and pray the prayer for December 12, below.
- One decade.
- If there are children, this is the night to tell them the story of Juan Diego. That's how it gets passed on.
Plenty of parishes hold a midnight Mass and a procession that day. If yours does, going is the simplest version of all of this.
What Las Mañanitas is
It's the traditional Mexican birthday song, and that's exactly the point: she's being sung to the way you'd sing to your mother on her birthday, at the hour the day begins. It isn't a formal liturgical hymn. It's a family song, used for her.
What the image means
The star-covered mantle, the moon under her feet, the rays behind her — all of it was read as meaning something. The detail most often pointed to is the black ribbon tied high on her waist, which in Nahua custom indicated pregnancy: she's shown carrying a child. Her face is neither European nor purely indigenous, and in 1531 that mattered enormously.
How much of the image's symbolism was deliberate is debated, and the Church has never declared the cloth's origin supernatural. The devotion doesn't depend on settling it.
Frequently asked questions
Why is December 12 the feast day?
Because that's the day the image is said to have appeared on the tilma.
Is Our Lady of Guadalupe the same as the Virgin Mary?
Yes. "Our Lady of Guadalupe" is a title for Mary tied to how she appeared at Tepeyac, not a different person.
Do I have to go to Mass that day?
In the United States December 12 is a feast, not a holy day of obligation. Go if you can; it's the center of the day.
What do I do if I can't get to a church?
The home version above is the whole thing in miniature: a candle, flowers, the song, the prayer.
Can I pray in English?
Yes. She's recorded as speaking to Juan Diego in his own language rather than the official one. Use yours.
The Spanish version of this page is here, and it goes deeper into the history of the apparitions and what the image means.