The Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (maintained by  Dan Lynch Apostolate) is visiting the DC area in May. It is one of only four images in the world commissioned by the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to journey as Missionary Images in the New Evangelization to bring conversions, a Culture of Life and Civilization of Love, for which St. John Paul II prayed. Digitally made in October 2000, they were certified by Norberto Cardinal Rivera Carrera, Archbishop Primate of Mexico as “exact full-size replicas" of the miraculous image on the Tilma of Blessed Juan Diego. The Missionary Images are considered icons painted by God and not human hands, and, they are associated with many signs, wonders, conversions, healings and graces!

What’s so Special about the Missionary Image?

The Missionary Images of Our Lady of Guadalupe are the only four images in the world commissioned by the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to journey as Missionary Images on a Mission in the New Evangelization to bring conversions and a Culture of Life and Civilization of Love, for which St. John Paul II prayed. He also named Our Lady of Guadalupe as the Star of The New Evangelization.

The Conference of all Mexican Bishops in their plenary meeting on April 8, 1991 named the first traveling image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the United States as a “Missionary Image" and prayed that Our Lady of Guadalupe’s “Missionary Image will be well received in all the Americas.” It was a photographic replica of the original miraculous image. They sent it directly to the International Rosary Congress in Washington DC.

Cardinal Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara, Mexico, blessed that Missionary Image and her evangelical mission. He prayed “to God that the paths of the Journey of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe throughout the United States of America, become rays of Our Lady’s love, care, protection and help for all her children, particularly the unborn. May she end without exception the horrible evil of abortion. May she convert millions of hearts to the Sacred Heart of her Son Jesus and His holy Church through her Immaculate Heart. May all pro-life forces unite under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe with her title of “Protectress of the Unborn.”

On March 12, 2001, Msgr. Diego Monroy Ponce, Vicar General and Bishop of Guadalupe and Rector of the Sanctuary, blessed four new digital, not photographic, Missionary Images and Dan Lynch “hoping that he will have fortitude in his mission of promoting the culture of life, of love and sanctity of the family, and the solidarity of the Church of America.”

He also certified that these images are “exact copies in measurements and they are replicas of the blessed original Tilma of Blessed Juan Diego. They were made digitally in October of 2000, certified in the same manner by His Excellency Sr. Cardinal Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico.”

There are many images of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but the Missionary Images are the only ones in the world with this special title, mission and certification.

In 1999, Cardinal Rivera, Archbishop Primate of Mexico, authorized the removal of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from the Basilica in Mexico in order to create a new true and exact digital copy. The resulting digital file is the first and only digital rendition of the sacred image in existence created directly from the miraculous image and completed with the full control and approval of the Church. The digital images are exact-size and color replicas of the original miraculous image. On January 25, 1999, Pope John Paul II blessed the digital file of these replica images.  

The certification printed in Spanish on the bottom right-hand corner of the Missionary Images read as follows:

Continue Reading this Article Here