Over the course of sixty days, two women are bringing an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to every abortion business in California. Teresa Marsano and Dora Lee Raras hope that Our Lady’s intercession will, “through conversions and healing, bring a peaceful end to the tragedy of legalized abortion which started here in our state 50 years ago.”

Abortion was legalized in California on June 14, 1967, five and a half years before Roe vs. Wade decriminalized abortion nationally. There are currently almost 150 abortion businesses operating in California.

The six-foot tall image is an exact replica of the miraculous image in Mexico City. The replica was commissioned and blessed as one of five existing “Missionary Images” in 2001 by Monsignor Diego Monroy Ponce, Bishop of Guadalupe and Rector of the Sanctuary. The first Missionary Image was blessed by Cardinal Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara, Mexico in 1991. He prayed “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.”

Bishop Richard Garcia of Monterey, California fully supports the pilgrimage. “As Catholics and faithful ambassadors of pro-life efforts, we are all longing to see the closure of abortion-providing clinics, especially here in California. We know this can only be done with God’s help. Two women well known to me, Teresa Marsano and Dora Lee Raras, have a unique vision to foster the prayer needed to bring such closures to fruition: Our Lady’s Mission for Life.”

At some vigil stops, the two women are alone, or almost alone, as they pray for the abortion center’s closure and the conversion of the staff. At other stops, dozens or even hundreds will come to meet the image and join in prayer. In Oxnard, at a newly opened FPA Women’s Health facility, a local deacon prayed over the building, asking that the demons be cast out and then applied holy water and blessed salt to the entrances to the building.

In Santa Cruz, Marsano visited the Planned Parenthood site the day before bringing the image and saw paramedics transporting a patient on a gurney to a waiting ambulance. In El Centro, hundreds came to Mass in front of the Planned Parenthood after an overnight prayer vigil at the local church.

The “California Pilgrimage to Close Abortion Centers” began in Salinas on March 2 and will finish in Sacramento on May 1. The faithful are invited to meet the image at each of its stops and join in a prayerful vigil. To find the schedule of stops, visit ourladysmissionforlife.com.