Our Miracle on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
As a pro-life activist, I have had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the unborn, for many years. I have taken her image with me to the abortion mills and have witnessed the power of her presence in saving human life. However, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2005, I experienced my own personal miracle.
It was on that day that my husband and I venerated the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been touched to the original image. We attended Holy Mass, and then blessed our rosaries and medals by touching each one to the image of Our Lady. We also wrote our prayer petitions on a paper, touched them to her image, and left them with her. We surrendered our hearts and entrusted our concerns to our Mother, placing ourselves in her tender, loving care, just as St. Juan Diego did. We felt very much at peace on that day. We felt her presence and were reassured by her comforting words.
One week later, our prayers were answered. For us, it was a personal miracle.
It all started when my husband decided he wanted to leave an unsatisfying position at a large company which offered no training or advancement to middle aged males, but instead, encouraged them to take early retirement. We agreed that we would be willing to relocate to another state in order to find him a more rewarding job.
We searched for a few months, then one day, he received a call from a company in Kansas, who had interviewed him over the phone, offered him the job, and told him it was starting in two weeks. It was difficult, but we managed to do it. We packed up our things, said goodbye to friends and family, and our beautiful home in a city where we had lived for 13 years.
This left us with two house payments to make and a small, cramped apartment to live in that held most of the furniture from our three bedroom home in IL. This condition was not only uncomfortable, but also created a situation that worsened the fatigue and chronic pain we were both experiencing at the time. Since we had taken out a large loan for moving expenses, there was no money to move the furniture to a storage area. We experienced numerous problems with things breaking down on a daily basis in the apartment, which never did seem to get fixed, despite the fact that the maintenance workers were there so often, they began to seem like part of the family.
Many people will say “Pray to Joseph” to sell your home and we prayed novena after novena to him this time, yet nothing happened. It was only when we surrendered our hearts to our Mother that we felt the peace that surpasses all understanding.
As our beloved Fr. Marie - Dominique Philippe, O.P., Priest, Philosophy Professor, and Founder of the Community of St. John tells us, “[On] the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe it is truly Mary who shows her presence. This enables us to understand that in our Christian life, Christ's presence and Mary's presence are primary and come before any spoken words. A mother is a silent presence, a presence that will help her children sleep peacefully, trustingly...a presence of love, of warmth for the heart, so that we might truly be in her hands, asking her to carry us and to teach us this evangelical way of littleness, which will allow us to obey just as a child obeys his mother.”
On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I spoke to Mary as I would have spoken to my own biological mother. She knew and understood the problems and the pain we were going through. She wanted us to be at peace and know that whatever the outcome, she was there for us. Her peaceful presence helped us not to worry, but to persevere in hope. And as we did, the joy of Christ entered our hearts.
Our Lady of Guadalupe’s comforting words to Juan Diego echoed in the silence of our hearts:
"Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son: let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you: let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?"
It was on that day that my husband and I venerated the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been touched to the original image. We attended Holy Mass, and then blessed our rosaries and medals by touching each one to the image of Our Lady. We also wrote our prayer petitions on a paper, touched them to her image, and left them with her. We surrendered our hearts and entrusted our concerns to our Mother, placing ourselves in her tender, loving care, just as St. Juan Diego did. We felt very much at peace on that day. We felt her presence and were reassured by her comforting words.
One week later, our prayers were answered. For us, it was a personal miracle.
It all started when my husband decided he wanted to leave an unsatisfying position at a large company which offered no training or advancement to middle aged males, but instead, encouraged them to take early retirement. We agreed that we would be willing to relocate to another state in order to find him a more rewarding job.
We searched for a few months, then one day, he received a call from a company in Kansas, who had interviewed him over the phone, offered him the job, and told him it was starting in two weeks. It was difficult, but we managed to do it. We packed up our things, said goodbye to friends and family, and our beautiful home in a city where we had lived for 13 years.
This left us with two house payments to make and a small, cramped apartment to live in that held most of the furniture from our three bedroom home in IL. This condition was not only uncomfortable, but also created a situation that worsened the fatigue and chronic pain we were both experiencing at the time. Since we had taken out a large loan for moving expenses, there was no money to move the furniture to a storage area. We experienced numerous problems with things breaking down on a daily basis in the apartment, which never did seem to get fixed, despite the fact that the maintenance workers were there so often, they began to seem like part of the family.
Many people will say “Pray to Joseph” to sell your home and we prayed novena after novena to him this time, yet nothing happened. It was only when we surrendered our hearts to our Mother that we felt the peace that surpasses all understanding.
As our beloved Fr. Marie - Dominique Philippe, O.P., Priest, Philosophy Professor, and Founder of the Community of St. John tells us, “[On] the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe it is truly Mary who shows her presence. This enables us to understand that in our Christian life, Christ's presence and Mary's presence are primary and come before any spoken words. A mother is a silent presence, a presence that will help her children sleep peacefully, trustingly...a presence of love, of warmth for the heart, so that we might truly be in her hands, asking her to carry us and to teach us this evangelical way of littleness, which will allow us to obey just as a child obeys his mother.”
On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I spoke to Mary as I would have spoken to my own biological mother. She knew and understood the problems and the pain we were going through. She wanted us to be at peace and know that whatever the outcome, she was there for us. Her peaceful presence helped us not to worry, but to persevere in hope. And as we did, the joy of Christ entered our hearts.
Our Lady of Guadalupe’s comforting words to Juan Diego echoed in the silence of our hearts:
"Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son: let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you: let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?"
~ Our Lady to Juan Diego, December 9, 1531
~Copyright Jean M. Heimann, December 12, 2008
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