Pilgrimage to Our Lady of San Juan

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Originally uploaded by Militiaoftheimmaculata

This is a video from the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of San Juan. It was such a beautiful pilgrimage. On the way to the Valley, Our Lady was showing me all the beautiful things that she had done in my life up until then. She was showing me by allowing me to see all the places that I had so often visited while living in San Antonio as well as bringing back memories of the a mission trip in the Valley. God was teaching me that sometimes, when you are difficult situations, you have to go back into your memory to remember and recall God's love for you in your life. As I brought to mind all these memories, I recalled more and more details that showed me all the different ways that God had poured out his love for me. Let me explain:

In San Antonio: We 'accidently' drove by St. Matthews, the Church where I had stayed (10 weeks) while in San Antonio for CPE. I remembered all the friends that I made there and all the hours of Adoration that I was able to make thanks to the chapel. We also stopped by the Shrine of the Little Flower, someone that I had just done a Novena to. It reminded me of all the confessions that had cleansed me from sin. The whole city was a witness of God's love for me.

In the Valley: I recalled the mission trip that I did in College, right after I had been converted to the faith. That first year had so many graced moments and so many cherished friendships that were made. It was almost a magical time for me when the faith was so beautiful and so new to me. This beautiful shrine made such an impact on me as we happened to be there on a feast day with a magnificent Mass. There was incense, a mariachi band, and several bishops there. Truly, it was the highlight of that mission trip.

These are just some of the memories of Jesus & Mary's love for me....

Miracles at Martha's Kitchen

      I want to keep the name of the person who told me anonymous, but I felt this an important enough story to share especially as we get closer to Christmas.  This is quite a beautiful story.  This woman (a catholic) and her husband (a non catholic) were living in southern France around the time of WWII and their first born daughter was born with an injury.  They doctors, in trying to pull her out, tore one of her muscles in her neck.  The only way to fix the muscle was to undergo surgery because if they didn't do anything, then her daughter would grow up unable to lift up her head properly.  You can imagine how scared the mother was: her first child, having a serious injury at birth, and requiring surgery at a time when it was not a very safe procedure.  So they had to make appointments with doctors throughout France who had experience with this.  They recommended that she do exercises to rehabilitate while they were waiting for the surgery to take place.
      Her daughter was constantly crying because of the pain that this tear was causing.  As it turned out, her sister was going to Lourdes on a religious pilgrimage.  She was getting quite desperate with the pain it was causing her little baby, so she told her husband that she was going to accompany her sister to Lourdes on a religious pilgrimage.  So she took her baby to Lourdes, gave her to drink of Lourdes water, and prayed some prayers to the Blessed Mother.  She then forgot about all of this...
      A couple of weeks later she went to see the doctors who were preparing to do the surgery in a few days.  They examined her daughter and started asking her questions about what had happened.  They started asking her...'what did you do?' 'did you do the exercises we told you about?' 'did you take her to another doctor?'  She had done nothing of what the doctors had prescribed.  She started feeling terribly guilty...'I've ruined my daughters life forever'...she thought to herself...The doctors then went on to say that they couldn't do the surgery any more as the daughter was completely fine.  'We want to know what you did because we've never seen anything like this,' they said.  She immediately realized that the Blessed Mother had healed her daughter.  She was so afraid, however, that she did not tell her husband or anybody else for fear that she would be ridiculed.  She kept this mostly a secret for all these years.  As I was looking in her eyes, you saw both that she had experienced the great love of the Blessed Mother as well as her miraculous healing.  Yet you also saw in her eyes, her desire to keep this secret.  It's very difficult to describe the surprised that she expressed in her eyes when telling the story.  You know, simply by looking at her face, that Our Lady had interceded in her life in a way that was beyond her expectations or imaginings.  So ever since then, she and her daughter have had a great love for Our Lady... 
      I had the great privilege of hearing this after she saw my Miraculous Medal and I told her that the writing was in French...just one of the many great graces I have received since wearing this medal.

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception: thoughts from St. Maximilian

St. Maximilian has helped me profoundly in understanding our Blessed Mother.  He is so right, when he says that we cannot know her from books but ultimately only through prayer and holiness.  The Immaculate Conception is not a 'thing' or 'event' that happened to Mary, it is in fact who she is and her proper name.  Just as we say, that Truth is not an idea, it is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ.  The Immaculate Conception is not an idea, it is a person, and her name is Mary, the Blessed Virgin.  Here are some of his wonderful thoughts. 
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Excerpts from the Writings of St. Maximilian


Immaculate One, Virgin Mother, to Thee I turn in humble prayer: "Grant that I may praise Thee, O holy Virgin; give me strength against Thine enemies!" (Bl. John Duns Scotus)

The Immaculate One appears in this world without the least stain of sin, the masterpiece of God's hands, full of grace. God, the Most Holy Trinity, beholds the lowliness (that is, the humility, the root of all Her other virtues) of His Handmaid, and does great things for Her, He the Almighty (cfr. Lk. 1,49). God the Father gives Her His own Son to be Her Son; God the Son descends into Her womb; and God the Holy Spirit forms the body of Christ in the womb of this pure Virgin. And the Word was made flesh (Jn. 1,14). The Immaculate One becomes the Mother of God. The fruit of the love of God in his Trinitarian life and of Mary the Immaculate One is Christ the God-Man. (Sketches for a Book, SK 1295)

Who is the Immaculate One? To this abrupt question it is not possible to give a satisfactory answer because this mystery transcends our human intelligence. She is the Mother of God, and Her name is the Immaculate One. When God showed Himself to Moses, He said of Himself: I am the One who is (Ex. 3,14)—in other words, I am Being itself. When St. Bernadette asked the most blessed Mother Her name, Mary replied: I am the Immaculate Conception. Such is the Immaculate One defined by Her own words.

But what does the expression Immaculate Conception mean? The word conception tells us that She is not eternal, that She had a beginning. Immaculate tells us that from the first instant of Her existence there never was in Her the least conflict with God's will. The Immaculate One is the most perfect of all creatures...She was immaculate because She was to become the Mother of God; She became the Mother of God because She was immaculate.

Mother of God! The human mind cannot grasp what God is. Neither can we comprehend the dignity of the Mother of God. It is easier to understand a title like servant of God; daughter of God is more difficult to grasp; but Mother of God transcends our minds completely.
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Answer to a Novena

      I just wanted to post this small favor that Mary granted me.  I did a novena to her under the title of "Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal," a novena which ended on November 27th, the day which Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine and manifested to her the miraculous medal design.  I have had a devotion to Mary but specifically through the Miraculous Medal for some time now but I don't think that I ever did a novena like this one. 
      Here is what happened...I have also had a love for Eucharistic Adoration for some time and here at the seminary we have typically had it on Saturdays and Sundays.  I became aware that many guys had been struggling with their prayer life so I thought it might be helpful for the seminary in general to have Adoration on a daily basis.  When I first brought it up, there was some opposition, mostly for theological reasons or liturgical reasons.  I mostly figured that it had to do somewhat with spiritual warfare and people's negative experience of Adoration or those that attend Eucharistic Adoration regularly.  Whatever the case, I knew that it would take prayer for this to pass and it was not favorable.  In the words of a seminarian...it would take something of a miracle for it to come to pass. 
      It's too complicated to mention all the details that I had to cover in proposing this idea to the seminary but it essentially took about 3 weeks and it was supposed to start today, the first Monday of Advent.  I finished the novena, by providence during Eucharistic Adoration at the Co-Cathedral...I arrived at the seminary the following Sunday after night prayer to find a note stuck in my door saying...."Eucharistic Adoration...ok...it will be done as you proposed it..." or something along those lines....can you imagine the joy I felt when I read that.  So we had it this morning...very early...very simple...but very beautiful and I know in my heart that Our Blessed Mother was behind it all!!!

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal....pray for us!

St. Therese of Lisieux: a little personal anecdote

So I want to speak about my own personal experience of St. Therese's involvement in my life and how she led me to love the Blessed Virgin Mary more.  I cannot say that I had a particular devotion to her nor can I say that I particularly enjoyed her book "Story of a Soul" even though I know that it is a wonderful book.  I guess I didn't have much of a personal connection, nevertheless, I would often ask her intercession simply because I knew that she is a powerful intercessor before God.  In fact, she helped me very much in discerning my call to enter the seminary. 
    So in 2005, my family went to Spain for a 2 week trip that would include a tour of Barcelona as well as some other cities in the Northwest part of Spain near France.  It was quite a wonderful trip and the highlight would be that we would cross over the Pyrenees and into France so that we could make a stop in Lourdes.  I was looking forward to the entire time given that I was about to enter the seminary and have a devotion to Our Lady.  The timing was also going to be perfect given that it was going to be the feast of the Visitation towards the end of May.  We arrived in Lourdes that morning and it was a soft mist of rain (as it usually is near the French mountains) and got out expecting to spend the whole day touring the apparition site.  For whatever the reason, my Dad was really frustrated and wasn't liking the weather and so he decided that we were only going to stay for 2 hours.  It took him a while to come that conclusion, but upon arriving at Lourdes he decided without asking anyone else in the family that we were staying for 2 hours and then leaving promptly.  I was so infuriated that I cannot even begin to describe how angry I was.  I was so angry that my brother and I just stormed away and decided to run around Lourdes as fast as we could to go see all the different sites there. 
      It was raining but we didn't care one bit, and it turned out to be an incredible experience.  Nevertheless, I was so angry because we didn't even have enough time to go into the baths or see the nighttime Rosary procession.  We didn't even go to Mass there!!!  We ended staying at some ugly little town about 1 hour away, meanwhile we could have stayed in the Lourdes where there are plenty of beautiful hotels.  I remained angry almost the entire rest of the trip (which was about another week).  A bit later we stopped a small French town to get some lunch and I was still so angry that I walked off to go visit a cemetery that happened to be nearby.  I saw that there was also a Church just right there and so I decided to go inside to pray and beg God to help me forgive my father, something that seemed impossible at the time.  I went inside and found the most beautiful statue of St. Therese and I sat there and just prayed for sometime.  I still remember that statue because it had glass eyes and so looked almost as if it was real.  I knew that St. Therese had heard me, and so I became able to forgive my father over the next few days....
Flash forward 3 years....

      It was towards the end of May on memorial day when a few friends and I decided to go to the beach to go have some fun.  We had been having some parties that weekend and I had been eating a little bit too much but we all went to bed looking forward to the next day.  I woke up the next morning feeling that I was still somewhat full as if I hadn't digested anything, but I ignored it, took a shower, and got ready to go to the beach.  Well on the way there, I started getting nauseous and asked them to stop.  You can imagine what happened!!! I got sick and had to be left in the house the whole day because I started feeling terrible.  Well, it got worse over the next few days as I hardly ate anything.  It culminated the following Wednesday when I did eat and felt in such pain that later that night I had to be taken to the emergency room.  It was now Thursday morning and it was clear that I had an intestinal obstruction.  They had to place in me an NG tube (I don't even want to go there...) and I was in the hospital for the next few days...3 to be exact.  I was worried because there was a chance that they had to do surgery on me, which could have turned a more complicated issue.  I have even heard of people who have died from similar situations.  So I was in the Hospital May 29, 30, 31, and was released the 1st.  I had my initial scans done on Thursday showing the obstruction.  I had a second one done on the 30 (Friday) showing that there was no change and that surgery was imminent but the doctor was going to wait one more day before deciding.  Well a friend visited me later that Friday with a small glass container.  What is that? I asked her...She said...It's Holy water from Lourdes.  I felt like God had sent her and so I drank some of the Holy water.
      I kept praying that day and simply waiting and dealing with some of the pains of being in a hospital.  So many friends had been visiting me and so many people had been praying for me that I concretely felt God's graces throughout the whole situation.  So I went to bed that Friday night awaiting the next scan on Saturday to see what the Doctor would say.  I was scanned...and guess what they said...the obstruction had been cleared...and all they had to do is wait for is my body to do its normal thing....I had my first liquid food later that Saturday....and was released the following Sunday. 
      Wait a minute....what just happened???  Let me just recap some of the details you may have missed...I received Holy Water from Lourdes exactly 3 years after I was there in Spain.  Guess what feast day I received the news of my healing? The feast of the Visitation of Mary.  Think about it...what is that feast about??? The Blessed Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth.  Not only did she visit Elizabeth, brothers and sisters, She visited ME!! She healed me through the Lourdes water.  And listen to what I just realized a few weeks ago...guess who's on the cover of the glass bottle....St. Therese......she did hear my prayer in a way more amazing than I could possibly imagine!!! I still have the bottle in my room with plenty of Lourdes water ready to heal at a moments notice....

Praise Jesus and His Blessed Mother!!!!



St. Catherine Laboure and the Miraculous Medal

I want to introduce to you a friend of mine that has been influential in my life although not always explicitly.  Her name is St. Catherine Laboure and she had the priviledge of having one of the most intimate encounters with the Blessed Virgin in recorded history.  The apparitions that she received were quite profound!  It really impacted me the love that St. Catherine had for Mary.  It also made a huge impact on me the importance that was placed on the Medal, given the promises Mary attached to it.  For that reason, I wear it every day, and often pass them out to others.  It has been quite an experience.  So I wanted to place here an excerpt from a biography of St. Catherine, retelling the account of the apparition.  Please, enjoy!

VIII. The Apparition of the Miraculous Medal

Outside the convent on the rue du Bac, the City of Paris had grown quiet; people had gone back to their daily living. Charles X retreated to England, where he no longer ruled even "like an English king." Louis Philippe came to the throne. Although a Bourbon, he was not of the line of Bourbon kings, but of the Orleans family, and most certainly he was not the divine right monarch the royal Bourbons had been. Dubbed from the start "The Citizen King," he was the figurehead the new nation wanted.


Saturday, November 27, 1830, was just another day, busy like all the rest with prayer and work and study of the things of God. The next day would be the First Sunday of Advent. At half past five, all the Sisters, professed and novices alike, gathered in the chapel for their evening meditation. The chill November dusk had settled outside, and the chapel was in semi-darkness.


Catherine liked this time of evening. She had always liked it. even at home: the laborious day was over and the tired mind found rest in thinking of God. Tonight, the quiet voice of the Sister reading the prophecies of Christ's coming at Christmas seemed like the voice of Isaiah himself, calling down the centuries. In the darkness, time and place were no more; only the mind was alive. The voice stopped, and a great stillness followed.

Suddenly, Catherine's heart leaped. She had heard it—that rustling, that faint swish of silk she could never forget, the sound of Our Lady's gown as she walked! There it was again—and there was the Queen of Heaven, there in the sanctuary, standing upon a globe. She shone as the morning rising, a radiant vision, "in all her perfect beauty," as Catherine said later.

Catherine's eyes widened with bliss at the sight. Yet they were not so dazzled but that, womanlike, they took note of every detail of the Virgin's dress: that her robe was of silk, "of the whiteness of the dawn," that the neck of it was cut high and the sleeves plain, that she wore a white veil which fell to her feet, and beneath the veil a lace fillet binding her hair.

The Virgin held in her hands a golden ball which she seemed to offer to God, for her eyes were raised heavenward. Suddenly, her hands were resplendent with rings set with precious stones that glittered and flashed in a brilliant cascade of light. So bright was the flood of glory cast upon the globe below that Catherine could no longer see Our Lady's feet.


Mary lowered her eyes and looked full at Sister Laboure. Her lips did not move, but Catherine heard a voice.

"The ball which you see represents the whole world, especially France, and each person in particular."


These words stirred the heart of the Sister with fresh transports of joy, and the dazzling rays seemed to her to increase to blinding brilliance.


"These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them. The gems from which rays do not fall are the graces for which souls forget to ask."


At this moment, Catherine was so lost in delight that she scarcely knew where she was, whether she lived or died. The golden ball vanished from Mary's hands; her arms swept wide in a gesture of motherly compassion, while from her jeweled fingers the rays of light streamed upon the white globe at her feet. An oval frame formed around the Blessed Virgin, and written within it in letters of gold Catherine read the words:

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.


The voice spoke again:

"Have a Medal struck after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces; they should wear it around the neck. Graces will abound for persons who wear it with confidence."


The tableau revolved, and Catherine beheld the reverse of the Medal she was to have made. It contained a large M surmounted by a bar and a cross. Beneath the M were the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the one crowned with thorns, the other pierced with a sword. Twelve stars encircled the whole.

And then the vision was gone.

Habit is a saving thing. Certainly it saved Catherine embarrassment or discovery in the next few minutes. She must have said the closing prayers of the meditation with the others; she must have taken her place in line to go to the dining hall; she must have recited the grace and sat down at table. She did not remember. It was the chastening voice of the Mistress of Novices that brought her back to earth.


"Sister Laboure must still be in ecstasy," it said dryly.


Catherine started in confusion. Why the other novices had begun to eat!

The three great Apparitions of our Lady to Catherine Laboure—they are designated by number for convenience—were complete. The first, the Apparition of July 18, is sometimes called "The Virgin of the Chair"; the second and third, actually two phases of the Apparition of November 27, are known by the titles: "The Virgin of the Globe" or "The Virgin Most Powerful," and "Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal."

Let me introduce you to St. Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian Kolbe is one of the first saints to really stir up in me a deep love for the Blessed Mother.  I joined the Militia Immaculatae which he founded even before I really knew what it was and WHO he was.  I came to read about him and came to love his love of the Blessed Mother.  Especially, I came to love his missionary zeal and his love for the Miraculous Medal.  I have also come to benefit so much from his deep reflections on the mystery of Mary's Immaculate Conception (something that I will go into later into much more detail).  On this feast of All Saints, this is one saint that you should come to know better!

St. Maximilian tells how he founded the MI was founded.