So many blessings

Today has been an amazing day. so full of blessings that I am having a hard time believing all of them happened and on top of it the very same day.

It started as a normal day, more paperwork for our adoption, family vists, etc.

Then I received an email from one of the priests that celebrated our marriage, Fr. Juan Diego, a monk. He was in Europe for WYD Madrid and did not know about our adoption. So it was a little bit late when he read our announcement.

I received the following message today:

I am so very happy for you. I am at Fatima and will be celebrating Mass today at the Chapel of the Apparitions. I will dedicate the Mass in thanks for your son.

I could not believe my eyes, but this was only the beginning today when we celebrate the first week with our son.

As I blogged last night we were invited to a private viewing of the first class relics of JPII. An amazing opportunity and it was in the bishops comision offices near the Basilica of Guadalupe.
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My DH and I arrived at the Basilica and thought we would not have a lot of time to vist Our Lady of Guadalupe this time, but the other members of the group were late and so we had plenty of time to visit with Her.

This was to be our sons first pilgramage.

The Basilica was only partially filled, a rarity, and we saw that there was the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the middle of the Basilica.

Imagine this, the miracolous image of Our Lady ,and then Her son right in front of Her. I could again not believe it.

We were able to pray to both and also ask Jesus and His Mother for all the intentions sent to us yesterday and today.

We prayed for all by name and read out loud all of your interntions some 7 feet from Her actual image right in the place where She appeared.

Then we go back to the main church to pray a little bit more and I see a couple sitting some rows away from us and recognize a dear friend that now lives in France and her husband. They also had suffered from infertilty and only had been able to have one daughter. She always ached for more and her story has always resonanted with me.

Well they were right there praying the rosary and I went over to say hi. She tells me that they have a very important appointment with a priest and she mentions the name. Fr.Eduardo Chav.ez.


My face dropps. He is the foremost expert on the Apparitions of Guadalupe in the world, the one that worked on the cause to beatify Juan Diego (actually he was the postulator) and also one of the most popular speakers in the Catholic Church in Latin America.

This is what Amazon says:
FATHER EDU,ARDO CH.AVEZ is one of the most renowned experts on the Guadalupe apparitions and the postulator of St. Juan Diego’s cause for sainthood. He is the first Dean of the Catholic University Lumen Gentium of the Archdiocese of Mexico, co-founder and Dean of the Higher Institute for Guadalupan Studies and honorary Canon of the Guadalupe Basilica

One of his books in English is called: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love edited by the Knights of Columbus. I highly recommend anything by him and if you ever have the opportunnity to hear him speak do not miss it.

Well she then tells us: "Do you want to meet him?"

I am again speechless.

"Yes!!!"

I had met him a while back in a conference, but here was the opportunity to ask him to bless our son and consacrate him to our Lady. Today of all days when we are introducing him to Her.

As we were walking outside of the Basilica we meet the rest of the group that we had been waiting for and we decide all to go and meet Fr. Chavez.

We meet him and my DH and I tell him we have just adopted our son and would love to have his blessing, since Our Lady has been right by our side during our journey.

He asks us many questions and then gives the most amazing blessing ever to our son , for us as his parents and for our marriage. He asks our Lady of Guadalupe to guard over us. I will post the pictures very soon.

I still have tears in my eyes thinking about it.

Then we go out and head towards the Bishops commision. There we go right in and arrive at a small room where a priest is just begining to explain what these relics are.

They are only allowing very small groups to enter and we are one of the few priviledged ones.

Only three countries have these relics for now. Italy in Rome, Poland and now Mexico.

The intention of bringing these relics are to ask JPII to interceed for peace and also since he had a very special relationship with Mexico and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

A priest explains that a first class relic is part of the body of a saint or a person in the path to sainthood, a second class relic is something that they used (in this case there was also a casoc) and a third class relic is something they touched.

Well in this case it is a small vial with the blood of JPII and the casoc and the priest told us we could ask for his intercession and that the relics had special gifts and could be venerated (not adored).

In the ceremony of beatification of JPII they had a sculputre with his blood carried by the nun whose cure is attributed to him and the very same blood was here.

Again we asked for JPII to interceed for all of you and all the intentions sent to us. Our son again was there with us and we could only be so thanful for all the gifts of this day.

I was able to have several images of Our Lady, of JPII and rosaries blessed by Fr. Chavez and also I was able to place them over the relics. I can send a set to each person that asks me to. It migth take some days from Mexico, but I would gladly do it. Just shoot me an email and I will do so.


As I write this I cannot belive all the blessings for our son today:
A mass dedicated for him right in Fatima.
His first pilgramage to Guadalupe and also his first vist to the Blessed Sacrament
The blessing of the most important propagator of the faith in Guadalupe for him and our family
The vist to the relics of JPII.