In 2010 I was blessed to participate in a pilgrimage to Mexico City to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The pilgrimage was with the Queen of the Americas Guild, and the spiritual director for the trip was Bp Joseph Madera, a native Mexican with a great love for Jesus and Mary. He also had a great devotion to a native Mexican spiritual writer and Servant of God, Conception Cabrera de Armida, known as Conchita. She has been compared to St. Teresa of Avila for her profound and beautiful writings, especially about the Eucharist. A wife, mother, and lay apostle, Conchita’s writings are a witness to her mystical experience of Christ and his message of hope and joy in the midst of suffering.
It was in one of her mystical encounters with Christ that He promised her something very special that would take place when the time was right. After another nine years of preparation, she experienced a spiritual incarnation – the joy Mary knew at the conception of Christ in her womb. The meditations and reflections in her spiritual diary are beautiful, and draw one more deeply into love and reverence for the Eucharist.
We visited the Church of the Holy Spirit, where Conchita’s tomb is present for veneration, and listened to Bp Madera as he spoke with such love and admiration for this woman of joy and great courage. At 84, his eyes danced and his whole demeanor came alive as he spoke about these mysteries so close to his heart, and brought them to life for all of us as we listened. Conchita was a soul who was so tuned to Christ’s presence that she knew when He was present in the tabernacle, without having seen the Host, as attested to on several occasions recorded in her writings.
She also felt the Lord calling the world to a greater recognition and reverence for the Holy Spirit, long before Vatican II’s call for a new Pentecost, and the world wide explosion of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which began in 1967 at the Duquesne weekend…
Lord God, thank You for introducing me to this beautiful Servant of Yours, and to her writings that speak so simply and yet eloquently about Your Presence in the Eucharist. As she experienced the joy of having You come alive within her, may I share in that joy and help bring You to birth in the lives of all those I meet
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Before I had entered the Catholic Church from my Protestant background, I was prompted to do a charcoal drawing of Mary and Jesus copied from a magazine cover. The picture captivated me, and I copied it several times. I marvel at how the Lord prepares us for what He knows will be in our future 🙂 My friend Loretta introduced me to Marian consecration on the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple on November 21, 1995 – about 20 years after I had done this charcoal drawing…
Lord God, thank You for bringing me into a relationship with Your Blessed Mother, Mary. I’m so grateful for her presence in my life, and pray that all may come to the Heart of the Father, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~
Spiritual Sun Pennies 