The healing protection of Mary

I would like to tell you about an experience that the Lord and Mary gave me. With some companions of a group with whom we used to go to the south of Cordoba, Argentina, on missionary work, we had to camp for two days in the "Sierras Grandes". The bus left us on the road, more than fifteen kilometers far from any village. Then we had to walk for five hours into the heart of a mountainous area. The typical cold of the area and the heat of the march walk made me catch a very bad cold.

On arriving at the place we were looking for, I began to feel bad, with muscular fatigue and headache. I asked permission to the priest who came with us, and I went into the tent. I was feeling worse and worse. I couldn't stop shivering, even with two sleeping bags. A bit dizzy (I think I had a fever), I prayed asking the Lord to show me what it would be better to do. There was no doctor in the group, the road was five hours away (and it wasn't very busy) and from there we were too far away from any town.

What should I do? Warn and worry the boys to no purpose? I started breathing less and less because of some stitches in my thorax. I could only breathe with much difficulty.

I managed to ask for an aspirin to a girl in the group. Here the worst arrived: I couldn't almost breathe, and was trembling like a leaf. Away from everybody, I felt tremendously forlorn… I felt lonely and impotent, tremendously lonely and impotent. I could only think of the Lord. But what would I do without a doctor or medicines?

Then I began feeling a calm that filled my spirit with peace. Without realizing it, I was crying out for mom, my other Mother!

The presence of Mary started being real and tangible to me. Completely tranquillized, I was able to breathe, with some difficulty, but better. Thus I fell asleep. When I woke up, the silence was total in the mountains, and my companions were sleeping beside me.

I could already breathe normally and only trembled a little. It was four a.m. With a full presence of Mary I took my covers off and stuck my head out to get some fresh air. I bundled myself up in the sleeping bag and got to sleep again, without letting my mind consider that the cold could do me harm.

The next morning, still a bit incredulous, I breathed deeply and —to my surprise— I felt not even the slightest pain at all. I got out of the tent, and the weather was very cold. As I was feeling perfectly well, I went on an excursion with my companions, and that same afternoon we returned to the town.

In my mind, I didn't stop thanking the Lord who looks after his sheep like a mother. Not even in the "ceiling" of Cordoba the Father moved a second away from me! And Mary! Mary, loving Mother, comforted me as my mother usually does when I'm ill. Glory to the Lord!

Luis R.
translated from Cristo Vive Aleluia!
Nº 33, p. 32 (1982)

© The Movement of the Word of God, a Roman Catholic pastoral community of disciples. This testimony was originally published by the Word of God's Publishing House and can be reproduced on condition that its origin is mentioned.