As we near the last weeks of this Year of Mercy, we present
VENERABLE
MARIA de JESUS GUIZAR BARRAGAN, the second Mexican to recently be named
venerable by Pope Francis. She could be called a modern day saint of
MERCY. She was the 5th of 16 children born to Don Emiliano Guizar y Valencia and
Lucia Barragan Guizar in 1899 in Cotija, Michoacan. She was a teacher of catechism in
her early teens, showing the children the gentle face of the Father. She
visited the sick and imprisoned showing the tenderness and mercy of God. The dying
she told not to be afraid to
go to the presence of such a good Father
who gives mercy to all who are sorry for their sins.
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| As a young woman |
At age 15 she suffered from a near fatal illness, leading to
serious reflection, which led to her dedicating herself to God.
In 1961 she founded the Guadalupan Handmaids of Christ the Priest to care for elderly and sick priests. About the priests she would
say, if they have given everything for the Church our mother, then we must
take care of them with love and mercy.Till her dying day she dedicated her life
to the sanctification of priests.
She died in
1973. At the centenary of her birth
(1999) the Apostolic Nuncio Justo Mullor in his homily
said: She is one of those voices that the Holy Spirit wants to be felt with
urgency and insistence inviting all believers in the Church to purify not only
our miseries and sins, but also superfluous cultural adhesions and to focus our
personal and community lives in all that is essential and to put our wills in
tune with the will of God.”
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| Ministering to the poor |
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| With her Community |
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