In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and Lord,

my guardian angel intercede for me.

In this meditation, we would like to pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe,

precisely commemorating the 50th anniversary of St. Jose Maria's visit to Our Lady on Tapeyak Hill in Mexico City.

On May 16th through the 24th in 1970,

he was there for nine days making a novena.

And it was a very special time for the church in 1970.

St. José Maria, as you may know, had a very difficult time, very hard time understanding God's will in allowing so many defections in the church after the council and around the council,

the Second Vatican Council.

And he could not understand how all sorts of people were leaving the church and leaving

religious orders, leaving seminaries, leaving the priesthood, divorce, you know.

It was a very difficult time for the church and St. Maria would cry in his mass often for the church.

And at some point he even said he wanted to offer his life for the church.

At the same time, he was faced with a very difficult circumstance with regard to the

canonical status of Opus Day in the church, which eventually was resolved on November 28,

1982, after St. Osama, died. He died in 1975. But because in 1970, he just did not know

how to solve this issue, because basically it had to do with the relation between Opus Day and the diocese that it worked in and the church as a whole and what the relationship is and how it fits within it, how Opus Day fits within the church.

All that was on his mind.

And early in May of 1970, I guess by a personal inspiration from his prayer, he just said, I'm going to Mexico.

...