A little miracle

During the month of Mary

This time last year in Toledo District, Belize, we lived through a crisis. The dry season was unusually dry and numerous fires started all across the district. What was once green farmland had turned to ash. Places that were full of life became places of death with smoke encompassing the whole district. Hundreds of families lost their farms due to the fires.

“Father, I lost my farm,” an older man told me after Mass one day.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I’m going to keep planting, that’s all I can do.”

There was grief in his voice and I felt incredibly sad for him. The Mayans depend on the land to support themselves, and with their farms wiped out, there was despair about the future. We doubled our parish food pantry support for families affected by the fires, but the needs were still great.

During the Feast of the Visitation, I asked a principal at one of the parish primary schools to organize a May Crowning in the village church. I arrived that morning while the students were praying the rosary. We started the May Crowning prayer service and I preached about the seven dolors of Mary. The service culminated with a student placing a crown on the statue of the Blessed Virgin while we sang a Marian hymn (I wish I could remember the song). She placed the crown on the statue as we sang, and I heard sounds on the roof of the church. I looked out the window and was in disbelief.

It began gently raining after the crown was placed on the statue. We hadn’t seen rain for almost two months as the whole district was engulfed in fires that threatened to turn everything into a desert.

The song came to an end and everyone, students and teachers, started clapping and cheering.

“Mary is our mother and she hears our prayers. She won’t abandon us.” I said. The rain stopped after several moments that morning. Strong storms came a few days later signaling the end of the dry season. I firmly believe that the rain during the May Crowning was a sign of Mary listening to our prayers. The timing of it right after the actual crowning was too perfect to just happen by chance. The length of the dry spell since the last rain was also too strange for it to randomly occur at the exact moment of our prayer service. The strangeness of it all points to a sign from heaven.

The little sign on the Feast of the Visitation in 2024 confirmed my devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Just as she went to help her cousin, Elizabeth, in her time of need, Mary comes to help us with alacrity and joy. We also see at the wedding of Cana how Mary identifies our problems and brings them to Jesus to resolve. I pray a rosary everyday and feel that Mary always accompanies me. She has never let me down and my devotion to her increases each day. I did the Marian Consecration promoted by St. Louis de Montfort back in 2016 and it has completely changed how I live the faith. I would be very lost without Our Lady. She can attain miracles from her Son for us, we just need to ask.