Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans 12: 14-21)

I am still working on the Italian transcription of a very interesting interview. I will translate it to English as soon as the Italian text is transcribed. I promise it will be worth the wait. In the meanwhile, I received one of those undeserved graces early today. Before I tell you that, I must give you a bit of a background.

Between May and August 2021 I spent three months in the hospital due to a lateral pneumonia made even more deadly by COVID. While I was in the hospital my bills went unpaid but as soon as I was able, between September and October I paid the most important accounts. I still have some outstanding, unexpected expenses to pay but I hope to be up to date soon.

The condo association was the first to be paid via bank transfer. It was three months totaling some outrageous sum but I paid it anyway. It appears that the administrator played with the possibility that I was about to die. I was in bad shape but somehow I made it to this day. After several months and many complaints, the admin pocketed the money while ignoring my claims and the bank receipts. Although I took the legal steps to assert my rights, almost six months later they continue indifferent to all intents to normalize the situation. I can’t pay twice and I can’t continue to throw money into a pit, so I stopped paying and the expenses are piling up. I saved the money to pay and I am working with a lawyer to see how we can solve the problem in court.

Justice is not always served and sometimes the white hats end up paying unjust rulings etc. The problem with the admin started many years ago when my father was the pro-bono administrator for the association. Probity was the old man’s second name but not everyone was happy with his honesty. Enter a certain man  who bought a condo in the building around twenty years ago. He had not been around for long when he tried selling my father supplies. He also proposed to kick back a monthly sum that could be pocketed by my father should my dad accept the deal. That is unfortunately a common practice around here.

My father rejected the offer in no uncertain terms. By the way, the amounts that creep could finagle were quite small but the man was sick, someone who had a high net worth but was always on the lookout for opportunities to earn corrupt money however small the amount may be. That was the beginning of a beautiful enmity. Both men are dead now. In time my father retired and the knaves manage to take over. They’ve been doing their corrupt thing for about two decades.

The crooks have made a few mistakes lately and their shady deals can be exposed and brought to justice. Obviously, I won’t give details but the proverbial noose is slowly closing around their necks. What followed was their intent to steal from me now that I am weak and still convalescing. They are thus piling debt on me, thinking perhaps that they can get away with it. Thus the “retainer” they took of the first payments I made after leaving the hospital. Along with that obvious wrong, they have managed to run a defamation campaign against my poor father: they falsely accuse him of doing the very thing they do now. A dead man can do nothing to prove them wrong but it is still defamation but I am still alive and can take them to court if a few witnesses are willing to testify.

After a few frustrating meetings with various lawyers (some meetings better than others) I asked a friendly Catholic priest if he had any suggestions. I was aiming at asking Father about many social contacts that could help us make the legal case, etc. but the man of the cloth had a surprising suggestion: “Go to Our Blessed Mother.” And I did immediately. I went before an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and asked Our Lady Queen of Heaven to give me a suggestion. That was last night near midnight.

This morning I had to pay some bills. Here most bills are paid in person by going to specific points of payment located all over the city. I have a favorite one (they have great air conditioning!) and I went there.

I stood in line behind an older lady. Not a minute had gone by when the woman pulled out a Rosary and held it up over her head like if she was trying to untangle it. I observed it was a Rosary made of green glass, the color of the royal Aztec green mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

I don’t know why I blurted “How good it is to see people praying the Rosary!” and she answered: “We have to pray the Rosary a lot so that these wars and disasters come to an end.” There we began a brief dialogue. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but she suddenly told me:

“When people give you trouble, to solve those problems, you have to bless those who bring the problems to you, say Masses for them, pray the Rosary for them.”

I immediately thought that the night before I had asked Our Lady of Guadalupe for a suggestion to solve the problem. I realized immediately that the older lady had that message for me. We continued talking, she told me her name was Susana and that she belong to the local Legion of Mary.

Before parting, I asked her to pray for my ‘enemies’ for as long as she was willing to do it. She promised she would pray for them. As soon as I got home, I fetched my Rosary and I did the same. I plan to do it all through Lent Season and beyond until all problems are solved and all wrinkles are ironed.

When I left the store I saw a taxi stop by the curbside.  A lady was getting out of the car. I helped her and got myself into the taxi. Immediately I saw hanging from the rear view mirror an image of… Our Lady Of Guadalupe. I talked a little with the taxi driver who was obviously Our Lady’s devotee. It seemed to me the image hanging from the rearview mirror was the “signature” left by Our Lady after what had happened to me a few minutes before. Notice that is not common in this city to see an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe since the locals are usually devoted to Our Lady of Luján.

In the end, this is a worthy cause and I am asking you for help. This Lent Season please include this intention of mine in your prayers, Holy Masses, and the recitation of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We pray for God to bless and convert those people if that is God’s will thus bringing and end to a very odious and unjust situation. We pray also to expose those defaming my parents accusing them of being “vulgar thieves”. Talk about Freudian projection!

Most importantly, share this wise advice from Our Lady with others and apply it to the odious people in your life. There is always one! Now we have a spiritual weapon to wield against the meanies! Let us use it!

Please pray for this intention and I will keep informing you how things develop. Everything will be just fine after a little bit of spiritual combat.