Nov 1, 2021, All Saints, Holy Rosary (Joyful Mysteries) | In Memoriam of Maria Blanca

Friends of the Rosary:

Today, November 1st, the Universal Church celebrates All Saints: a multitude of followers of Christ who were beatified or canonized and now enjoy, for eternity in Heaven, the light of God. We all have a call to holiness intended to join the Communion of Saints.

Yesterday, as we were returning to Madrid from Astorga, a city in the Way of Saint James where we buried my holy wife and where I was married 31 years ago, we prayed a family Rosary together in the car. My three children — Mikel, Blanca, and Jaione — and me shared memories of Maria Blanca, and we reached this conclusion: we must take our personal cross and follow Jesus. Blanca, my daughter, said: “Jesus has chosen us to bring his Cross; we’re privileged.”

Talking about the Saints, I was sharing the names of the Saints that my wife Maria Blanca loved so much: Padre Pio, Faustina Kowalska, Mother Teresa, Teresa of Avila, Francis Xavier, Ignatius of Loyola, Dominic of Guzman, Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, John Paul II, Francisco and Jacinta, Monica, Agustin, James, John the Apostle, and John the Baptist.

Also, among them St. Joseph and St. Michael the Archangel, and above all, the Most Holy Virgin Mary, la Santísima Virgen María.

I remember asking Maria Blanca at the ICU what the Virgin Mary was saying to her. “Que siga,” “To keep going,” was her answer, while smiling.

Ave Maria!
Jesus, I Trust In You!
All Saints, Pray For Us!