I belong to a family of eleven in Santa Fe Ocana, Guatemala. My father has a rose plantation and we help him with the work. When my mother, who is now 43, was expecting her last child, she had to go to the doctor with a stomach complaint. The doctor who saw her told her to take some pills to terminate the pregnancy. He said it was very easy, it wouldn’t hurt, and then she could receive treatment and would get better without any problem.

When my father heard about this he refused. He said, “That is totally wrong. We’re going to see a different doctor. And we’ll pray to Saint Josemaria for everything to turn out well.” With the help of a different medical team my mother gave birth to my youngest brother, and we called him Josemaria. My mother made a good recovery. Josemaria is now two years old.

But my father was still upset to think of the first doctor. He decided to take little Josemaria there, so the doctor could see the child he had wanted to kill. The doctor was very much struck, and said that that was what they were told to do in such cases. He said he was really glad that they hadn’t taken his advice, and he didn’t have the faith that they had. Then my father talked to him about Saint Josemaria and Opus Dei. The doctor wanted to find out more about it for himself, and from that point on his medical outlook changed completely.

In gratitude to St Josemaria, my father has set aside one part of the plantation so that the flowers grown there will always be sent to an oratory in an Opus Dei center, to be placed close to the Tabernacle. Now we continue praying to Saint Josemaria for our mother’s health, because she still gets pains and she offers it up for the Holy Father and for the faithfulness of her daughters in Opus Dei.