“Holiness is the highest form of humanism. Saints are the seeds of newness scattered in the furrows of history, people who have fully realized the perfection of love and are therefore able to illuminate the minds of women and men of all times and rekindle faith in them. Saints are passionate followers of truth. We still need sentinels: holy women and men.”
With these words, Cardinal Angelo Amato introduces the book En todas las circunstancias. La intercesión del Beato Álvaro del Portillo (“In All Circumstances. The Intercession of Blessed Álvaro del Portillo”). The three accounts that follow show us how that intercession becomes present in the lives of real people like you or I.
The cysts disappeared
Magdalena was born on 19 November 2010 in Ann Arbor, USA. Just as we had been told in the prenatal checkups, she had a malformation in her left kidney, which had no kidney function. The right kidney had to compensate so she could stay healthy, or she would have to have a transplant or dialysis.
Then, due to my husband’s work, we had to move to Connecticut. During a routine kidney checkup at Yale hospital, doctors told us that Magdalena’s only healthy kidney was developing a proliferation of cysts that couldn’t be removed and wouldn’t dissolve on their own. They said that we should expect her health to deteriorate and start planning our next steps. It was very sad news for our family, but with a lot of faith, we asked all our relatives and friends to pray the prayer card of Don Álvaro for Magdalena. And they did.
While praying the prayer card with great faith and persistence, I asked him to work a miracle for us and make the cysts in her only kidney completely disappear. At the next checkup, after the routine kidney ultrasound, the doctor called us in and said that had no idea what had happened. Medically it was impossible for the cysts to have disappeared and for the right kidney to be completely healthy, but it was.
Two years have passed since that wonderful news, and Magdalena is growing up lively, healthy and happy... Thank you so much, Don Álvaro!
Prayer to ask for Blessed Álvaro del Portillo’s intercession
She was healed, and peace returned to her family
A member of my family had struggled with drinking for twenty-five years, with all the resulting difficulties for her entire family. She tried to quit a few times, even seeking medical help, but she wasn’t able to give it up. She could see how it affected her husband and children; her marriage was at risk.
Her husband went to the funeral Mass for Don Álvaro del Portillo in their city. After a trip to Rome, I gave him a prayer card of Don Álvaro that had been placed on his tomb, and he was very appreciative — which isn’t always the case with that kind of gift. I started praying to Don Álvaro for my sister’s healing and the family’s wellbeing. Shortly after, the older children sat down with their father to find ways to help their mother.
She agreed to begin treatment and now, a year and a half later, she is completely healed. She was discharged with praise for her willpower, and they asked for her help to support people in similar situations. The family is very united. I attribute this change, her healing, and the peace in their family to Don Álvaro del Portillo’s intercession. I continue entrusting them to him.
Download the novena for serenity to Blessed Álvaro del Portillo
In times of war
At the healthcare institution where I worked in West Africa, a serious crisis emerged when the country’s banks shuttered in response to an escalating military situation. Economic activity ground to a halt almost immediately, forcing many businesses to close. At our medical center, which employed more than forty people, we took a series of difficult measures to stay afloat. Our first priority was maintaining the supply of medicines, which we sell to patients at heavily subsidized prices and which are fundamental to the care we provide.
We placed all part-time staff on temporary layoff and asked our doctors and management team to accept half pay, or in some cases no pay at all, so that support staff could still receive their salaries and the center could continue to function.
The situation worsened considerably in the second month, when rebel troops seized the city. The prolonged bank closure made liquidity increasingly scarce, and the uncertainty was total. From the very beginning, we turned to Don Álvaro for help, and he came through for us, allowing us to meet the great majority of our obligations.
Our employees’ reactions when they received their salaries at the end of the month was of profound surprise and joy. Most were navigating deeply difficult circumstances: not only were those around them going unpaid, but each family had also taken in displaced people, or had relatives and neighbors without any means of support who depended on them. Against all odds, and to the astonishment of many, the medical center continued to operate for several months, until the situation finally stabilized.