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Testimony written and sent by Fr. Mateus.

Some friends, knowing about this love testimony, that I, in a certain time  told them in a spiritual retire, asked me to write it, to be placed as substance of a regional informative bulletin, in occasion of the anniversary of Mary appearances in Medjugorje. Now I will write the testimony in honor and gratefulness of Mary Queen of Peace.

In January 2006, I got a phone call from a person who I will name Isabel in this text. She was 35 years old and pregnant for the sixth time, and her husband (who I will call Deodato), a manager of a huge company, who did not desire to have the forth child, so he was trying to force her to abort, threatening her to end their marriage if she didn’t abort the baby.

Isabel, told me this crying, saying that she had no more forces to fight against her husband, and of course, she didn’t want to abort, but she would do it, and now she was just waiting for a miracle of God to save her. She cried very much, she knew that she was generating a baby, a gift from God, she knew she was about to commit the sin of murdering, she knew that she could not decide about letting the child, who she was generating in her womb, to live or to die, she had no support at all, but she had hopes until the last moment, she was hoping that God changed her husband’s heart.

Isabel could already feel that the child was part of her, she already had so much love for the baby, but she felt weak, without forces to fight. I talked to her for a long time, I tried to give her hopes, to have forces to fight and to face the situation, but she was very weak.

Then, she asked me to call her husband at his work and talk to him. So I called him on the same day, it was about 12:15 PM. I talked to him until 1:45 PM approximately. It was very hard, as he didn’t believe in the love of God at all; he didn’t even want to talk about God. When I could notice this, I changed my religious speech to the scientific speech, talking about the value of the life and his wife’s generation in her womb, affirming that Isabel, almost in the third month, was not just a woman, more than that, she was a mother, therefore she was generating his child, and he said there was not a person in her womb, but a dough that was still assuming people forms….  the speech was long. He also affirmed that he would not have conditions to keep the child, to give education, feeding and etc…, but he had conditions to buy a brand new car, trips and etc .....

When we were about to finish the conversation, he said: “It´s easy for you, priests, to talk, it’s not you who raise and take care of children”. And at this moment I told him: “Then let us make a deal, you do not let your child be killed, and I will give you my word that, after the birth, I will provide a family to adopt the child, and if ,for an extreme reason, we can’t find a family to adopt the baby, we will adopt this child here in the monastery as our son. Also, in the period of her gestation, all the months I will give a food contribution to you. The conversation now took another direction, he said very irritated: “I am not a man to make babies and let others raise them!”, and I said very firmly: “You are not a man because you do not have the minimum of character, dignity and humanity, and because you treat your wife and her feelings like garbage, because, for you, money is more important, money is your God. But, to tell you the truth, you are a truly garbage person”. The conversation extended a little more, without getting any positive results.

In the same day I phoned some prayer group friends and asked them to pray for this situation. I told my brothers and sisters of the Monastery, and asked them to pray with me to our Lord for a change in this situation. I remember that, in a Wednesday of the following week, while I was fasting for this intention, our consecrated oblate Marco said: “It is not fair! Let us appeal for divine justice now” I told him: “For certain, may the justice of God act in this situation, let’s pray for this intention, because God does not want this to happen, which is a truly man’s will who chooses to do it! Let’s trust in what Our Lady in Medjugorje said: “With your prayers and fasting you can get miracles” And he also initiated his fasting offering this intention.

Some days later, I spoke with her, and noticed in her voice a great suffering…. but words were nothing compared to all that dramatical situation. I called Adeodato and I tried again to convince him, but nothing had changed. The silly part was when, as soon as hang up the phone, his mother called me and asked me not to interfere in the relationship of her son and Isabel, and the worst part was when she said: “Oh, I already had three abortions, for me, this is normal, does not mean anything, she’s only going to have one more…”. At this moment I felt my cheeks burning in anger, and like Elijah, I was taken by God’s anger at that moment, and said: “And do you regret it?” She answered: “No”. Then I said: “If you do not to regret until the end of your life, you are condemned to hell”. She said: “So what?”. I said: “So, dear, go to hell, and leave Isabel alone”. Then I hang up the phone.

I continued to speak with Isabel several times, and also with her husband, and I could notice that Adeodato’s heart, didn’t desire to kill, I realized that he became a victim of the social environment he lived, suffered the pressure from “friends” from work, who were nothing than the voice of the Satan, advising him to kill, saying that one more child would be a commitment in his position. He noticed that Satan acting he felt like he had tied up hands to the evil, but my confidence in God increased even more when I realized that I was doing everything I could, and there was nothing else to be done.

The culminating point was in a Friday at 11:00 in the morning, I got a call from Isabel. She said: “I already took a shower, and I am going now to the clinic to do the abortion, I am going with my husband and his mother.”. As soon as she told me that, she started crying desperately, saying “I do not want to kill my baby, I love him”. I realized that her husband picked up the phone extension and then  I said: “Dear Isabel, I believe that God has a plan for you life and the life of your husband. Although the ones around you don’t love you, they only think about themselves, God loves you and He will not abandon you, do you believe? “Yes, I do” - she answered. I continued saying: “Then let’s do something, since it’s impossible for me to go there now, or for you to come here, I believe that the grace of God will go down on you, we are going to pray now asking for God to act with the power of His love. So please Isabel, put your right hand on your belly, and I am going to pray consecrating the life of your child on Our Lady’s hands, and will give the baby the special blessing from Mary Queen of the Peace, that blessing of which Our Lady in Medjugorje, promised that all those who received it, would get special graces and even miracles”.

Facing that extreme moment we were going through, on the telephone I was asking God to give her the gift of the Holy Spirit, and I consecrated the child in her uterus to Our Lady, giving her and the child the special blessing of the Mother Gospa Mary Queen of Peace, and I told Isabel: “Isabel, you can go now, therefore I am sure that the miracle has already happened, do you know why? Because this child from now on is not yours or your husband’s, he belongs to Our Lady, so that, I am sure that nobody will kill him and pull him out of your womb”. She just thanked me and hang up the telephone crying, and in the extension there was her husband, who thanked me for the support given to Isabel, and told me that there wasn’t another way. But God, through Mary had already  prepared another way…

In the following day she called me, and when she listened to my voice, she started crying, and I said: “Isabel, please, tell me what happened”. She said: “Deacon Mateus Maria, you have no idea where I am! Anxious I said: “But what happened?” She told me crying: “I am in the hospital to fill out the form of the prenatal of my baby, the abortion did not happen”. At that moment, I was the one who started crying of joy for experiencing one more time the infinite love of God who never abandons us. Isabel ratified everything saying: “Now, nobody is going to pull out my child from my womb”.

She told me that she was seated in the clinic with the “group of death” (her husband and mother-in-law), when the doctor came out of the room and said: “Who is next?”. Her husband said: “It’s my wife! ”, the doctor looked at them and everybody else, and, in excessively anger, shouting he said: “You can go! I am tired of doing abortion, I already have high pressure”. Her husband, afflicted, said: “Doctor, here is one thousand dollars, she is the next one”. The infuriated Doctor said: “Who do you think you are to say what I have to do? I am an obstetrician professor, I work for the best hospitals of São Paulo, who do you think you are? I already told you, go away you all. I am not going to do abortion anymore!”.

The miracle had happened!!!

On June 17, 2006, I could meet Isabel personally, who came to my sacerdotal ordinance, she hugged me crying, saying that she was going to have the baby in a month. And that was a great present for me.

In the end of June, the girl (that I will call in the text Estelinha) was born prematurely. She was healthy, and very tearful, like all the girls… LOL….

In the same year of 2007, in one of the festive dates dedicated to Our Lady, among the children I baptized, Estelinha also became daughter of God, and  at this time I could have her in my arms and consecrate her one more time on the hands of Our Lady Queen of Peace.

But… in the mass of the baptism, I could make my “saint revenge”….LOL…. I only talked about the love of God… I could see Estelinha on her father’s arm, he was caressing her. I talked about the gift of life as a present of God, an undeniable miracle in the life of the family.  Adeodato cried, as he regretted and also he could not deny that gift of God in his life.

After the baptism I told Adeodato: “Dear Adeodato, I have nothing against you, although you were very rude to me. I just truly wanted your happiness with Isabel, in the face of the great gift of life given by God. Adeodato was thankful and said: “But I still do not believe in God”. I told him: “But this miracle in your hands, you cannot deny….”, and he only smiled…

I give testimony of this history of love, to show that  love overcomes the death!

Thank you so much, Ours Lady Queen of the Peace, for having them on your hands!

Fr. Mateus Maria, FMDJ

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