The great joy of making a pilgrimage with Mary

Although the Guadalupana pilgrimage that usually draws thousands was virtual this year, Francisco Hernández, 55, who suffers from prostate and bone cancer, walked the 12-mile route Dec. 5 to pray for Our Lady of Guadalupe's intercession in the pandemic. He also prayed for his health, and for wisdom to continue promoting the devotion of the prayer of the Rosary.

Francisco has participated in the Cruzada Guadalupana de San Francisco for 20 of the 27 years of the annual devotion. This year he had a completely different experience. “It gave me great joy to walk.” He was praying the Rosary and other prayers, listening to hymns and singing to the Virgin, he said. He did not feel alone on his pilgrimage because spiritually he felt the presence of thousands of people who have walked alongside him in previous years, he said.

Francisco considers himself a man of great faith in God and Our Lady of Guadalupe, from whom he has received great favors. For example the recovery after a seriously work accident in which his skull was broken. By the time he suffered the accident his faith was already strong, and continues. Faith was a virtue his mother left to him because she was a Mexican woman of extraordinary faith, he said. "When my mother died on December 5, 2001,” he said. “She left me the greatest treasure, she left me faith.”

He recommends to all the people he can to believe in the Virgin. “I want to tell everyone that Our Lady intercedes for us. Like a mother she never forgets her children,” he said.

Adapted from an article by Lorena Rojas, Dec. 2020 published in Catholic San Francisco

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