It was then that I remembered the relic at the San Fernando Mission.
Our family attended Mass at the mission and my husband was a Eucharistic minister. So I asked Msgr. Francis J. Weber, the archivist for the Archdiocese, whether he could bring the relic. He came to the hospital on May 15 and blessed my husband with the only piece of the tilma in existence outside of Mexico.
I was sure that Our Lady would work a miracle! My husband had a tube coming out of his head and multiple IV's. He was on an ice blanket. He had a brain infection, pancreatitis, and hepatitis, and he was not responding to treatment.
On Thursday, the doctor noted that my husband was draining only 50% cerebral fluid into the bag, only 25% on Friday, and nothing by Sunday. We had a miracle!
On Monday, a team of about 15 neurosurgeons and students came in to examine my husband and take a look at his medical record. Though he was not quite "out of the woods" and still in intensive care at that moment, the lead neurosurgeon said he did not have a medical explanation for the healing.
The impossible became possible and my husband would not need a shunt.
"Mrs. Cornejo, I don't know who you prayed to, but if I ever need a miracle, I'll be calling you," the doctor said.
My husband began to recover by leaps and bounds and was home by June 6. We even went on to have another daughter after five straight miscarriages (all of which occurred before Vicente's illness). We named her Frances Marie, because, after all, we could not leave the Blessed Mother out of her name.
Though he was not able to return to work, seventeen years later Vicente is a loving husband and a joyful father to five children, a devoted parishioner at Guardian Angel in Pacoima, and still a passionate musician.
I put my story into words because we have seen her intercession in our lives, and I look back at my life knowing that we are safe in His arms. Being blessed in a special way by this relic is still possible in this great "City of Angels," and so I can tell others with confidence: Take your needs to her, she will always be Our Mother.
That is why tonight, December 11, 2019, Vicente and I will be celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, where the relic of the tilma is now permanently housed: to thank her and show our love to her.
(Story continues below)
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This commentary was first published by Angelus News. It has been reprinted with permission by CNA.