An Unconditional Mother

“If my mother is as she is, [Our Lady], who is the Mother of mothers, the Mother of all humanity, I cannot imagine how She must be!”,¹ Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira remarked on several occasions when speaking of Dona Lucilia and how her boundless affection and protection were for him a living incentive to have devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to confide in her help.

In our days, as if echoing his voice, hundreds of people also notice how Dona Lucilia’s kindness brings us closer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and obtains from that Heart what we need at every moment.

“Dona Lucilia solves these problems”

Confirming these words, Mrs. Ariady Coneglian was heartened when an everyday need of hers was met, which led her to conclude: “I saw that Dona Lucilia has the characteristic of obtaining graces that are necessary in daily life.”

In fact, Ariady works at a Catholic school located in the municipality of Ubiratã in the Brazilian state of Paraná. “It is a non-profit institution,” she explains,“and a large part of what we receive is the result of donations. At the end of last year, we obtained approval from the Ministry of Culture allowing people to donate part of their income tax to us. However, we were having many problems getting the bank account opened for this purpose to actually receive the funds. I had to go to the bank seven times! And each time, a new problem arose: sometimes a document was missing, sometimes a signature wasn’t accepted… In the end, when the account was finally activated, people were unable to make their donation. So, after fifteen days of trying to solve these problems, I reached the point of saying: ‘I am giving up, because this is just not working out!’”

It was then that the director of the institution, a great devotee of Dona Lucilia, suggested: “Ariady, pray to Dona Lucilia, because there are many testimonies that she solves these kinds of problems.” There was no need to repeat the advice, as she tells us: “I stopped what I was doing, sat down at the computer, and prayed: ‘Dona Lucilia, help me! I need to resolve this account issue!’”

After this prayer, Ariady continued her work and, after a few minutes, an operation she had already tried to perform several times, in vain, on the bank’s online portal came to mind. Although she had already given up on that transaction, she felt inspired to try again:

“I went to the website and, with two clicks, I solved the problem, whereas before I had spent a long time trying and it hadn’t worked! Minutes later, a colleague, who was having the same difficulty authorizing donations through another method – because there are several possible ways – also succeeded, which was a blessing for us! Of course, a small blessing compared to other more dramatic situations in life, but it helped us a lot! It was a great consolation from God! And I know it was through the intercession of Dona Lucilia, because I specifically asked her for that.”

Overjoyed with the result of the prayer, Ariady sent in her testimony as a way of expressing her gratitude and sharing this simple favour she received.

Fighting the fire, under heavenly protection

Also in the state of Paraná, this time in the city of Ponta Grossa, Dona Lucilia helped Mrs. Mylena Ferreira Campos in a household incident that could have resulted in tragedy.

A mother of four young children, Mylena is in the habit of invoking the protection and help of Dona Lucilia amidst her daily tasks, so as to perform her domestic chores well. One day, while getting the children ready in the morning, she needed to go to a certain room in the house to get an object, and in the hallway she came upon a fire that was just starting…

In fact, for the last few days a fuse box had seemed to be faulty, occasionally giving off a strong burning smell, and it had now caught fire. Mylena saw that the fire was burning the plastic cover of the fuse box and that a section of it, already burned away, had fallen to the floor. The flames were spreading rapidly and she had to act.

Here is her account of what happened:

“I looked around and saw that the washing machine was working. The refrigerator in the kitchen was working too. There was light in the living room as usual… I thought: ‘My God, what now? How can I put out this fire? I need a good long cloth here, but I don’t have any such thing…’”

Under the effect of the initial shock, the only idea that occurred to her at the moment was to use water. However, it was an electrical fire, and liquids only fuel this type of flame, in addition to serving as a dangerous conduit for electricity…

However, while Mylena was fighting the blaze, she remembered to ask Dona Lucilia for help:

“I filled a pot with water and started to put out the fire, first the one on the floor. And with each throw of water, I prayed: ‘Dona Lucilia, our mother, help us!’ The fire that was on the floor and on the wall went out. The fuse box and the circuit breakers were still burning. Again, I prayed: ‘Dona Lucilia, our mother, help us!’ And I threw water. The fire went out instantly.”

There was no short circuit or flare-up of the flames; and none of the various electrical appliances that were plugged into the sockets burned out. For Mylena, who only later fully realized what she had done, the success of her endeavours was due to the protection and constant assistance of her kind intercessor, Dona Lucilia.

“She will be your protective mother”

As a gift from Heaven, Mr. Eddy Marcano learned of Dona Lucilia in the city of Houston in the State of Texas, where he resides, and found in her an “unconditional mother,” in his own words.

In 2021, after receiving the Sacrament of Penance, his confessor gave him a photograph of Dona Lucilia, along with the advice: “She will now be your protective mother.” Since then, he explained that he has acquired “an incredible devotion to and connection with Dona Lucilia.”

At that time, Eddy, born in Venezuela, was trying to get his US residency, but he had come up against an almost insurmountable obstacle, as he recounts:

“I didn’t have my Venezuelan birth certificate. That document never existed for me because the place where birth certificates were registered had burned down. My family always had a document with personal identification data that proved this, but to be able to proceed with the residency process, it was mandatory to have the birth certificate.”

With no solution in sight, he decided to appeal to supernatural help:

“I entrusted this process to Dona Lucilia, asking her to help me obtain the birth certificate that I never had. And, ‘miraculously,’ for the first time in my life, a birth certificate of mine was found in Maracaibo, Venezuela, thanks to an investigation carried out by a specialist in these matters! I immediately recognized that it was a ‘miracle’ by Dona Lucilia, since I had entrusted this case to her.”

However, there were still other difficulties to overcome until the end of the process, one of them of a monetary nature, since Eddy was far from having the necessary amount to complete the residency process.

“Once again, I asked Dona Lucilia for help, because our future in the United States depended on it. Less than two hours had passed when I received the inspiration to call a very close friend of my family, because something told me: ‘Call her, she will help.’ And that’s what I did: I called this person and explained what was happening. At the end of the conversation, she promised: ‘Tell me how much you need, and I will cover all the expenses immediately.’ I began to cry with joy when I realized that I was under the protection of an unconditional mother, who guided us and blessed us with many graces.”

As a final smile from Dona Lucilia on the case, Eddy had his residency approved in less than three months, when the estimation that had been given to him was at least a two-year wait!

Inexplicable movement of a picture

The protection of Dona Lucilia soon became frequent in Eddy’s life, sometimes manifesting itself even before he invoked her, as can be seen in the following incident.

A violinist by profession, he also gives violin lessons. And in the classroom where he teaches, a peculiar episode occurred, which greatly increased his devotion to his protector:

“A person came with bad intentions and started asking me certain questions, trying to get me to say things that would be prejudicial to me… At that moment, the picture of Dona Lucilia that I own, framed in glass, began to rock back and forth without anyone touching it, producing a rather loud noise. We were surprised, both the person and I… Then, terrified, she left my classroom and never returned. I continued to stare intently at the picture of Dona Lucilia, and it seemed to me that, with that movement, she wanted to say: ‘Don’t speak, don’t give your opinion, always keep silent.’ It was a great blessing and protection from her!”

Other graces received

Eddy had become accustomed to constantly turning to Dona Lucilia, entrusting her with a simple plea for any difficulty, from complex health problems to small practical obstacles, such as a cancelled flight. Below, we can appreciate some of these celestial interventions in his life.

On one occasion, he was about to board a flight to South Africa to perform a series of concerts. Upon arriving in the waiting lounge, he noticed that the flight was very full and feared that, as a result, the trip would be very tiring and uncomfortable. He therefore entrusted the flight to Dona Lucilia, simply asking her for a peaceful journey.

With maternal care, she answered his prayer! “Upon boarding the plane, which was packed,” he recounts, “I found three empty seats in the row where I was supposed to sit, and no one occupied them during the entire flight! I immediately recognized it as Dona Lucilia’s work and thanked her right away. The same thing happened on the return trip to the United States.”

Saved from financial trouble

On another occasion, Eddy was to undertake a concert tour in Argentina and Uruguay, and he had secured financial support from a company to purchase the airfare. However, an unforeseen event placed the responsibility for these performances, crucial to his career, in the hands of Dona Lucilia. Eddy recounts:

“Shortly before the trip, I left home for a rehearsal with the orchestra and received a call informing me that the company would no longer provide support for the airfare… I was really taken aback at that moment. I was driving to the rehearsal, but I immediately turned to Dona Lucilia and Our Lady, and asked that they would help me with the flight tickets I needed to go on tour.

“About twenty minutes passed, and when I arrived at the rehearsal location, I received two calls from two different people who wanted to inform me that they had once again secured financial support for the airfare. I immediately recognized, with tears in my eyes, the ‘miracle’ and the manifestation of Dona Lucilia and the Virgin Mary.”

Dona Lucilia saved Eddy from other financial difficulties, one of which occurred during a summer holiday, as he himself tells us:

“In June, almost all the students were going on vacation and my finances were practically at rock bottom. Even my wife told me: ‘This month is critical… We need to make adjustments, I’m very worried.’ I went to my office and started praying to Dona Lucilia asking for her help. Not ten minutes passed and I received a message on my cell phone informing me that a deposit of two thousand and five hundred dollars was being made as a donation to support an album I was recording at that moment… My eyes filled with tears of happiness as I recognized Dona Lucilia’s maternal love for her children!

“This is part of the many, many ‘miracles’ that I have received, and that I am sharing with you today, because I recorded them in a notebook that I keep as a memory of all the graces I receive from Dona Lucilia. All I can do is thank her infinitely, as she has always been an unconditional mother to me!”

May these simple manifestations of Dona Lucilia’s effective intercession serve as an encouragement to us, so that we too may find in her protection that same unconditional love, a reflection of the goodness of the Mother of God herself. 

Notes:

¹ CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. O dom de sabedoria na mente, vida e obra de [The Gift of Wisdom in the Mind, Life and Work of] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Città del Vaticano; São Paulo: LEV; Lumen Sapientiæ, 2016, v.I, p.130.