We are
sharing with our friends at Catholic Match
the Christmas greeting which we sent to our family and friends, as we wish to
share the glad tidings of our betrothal in union with the Tidings of Great Joy
of the Birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Maria:
Gerry and I encountered each other on
Catholic Match on the feast day of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary, June 24, 2006, feast of St.
John the Baptist, patron saint of Puerto Rico,
and the anniversary of my Baptism.
I was attracted
to Gerry by his obvious love of God through His creation, his love of our
Blessed Mother, and his faithfulness to the Church with an understanding and
compassion at the same time of human weaknesses, and his capacity to take
difficulties with a good dose of humor as reflected in his profile and photo
album. His humor and kindness continued to permeate his frequent emotes and
later phone calls. He shared his love of nature, sending photos of the garden
he tended regularly with such care. When we finally met in person, he was just
who I expected. His life and personality had been faithfully mirrored in his
words, both written and spoken.
In
September we had the opportunity of meeting personally for the first time,
"halfway" between Maryland and Puerto Rico. My parents have an apartment in New Jersey where they
are staying. He made the three-hour car trip from Maryland
and I flew up from Puerto Rico. After he
delighted us all with a special breakfast, which we have fondly come to call
“Eggs Gerardito”, Gerry and I took the train to our first outing together in New York City, specifically upper Central
Park, where we had a picnic lunch. Then we visited St. Patrick's
Cathedral, walked the NYC streets, and took the subway to Ground Zero where we
prayed a Rosary together for the poor souls in Purgatory. During the return
trip to New Jersey
on the train over his sweet silliness and beautiful lullabies, our hearts
ripened into a fondness that began to fill our lives in a way we never
expected.
That day
was like an endless week. After having shared so much through correspondence
and a few phone dates, we quickly walked the steps from friendship to simple
courtship in a single day and night at such a wonderful and beautiful pace that
only God, and two souls deeply in love with Him, together could have
orchestrated.
After
that, the phone calls became a daily encounter, as the correspondence had been
so far, and continued to be. And Gerry had arranged things so that we could
communicate more. He planned a trip to Puerto Rico
for the next month, October, and came to see me and to share with some of the
members of my family. Our bonding was definitely growing in the right
direction. When he left, having gracefully survived the horrendous urban
traffic of Puerto Rico, and met its beaches
and rainforest, Gerry already had plans for returning in November. He said,
"Since my life seems to be taking a direction to you, so do my finances
have to take the same direction." He had obviously set new priorities in
his life, and so had I.
At that
third personal encounter, on November 19, Feast Day in Puerto Rico of Our Lady,
Mother of the Divine Providence, as that Divine Providence had arranged it, in
the sweetest way, he asked me to "go steady" with him, offering me
his college ring in acceptance of his proposal. I readily accepted, over a home
dinner and a papaya ice cream dessert spontaneously improvised for the occasion
by Gerry. The next evening, shortly before leaving for the airport, in a most
tender conversation, he asked me if I would marry him. I said yes, I will, with
all my heart. Like always, our personal encounters, well prepared with much
prayer, and communication in writing and over the phone, got "the
preliminaries out of the way" as Gerry would say. And each hour together
face to face became nearly timeless, like an encounter with Heaven itself,
before God for Whom there is no time.
We kept
the news quiet for a time so that we could secretly ask the prayers of some
special people and to absorb what we had just done, and after shortening the
time of waiting twice, we broke the news to our parents around Thanksgiving,
and then to our siblings during the first week of December. By then, we knew
the date of our future wedding, June 24, 2007. Exactly one year after our first
encounter and correspondence on Catholic Match,
the day of my Baptism, and the solemn feast day of the patron Saint of Puerto
Rico, St. John
the Baptist.
Gerry:
I wish to add that Maria Milagros,
Migui as she is called at home, has more than proven to me the truthfulness of
everything she had written in her profile.
And what God has supplied goes far, far beyond the description and any
expectation I had ever had.
After
having found someone whose life had been a long and deep search to do the will
of the God, Whom we both love so much, a woman who is a beautiful icon of the
Blessed Mother in her love, devotion, dedication, obedience to the Magisterium,
and service, to name just a few of her virtues, I can truly say that my
encounter with Migui has become like the description of Heaven, which St. Paul
gave to us in that “my eye has not seen, my ear has not heard, nor has it even
dawned upon me” the goodness I have seen in her.
She first
was my sister, and then became my friend, and now is my betrothed, soon to be
my beloved spouse before God and man. In all things, with her goodness,
kindness, gentleness, generosity, forbearance (sometimes of me!!), she has
inspired me to be a much better man than I am now. We see one another as God’s
gift in all things, Jesus to feed, Jesus to give drink to, Jesus to clothe in
his nakedness, Jesus to care for in sickness and to visit in His prison, and
finally, to be for each other, the road to Heaven itself. Through each
other, we have learned in a new and wondrous manner the love and caring
Providence of God.
Together,
we thank you again for your prayers. Thanks to the administration for your work
and dedication to such a wonderful apostolate. Thanks to Holy Mother Church
and Holy Mother Mary under whose tutelage we have placed our lives.
Thanks to the Communion of Saints without whom we would have no one to guide us
on our way through life. Thanks to our Guardian Angels and the Holy Archangels.
Thanks to our loving parents. Thanks to each of the persons who, in one way or
another have blessed us, through prayer, encouragement or encounter through Catholic Match. And thanks forever to our
Heavenly Daddy for the Provision of His Son, and the gracious bestowal of
the Holy Spirit through whom we have been caught up into that most wonderful,
exalted and eternal love of the Father for the Son, and of the Son for the
Father. How shall we give thanks to the Lord? We “shall take up the
Saving Cup” of the Eucharist, “and call upon the Name of the Lord”.
Hope to
see you all in Heaven!
