That day Ángel was just one of the pilgrims who venerated the Virgin. She commented that during the trip she didn’t feel anything in particular, but when she entered the church at the end of the procession, she was overcome with tears, which she still cannot explain.
“I didn’t know what was happening. I had never asked the Virgin for anything directly, but I did ask God for my conversion every day. Then [Our Lady] came and rescued me from the clutches of Satan,” she recounted.
From that moment on, Ángel left behind the sins of her past life.
“That’s how Mary came into my life and I made a clean break with mortal sin,” she said, adding that “I started to heal my wounds. God gave me another chance.”
The Mexican woman has been “walking hand in hand with Christ” for 18 years now. For her, the only goal that a human being should aspire to is to achieve holiness. She calls on young people to “not settle for less” and for “their standards and expectations to always be high.”
“Aspire to holiness. It’s a path that’s not easy, but with Jesus and Mary it really is possible,” she said. “For me that is true success, not what the world offers you. This is true heroism.”
“The success you seek is God’s dream for your life because it protects you from false love, it makes you less selfish, more generous, it gives you back your personality, your identity, and your character,” Ángel explained.
To learn more about Irasema Ángel and her conversion story, you can follow her on Facebook and on X.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Andrés Henríquez is a Venezuelan writer specializing in religion and politics with more than five years of experience in bilingual media. He is a member of the Regnum Christi Federation.
