Providence in a Cardboard Box: How God Brought Blessed Miguel Pro to Westminster School
- Guest Contributor
- 19 minutes ago
- 5 min read
When Viviana Chavez followed a prompting in prayer during Adoration, she couldn’t have imagined it would end with a first-class relic of Blessed Miguel Pro.
By Tracy Seul
An answer to a prayer
“Put your phone away! You can’t be looking things up in Adoration!”
Viviana Chavez, operations manager at Blessed Miguel Pro Catholic Academy in Westminster, wouldn’t ordinarily have been on her phone, but she was compelled.
Chavez knew the school’s patron well. A Jesuit priest in Mexico known for his underground service to the Church during a time of persecution, Blessed Miguel Pro was executed for his devotion. As he prepared for death, he extended his arms in the form of a cross and shouted, “Viva Cristo Rey!” “Long live Christ the King!” His example and his martyrdom has inspired many worldwide — including the school community that bears his name.
For years, Chavez had been praying with Blessed Miguel Pro for the school and community, but that day in Adoration, she had begun to feel that she needed to pray for something more.
While in Adoration, she kept hearing the word “visit.”
“I talked to him, saying, ‘I already visited your birthplace. Visit where? Where shall I go? Visit who?’ I looked up his name in Adoration, and Mexico City came up as the place he died,” she recalled.
That was the answer to the prayer — she had already been planning a visit to Mexico City during fall break.
“I looked up the address of the church from where we were staying, and it was only .777 miles away,” she shared.
With that, Chavez had decided.
“That’s it,” she said, “We are going to visit Blessed Miguel Pro!”
The Visit
The original plan was to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. But after that fateful Adoration, Chavez knew she had to make a detour. So, when she returned to the office, she called Holy Family Church, where Blessed Miguel Pro’s remains are interred.
Chavez shared with the church that she worked at a Catholic school named for Blessed Miguel Pro in the Archdiocese of Denver — a community with a deep devotion to the potential saint-to-be. Never did she expect to be offered a relic for the school and a special Mass and tour during her visit to the parish.
Chavez’s excitement increased with every day that drew closer to the trip.
“The day that they approved we were going to get a relic, I was determined the girls were going to show up in their most glamorous cloaks to see him,” she shared. “I couldn’t think of any clothes that would be more appropriate for an occasion like this than their Mass uniforms.”
Walking into the church, Chavez was overcome with its beauty and detail.
“Just walking up to the wooden doors of the church, opening them and seeing the art in the building, it was a different feeling. It was so holy. I was so grateful and felt such peace,” Chavez expressed.
Adding to the moment’s meaning, Chavez noticed that just above Blessed Miguel Pro stood Our Lady of Guadalupe, who originally drew the family to visit Mexico City and to whom the school community had been consecrated the year before.
“I can’t even put into words how I felt walking down the hall and seeing the Holy Family, Blessed Miguel Pro in the middle, and Our Lady of Guadalupe behind him,” she shared. “It was unbelievable.”
All she could think during the Mass was, “Why me? Out of the millions, why me? Why our family?”
“He needed me to get him here [to the school], and now, he will provide for our school and our community. I just know it,” Chavez said.
As they were receiving a private tour of the church and museum, Viviana’s husband, Joel, noticed their youngest daughter, Juliana, had a bulging backpack. The third grader at Blessed Miguel Pro had brought her six-foot statue of the Holy Infant of Atocha with her on the trip “to take care of us and to visit Blessed Miguel Pro,” she told her dad.
The Trip Home
As the family left Blessed Miguel Pro’s church in Mexico City, they couldn’t help but realize the weight of their responsibility. After all, bringing home a relic is no small task.
“I wanted him to come home in something special. I blamed myself for not being prepared for the return,” Chavez lamented.
To make up for it, when she visited Our Lady of Guadalupe, she found a beautiful box and even had it blessed at the Basilica for the trip home. Finally, she was ready to bring him home.
But as she carefully packed the relic, the box lid wouldn’t close — the reliquary was just a smidge too large for the box.
“I ran down to the concierge at 10 p.m., when nothing is open to buy anything, and begged him to help me find something special from the gift shop that would be worthy of carrying Blessed Miguel Pro home in,” Chavez recalled.
He returned with a simple cardboard box and a few sheets of newspaper.
“I looked at it thinking, ‘I can’t bring him home in this!’” she shared.
Disappointed, she took the shoddy box back up to her room to finish packing. When she relayed the situation to her husband, disgusted that she would have to carry such a precious possession in a cardboard box, Joel reminded her, “It’s ok. He was a humble person. He wouldn’t mind.”
He was right. She carefully laid the Blessed Miguel Pro relic in the cardboard box on one of the girls’ uniform sweaters for cushioning and placed another gently on top. It was reminiscent of Jesus’ own humble beginnings in the manger of Bethlehem.
“I think he wanted to come home in a box like that instead of a beautiful one,” Chavez said. “Now, I call the cardboard box my Holy Box and have it displayed at my house, laughing that I brought Blessed Miguel home in such a simple box that carried such a gift!”
The Presentation
“It is a huge blessing to bring a first-class relic to our school. We are the only school in the United States with him as a patron, and it is a great way to combine his story with ours,” said Jim Schoepflin, the school’s principal.
For families at Blessed Miguel Pro Catholic Academy, the community is already a safe haven, where students are educated to become “joyfully fearless disciples.” Now, with the presence of their patron among them, the community is sure that the graces are just beginning to flow.
“My husband and I are still in disbelief over the whole experience,” Chavez said. “Amazing things continue to happen because of his presence here, and we do not take that for granted. We have no idea what we have in our hands!”
