Our Lady of Guadalupe - The SOS Icon Story

In 1997, when SOS was just a twinkling in its founders eyes, Fr. Tom Ponzini and his father Eugene Ponzini and Ernest and Connie Braren made an initial fact finding trip to Guatemala. The team of four visited six different geographical regions in Guatemala, meeting with several priests, religious sisters and a Bishop, hoping to find a parish that wanted a long term sister parish relationship with Prince of Peace Catholic Community in Spring, Texas. The vision was to develop a relationship of mutual sharing in the context of a cross cultural exchange. During their visit. they spend one evening in a Maryknoll convent in Lemoa, Quiché. During the night, Connie had a vivid dream. She dreamt she was in a remote Maya village and was part of a living Rosary that was being said as everyone processed single file down a narrow country dirt road. Someone in the procession had a large picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was elevated for all to see as they prayed the Rosary.

After returning to Houston, Connie mentioned the dream to Fr. Tom who listened intently and said, “You know, I wasn’t going to say anything about what happened to me but now after hearing what you just told me, I have to tell you. That very same evening when you had your dream, I was in my room when suddenly I heard a voice speak to me. It was a woman’s voice. It startled me greatly because there was no mistaking that the voice was speaking and that it was in my room. It was a woman’s voice and she said, ‘Dedicate this mission to me, Our Lady of Guadalupe.’”

Fr. Tom and Connie marveled at the two experiences and came to the conclusion that our Blessed Mother wanted to use the mission outreach of SOS to help in the work of uniting the Americas through her patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Many months past and neither acted on this insight.

Nine months later, the first SOS Mission team was about to leave on the its first trip. The evening before leaving for the airport, Fr. Tom wanted to run an errand and when he opened up the front door of the rectory to step outside, this Icon that we carry with us, had been left on the doorstep. Fr. Tom brought it with him to the airport and announced to Ernest and Connie that “I think Our Lady wants to come with us.” So because of these God-incidents, this Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe travels with every SOS Travel team and every SOS Travel team travels under her protection and love.

It is for this reason that we ask Her intercession every time our team prays and it is for this reason we have a drawing every night so the team can take turns hosting the Icon in their own rooms.