A Miraculous Conception

By Marc Massery

Ecuador native Ruth Arias has seen it all within her own family: miraculous healings, powerful conversions, and the birth of a child when all hope seemed lost.

When Ruth was 17, she gave birth to a son whom she had with her boyfriend, Fausto. When she was 25, she moved with her family from Ecuador to the United States. She and her boyfriend, not practicing Catholics at the time, decided they wanted another child. Unfortunately, Ruth began to experience severe abdominal pain. A gynecologist discovered two cysts on her ovaries. Two surgeries later, the doctor told her that she had only a 50 percent chance of conceiving a child.

"I became depressed," Ruth said. "I really wanted to have more children."

Even though she worked with a fertility doctor, a decade later she was still experiencing pain and could not conceive.

"They said that I had a no chance of conceiving again," she said.

For several months after receiving this news, Ruth's sister-in-law encouraged her to attend a Catholic retreat in the Bronx, New York.

"She knew that I needed God in my life," Ruth said. "I decided to go even though I did not really want to."

She did not sleep at all the first night of the retreat. By 4 a.m., she packed up her things and left her room in frustration, intending to go home.

"On the way out, I saw an image of Jesus with rays coming from His Heart, the Image of Divine Mercy" she said. "I felt something in my own heart. Then, I started to cry and I could not stop." Instead of leaving the retreat, she went into the chapel to pray.

That night, during Eucharistic Adoration, Ruth looked up at the Host in the Monstrance and had a personal spiritual vision. "The Host was bleeding," she said. She closed her eyes in disbelief. When she opened them again, she saw blood continuing to drip from the Host. That night, Ruth slept soundly.

Ruth continued to attend Eucharist Adoration and Mass every week. Eventually, Fausto had a conversion and starting going to Adoration and Mass with her. In the summer of 2013, they were married in the Catholic Church.

With her newfound faith, Ruth attended a healing Mass near her home in Cranbury, New Jersey. During the healing service, she said aloud, "God if you can give Sarah a child in her old age, you can give one to me!" The priest, hearing her prayer, said to her, "With all of the faith you have in God, you will conceive."

The next month, Ruth was praying to the Holy Spirit when she felt in her heart that she was pregnant. She was 43 and her husband was almost 50, but several pregnancy tests confirmed her conviction.

After an ultrasound, the doctors gave her the news that her son had Down syndrome. Though Ruth was saddened by this, she said, "I do not care. I'm going to have my child either way."

Ruth went to one final healing Mass - this time for her child. "When the priest anointed my palms and forehead with oil, I felt my baby move," she said. After the Mass, she had a dream about the Divine Mercy. "Rays were coming from His Heart," she said.

As her due date neared, she had one final ultrasound. "The doctors said that something must have been wrong with the first couple ultrasounds," she said. "They told me 'Congratulations, your son is fine.'"

In the summer of 2015, Ruth gave birth to a healthy boy whom she named Francesco, after St. Padre Pio (whose birth name was Francesco) because she prayed so often to him for her son.

"God is so good," she said.

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