His transformative love
Adriana and Guadalupe Resendiz of St. William Parish in Montague with their children, Angel Gabriel, Karen Guadalupe, Alexis Emmanuel, Dulce Maria, and Nicole Adriana.(NTC/Thomas Otto)
"Faith is precisely this: not the colossal effort of reaching a supernatural God, but rather, welcoming Jesus into our lives, the discovery that God’s face is not distant from our hearts.” — Pope Leo XIV
Love’s transformative power shines brightly in the Resendiz family of St. William Parish in Montague, where Adriana and Guadalupe share with their five children a boundless love of God first encountered through their matrimonial union and deepened by His continued presence in their lives.
HOW THEY MET: Orphaned at a young age, Guadalupe Resendiz moved to Texas at the age of 10 to live with his sister. In high school, he excelled in weightlifting, track, and football. When a knee injury prevented him from joining the Marines after graduation, he pursued a career in boxing, which culminated in a Golden Gloves championship in Fort Worth in 1999. Not long after the win, Guadalupe met Adriana, who had recently arrived in Nocona from her native Guanajuato, Mexico.
With their relationship established, “I found such a peace that everything about sports, about boxing, all that, was left behind,” Guadalupe said.
A NEW FOUNDATION FOR FAITH: The two cradle Catholics prepared for marriage at the nearby parish, St. William. They credit the marriage preparation at the parish as the catalyst for their shift from a passive faith to active participation in the church community.
Adriana said, “From when we got married onward, we started to get more involved here in the church.”
BLESSED TO WED: Guadalupe and Adriana were married at St. William on Aug. 14, 2004.
“When we look back, we see that God has always been there, helping us, and even now, thanks to God, I feel very blessed,” Guadalupe said.
WHOLE AGAIN: Reflecting back, Guadalupe considered how he had always been “looking for something” since his youth. For a while, sports helped fill the hole: “I thought I could expel that need that I felt.” However, “when I had my own family, and when I encountered God, grew closer to Him, I began to know His love. I finally felt fulfilled as I experienced love, the true and pure love of God.”
AN ENCUENTRO: About two years into their marriage, the couple attended an Encuentro retreat.
“It was there where we had an encounter with God, an encounter with Jesus, where from then on we fell in love as a couple, I feel that we also fell in love with God.”
After the retreat, Guadalupe “found peace” and his understanding of service transformed. “Everything has been different and now we serve God, we serve God with love, with desire, with enthusiasm.”
COMMUNITY OF FAITH: Although the Resendiz family resides in Nocona, which has its own Catholic church, they travel to St. William, the nearest parish offering Mass in Spanish.
According to the U.S. Census, Montague has fewer than 240 residents, while Nocona has nearly 3,000.
While the numbers may read as quite small, the community’s love for the faith is immense.
With the posadas, “we celebrate and visit each other’s homes,” Adriana shared. “We also pray the Rosary to the Virgin the evening before December 12. As a community, we unite, and it is very beautiful.”
The close-knit parish creates opportunities for togetherness. Often, after a Rosary, they will share a chocolatitio or other treats.
LOVE TO SHARE: “We fell very much in love with the ways of God and from there, we have tried to instill in our children the graces that come from God and the Holy Rosary,” Adriana said.
Praying the Rosary is a daily practice for the family. As their children grew, they began to take more active roles in leading the prayers.
The Resendiz family also places great value on sharing their faith through service. “We are in love with God and that is what we are instilling in our children,” Guadalupe said.
As well as teaching catechism, confirmation, and adult formation classes, Guadalupe and Adriana have served at the parish as acolytes, Eucharistic ministers, and organizers of Hispanic traditions. They emphasize to their children that “for God, even in the smallest ways, there is service to Him.”
Each child actively serves at the parish, from helping with money collection or teaching catechism to serving as altar servers, collecting the offering, or lighting candles.
GIFTS OF GOD: It had always been in their plan to have four children. However, “it was God, our Lord, who said, ‘Four? No, it will be five,’” Adriana said. “He has the last word.”
Their children’s names reflect their devotion: the eldest named after the Angel Gabriel; the second, Karen Guadalupe, after Our Lady of Guadalupe like her father; the third, Alexis Emmanuel – “God is with us”; the fourth, Dulce Maria, after the Blessed Mother; and the fifth, Nicole Adriana, a gift from God, named after Guadalupe’s mother, Nicole, and Adriana’s mother, Nicolasa.
Their children’s names provided a starting point for the two to teach their children about the lives of the saints.
GO FORWARD: Love and activity in the faith “is very easy to cool off as it is very easy to stay home,” Adriana said. “But we have to keep going forward to be in love with Christ, and we must not let the love be extinguished.”