Today is the feast of the Our Lady of Lourdes. This feast is to commemorate the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France on February 11, 1858 to a humble peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous, who is now St. Bernadette.
On this day also, my grandmother Julia was born in 1920. Were she alive today, she would have been 90 years old. I remember that everytime we talk about her birthday, we would tell her that she should have been named Lourdes since it was, and still is, a common Catholic practice to name a child after the saint whose feast is being celebrated on the day one was born.
Because of my grandmother, our family shared a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was particularly devoted to Mary in her title Nuestra Señora del Santissimo Rosario, La Naval de Manila, whose antique image is enshrined at the National Shrine of Our lady of the Rosary in Sto. Domingo Church. It is noteworthy to share this fact for later on it will play a significant part in my spiritual renewal.
Her children were not only sent to school to have an education but they also brought them up to the Church for moral and spiritual instructions. Thus, my mother and aunts were members of the Legion of Mary. One of my uncles entered the seminary. Although he did not become a priest, his religious education had formed his moral values to become a devoted family man.
Not only my grandmother but also my grandfather, who was a veteran of WWII, was a devotee of the Blessed Virgin. I remember my grandparents telling me their experiences how they survived the war. Undoubtedly, their faith in God was foremost why they survived and their devotion to Mary inspired them to never loose faith in the Lord. Mary for them was a special instrument sent to them for their protection. I remember the story when my grandfather had to go home from battle unnoticed by Japanese soldiers. My grandmother later told him that as she peered through their window she saw a mysterious cloaked lady escorting him to safety. My grandfather survived the infamous ‘Death March’ after the Fall of Bataan and Corrigidor because his faith was unwavering and that he had never loose hope. Amidst the stench and misery around him in the Japanese concentration camp, he prayed on clutching the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
Indeed our family had a strong affinity to the Blessed Virgin Mary inspite the fact that some among us, later on, had converted to other denomination or had become non-traditional Catholics. Yet, the respect and love for Mary remained. My aunt Purisima who became an Evangelical Christian maintained a ‘private’ devotion to Mary. Her full baptismal name Purisima Concepcion is Spanish for the Immaculate Conception to which the feast is December 8, her birthday.
The fondest memories I had as a child was the occasional gathering of our family for the praying of the Holy Rosary, oftentimes my grandmother leading the family in prayer. The ‘Block Rosary’, a movement that encourages families to pray together by bringing an image of the Virgin to stay at homes for a week within the neighborhood block, regularly visits our home. Thus, I learned to pray the rosary even before I learned how to read. I first learned to pray in English but later on, in primary school, I learned the prayers in our native tongue, Tagalog. Since the prayers were in English, I just mimicked the words without understanding what the words meant. As I grew-up I understood and meant every word of the prayers and most of all, I knew the relevance it holds to my faith.
During my years in the university, I was too engaged in intellectualism and liberal thoughts and I had no use for the spiritual. As young as I was, I searched for answers to the essential questions of life from philosophy, the social sciences to astrology. Later on, my quest for meanings had led me to other denomination; turning-away from the faith I was born into. I was into such quandary when my grandmother suddenly died in 1988. I was then a young eighteen year old who knew nothing but thinks like he knew everything.
It was not until 1991 that I was guided back to the folds of the Church through the intercession of our Lady. It was on that year in the month of May, a month dedicated to Mary, that I alone in Sto. Domingo Church, in front of the image of Nuestra Señora del Santissimo Rosario, La Naval de Manila that begun my spiritual resurrection. Since that afternoon I had a new perspective in life. I came out of that experience with much hope and optimism amidst every challenge and difficulty I encountered in life. I constantly experience God’s mercy prevails through our faith in His Son Jesus. And that Mama Mary is always helping us pray for guidance and protection.
I believe there was no accident in matters of faith. Coincidence is God’s way of making us recognize His message to us. He uses time, place, things and people around us to coincide with each other to catch our attention; to tell us that He speaks to us in the events of daily life. I know it was not mere coincidence that I was in that particular Church at a specified time in a precise area. Somehow, I believe my grandmother is still praying for us now that she is with the Lord.
In gratitude, I fulfill the annual solemn novena to Nuestra Señora del Santissimo Rosario, La Naval de Manila during October; a devotional practice handed down from my grandparents. I and two other cousins are continuing the devotion not only as a family tradition but out of genuine faith that goes beyond the external rituals. This we do, ever mindful that our expression of faith is not limited alone to prayers and piety but most of all in our work, character and relationships with others.
Let us pray,
Father God, we praise You for Your mercy. Our gratitude for You is endless. Thank You for this life we possess. Thank You for our families who love and care for us. We give You thanks for the gift of the Church to us, who teaches us Your truth.
May we ask You to see us through all the confusions and find You in every event of life.
May we hear You speaking to us daily and constantly grant us Your guidance and protection.
We pray together with Mama Mary, Our lady of Lourdes for those who seek Your mercy
to be healed of their sickness whether of body or spirit. Protect and strengthen those who labor in Your Name; those who are instruments of Your mercy. May there more respond to Your call to serve others who are in dire need; That in the end You shall be glorified forever.
We ask these in the Name of Jesus, Our Lord and Savior, together with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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