The Second Blindness

Having been given the privilege to suffer, I became fully aware of death, as I found it difficult to breathe because the pain seemed to penetrate the marrow of my bones. The grace of God and my commitment to Mama Mary for the conversion of priests and nuns gave the courage to endure the pain I had to suffer. Yet there was always the fear that I could get deprived of the strength to endure.

September 30, 1948

Today, Mama Mary made us all very happy. Petals fell into the cells of all the Sisters.

by Tess Lopez

February 6, 2012; the people of Negros Oriental awoke to a usual morning. To many, however, this day never turned that way.  Instead, it became a terrifying memory of fear, filled with the stench of death and a dreadful encounter with mortality.

Shortly before noon, while people were going about their daily chores, the earth shook with raging anger, demolishing buildings, overturning tombstones and razing homes to the ground. Roads snapped, creating fissures on the ground. Bridges tumbled like decks of fallen cards. Mountains collapsed creating an avalanche of rocks and sand. The mud spared no one along its path, burying homes, animals and people -- many whom were never recovered.

Nuestra Señora de la Leche Y Buen Parto

by Marc Dalma

One of the less known image of the Blessed Mother, but is now gathering a growing number of devotees in the Philippines, is Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Bien Parto, translated as Our Lady of Milk and Good Delivery. Our Lady of Milk depicts the Blessed Mother breastfeeding the baby Jesus, making her virtually the patron of breastfeeding advocates in the Philippines.

The image of the Mary nursing the Child Jesus dates back in the 16^th century in the city of Madrid, Spain, where she is called Nuestra Señora de la Leche Y Buen Parto (Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery). In 1598, the image was rescued from irreverent hands and enthroned in the home of a married couple. The woman and her unborn child were bound to die and her husband prayed intently to Our Lady of the Milk to grant his wife a safe delivery.

by Josemaria Antonio "Anton" Quintos Luat

"Pueblo Amante de Maria." These are the words that describe most Filipinos. Why? It is because of the very rich Catholic background and Marian history the Philippines has since the 1500s when the Spaniards arrived up to this very day. The Filipinos love Our Blessed Mother very much and everyone knows, with no doubt, that she loves the Filipinos very much as well. Mary is a mother who would love to spoil her children! She is a mother who always stays with her children and that she will never let go, even in their darkest moments.

In the Philippines, this is very evident. Our Blessed Mother has never left and she will always be with us. Many times and up to this present day she keeps telling her Filipino children: "I am here, my children, I will hold onto you." And how has she shown it? In fact, she has always showed it...from the very beginning.

by Jovi Atanacio

Bulakeños of Obando celebrate their town fiesta from May 17-19, a joint celebration of their three (3) titular patrons -- St. Pascual Baylon, St. Clare of Assisi and Our Lady of Salambao. Each patron is invoked for a specific request -- St. Pascual is for anyone asking for a spouse; St. Clare for those looking for a sweetheart, and the Virgin, for couples begging for a child. The procession is accompanied by a prayerful dance of swaying sideways, skips and hops.

Our Lady is shown as the Immaculate Conception with her hands folded in a prayerful supplication. She stands on a net while a fisherman is shown holding a small fishnet. This depiction relates the story of how her image was discovered and how she came to be known as Birhen Salambao - a title which means "Our Lady in a net."

by Jovi Atanacio

In 1571, November 30, observed as the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, the first mass in Cainta was celebrated. As such, the town’s parish was referred to as San Andres de Apostol de Cainta during the Spanish time. This date has since become the official founding of Cainta and the start of the Christianization of the lakeshore towns bordering Laguna de Bay.

Cainta's first evangelizer, Fray Alfonso de Alvarado, OSA, also planted the seeds of Catholicism in the towns of Pasig, Taytay and Bay. A small chapel of wood and nipa branches became the central place of worship of the Cainteños.

by Peter I. Galace

The Blessed Virgin Mary has been appearing to a Filipino visionary in Pagadian City, the capital of Zamboanga del Sur province in Mindanao island, in the Philippines. Even as 30-year old Jeffrey D. Lumbay recently entered a Franciscan Monastery to pursue a religious life, reports say Our Lady continues to appear to him with important messages to the country and the world.

According to Loretta Lasola Lluch, one of those chronicling Lumbay’s life, Our Lady first appeared to Jeffrey when he was just 7 years old, and a few times at his house, and twice at the rooftop of a chapel in St. Columban High School, where he studied. When he reached 18, Our Lady asked him to help spread her messages. When Jeffrey refused, he developed painful and itchy ulcers that would not heal. Only when he relented that he got healed and shortly thereafter, he began his mission of spreading Our Lady’s messages.

By Denise S. Mañosa

I have always believed in miracles, and after my personal experiences, I truly believe that miracles are there everyday for the asking.

THE BACKGROUND

My story begins in 2002. I was diagnosed with uterine cancer stage 1b. On Feb. 12, 2011, I was operated on and had a total hysterectomy.  The good news was that there were no cancer cells found outside the uterus so I did not need chemotherapy, but the bad news was that the doctors told me that I needed to have radiation therapy to ensure that no microscopic cancer cells that were not visible to the eye remained.  Although I had my doubts on what they would radiate, since my uterus and both ovaries had already been removed, I complied with the advice of my two doctors, who told me that this was the protocol for Stage 1 cancer.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

by Ramon A. Pedrosa

(Also called Stations of the Cross, Via Crucis, and Via Dolorosa).

It is no idle tradition which asserts that the Blessed Mother  used to visit daily the scenes of her Son's passion and death. The Way of the Cross then is the closest we shall ever get to joining Our Blessed Mother on her own passion and suffering as she experiences for us the pain of the piercing sword that Simeon at the Temple prophesied of her. The best way to follow Our Lord’s injunction to take up our Cross is to follow the example of  the Blessed Mother in her own Via Dolorosa.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!

Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!

To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;

to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping

in this valley of tears.

Turn, then, O most gracious Advocate,

by Ramón A. Pedrosa

The Stand of a Catholic before Religious Phenomena

As you may know, every heavenly apparition or happening on earth brings with it controversy, enmity, hostility, even separation. This we know. It has been foretold. She comes to crush the head of the serpent, and the coiled serpent will strike at her and her children. It is the very first prophesy, the protoprofesía,in Genesis. And She whose coming was foretold has come. She is with us.  And the Archfiend.  He strikes at Her and at us, her children. But She will crush his head.

This we saw at Fatima, and at Lourdes, in Medjugorje, even in our own Lipa. And the rose petals certainly are no exception. Friends have become envious of one another. Assertions and accusations have been hurled back and forth. Miracle! Fake! Manufactured! Preternatural! Even, demonic!

by Rafael M. Villongco

On November 12, 2009, a major development in the history of Marian apparitions occurred. Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles of Lipa issued an official decree overturning the negative verdict on the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Lipa, Batangas province, 1948.

If the Lipa apparitions will be declared of supernatural character, Lipa may join the ranks of the other approved major apparitions such as Guadalupe, La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima, Pontmain, Beauraing and Banneux, as well as the more recent Akita, Betania, Cuapa, Amsterdam, and Kibeho.