Miracle births through Our Lady of the Milk

For a family who loves to travel, I waited 50 years to bring 16 family members and friends to the Holy Land in this last month of the Year of Faith. This blessing bestowed on us to experience holy sites in eight days is truly life changing.

Jesus became more real, and the Holy Bible more important. Eight days seemed short, but we were able to cover most of the important aspects of His life — from the Annunciation in Nazareth, to the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Presentation at the Temple, the Baptism at the Jordan River, the First Miracle at Cana, His ministry around the Sea of Galilee, the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, the Multiplication in Tabgha, the Mount of Beatitudes, the Garden of Gethsemane, to the Via Dolorosa, Holy Sepulchre and the Ascension. And a lot more in between!

We were so blessed not to line up for more than 15 minutes while the others had to wait for two hours. Could it be the prayers from our two priests, Fr. Gerard Deveza and Fr. Joey Rapadas? Or the excellent planning of Vered Hasharon, especially our guide Ronen, and our driver Saher? Golden Bear president Tess Arvisu also helped plan our trip via El Al (which, according to Ronen, means God of the Skies).

While there is so much to share, let me start by borrowing the reflections of Fr. Joey who gave us this homily in the beautiful chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Here is a portion of his reflection for the November 3 gospel on the sycamore tree, which we also visited in Jericho, the world’s oldest city:

Allow me to offer the fruits of my reflection straight from my actual visit to Jericho. Three things: On seeking the Lord, on climbing our sycamore tree, and on rediscovering the joy of believing.

• Seeking the Lord.  Anyone who listens attentively to his heart’s yearnings will recognize, among a complex web of desires, his hidden longing for God.  In today’s gospel reading (Lk 19:1-10), Zacchaeus, described as a tax collector and a wealthy man, found himself seeking the Lord. He was probably in possession of what the world had to offer him, but still deep within him lurked either, at the least, a curiosity about Jesus or, at most, a nudging longing to meet and know Jesus. Despite the well-off socio-economic stature that he enjoyed, Zacchaeus was obviously restless. Maybe Jesus represented what would finally give him serenity and joy.

• Climbing our sycamore trees. This refers to our positive commitment to overcome the obstacles of a genuine encounter with the Lord. What hinders us in our search for God? What makes our encounter with God difficult or even close to impossible? Zacchaeus knew what, for him, was the obstacle to seeing the Lord. He was too short to see the Lord as He passed by through the crowd. With great humility, he accepted his predicament and, throwing caution to the air, he climbed the sycamore tree to overcome his handicap.

• The joy of believing.  Once we overcome the hindrances to faith by climbing our own sycamore trees, we discover, maybe as a surprise, that it is not only us who seek God. It is God who first seeks us and intends to stay with us.  Zacchaeus was really surprised that Jesus, instead of passing by, looked up to him perched on a branch of the sycamore tree and instructed him: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly for today I must stay at your house” (v. 5). He came down quickly and “received him with joy” (v. 6).

Our last and seventh daily Mass in the Holy Land couldn’t be better. It was a fitting summary to the full week we  spent together as pilgrims. Incidentally, Fr. Joey maintains a blog of his Sunday Gospel reflections at prizedpearl.blogspot.com.

One Bethlehem site, which was relatively empty compared to the rest, was the Milk Grotto, which is only a few minutes’ walk from the Church of Nativity.  The grotto, with a Franciscan chapel built above it, is considered sacred because the Holy Family took refuge there before their flight into Egypt to escape King Herod’s slaughter of the innocent firstborns. It is said that while Mary was nursing Jesus, a drop of milk fell to the ground, turning the cave white.

Franciscan Brother Lawrence Bode from New York is the church’s devoted caretaker. He said they have received thousands of thank- you letters from infertile women who gave birth to children after praying the daily devotion to “Our Lady of the Milk.” For nine days, husbands and wives are asked to pray together the third of the joyful mysteries of the rosary, meditating on the birth of the Lord Jesus, then drink water or milk mixed with a speckle of the powder.

The grotto is at least 2,000 years old, but the early Christians came to pray here when the first structure was built over it around 385. To prevent pilgrims from scraping the limestone, the Franciscans began preparing small packets of the limestone powder for a small donation of $2 (soda is at least $3 in Israel).  They scrape the powder from a section of the grotto that is off-limits to pilgrims. He said they have a lot to last for years.

He asked us where we were from. When we chimed “the Philippines” he pointed out to some framed testimonials from our country. Several walls are full of photographs of many little babies. The walls of evidence of the power of the “White Stone of Miracles” sing gratitude from new parents and their families. The letters are from different countries, but all include a photo of their gift from the Virgin Mary, the face of a long-awaited baby.

One such Philippine testimonial came from Rommel of Sarangani province. They joined a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Europe in 2000 after two miscarriages, the last one being only three months before their trip. They shared their frustration with their Muslim guide who excitedly told them that his wife just called to say she is pregnant after her devotion to the Our Lady of the Milk. They were barren for eight years and had two unsuccessful IVFs. Rommel and his wife skipped the Mass at the Church of Nativity to be able to visit the Milk Grotto. She was declared pregnant in October and gave birth to a baby boy!

Moved by the testimonials, I asked our Catholic driver Saher is he believes in the miracles. He asked me if I didn’t read his testimonial on the wall. He told me they were childless for seven years and had spent $50,000 in fertility clinics. Then they tried the devotion and was blessed with a baby girl plus two more children after that. Such blessings!

For a lot of people, the Milk Grotto is their sycamore tree. “The joy is immense,” Bro. Lawrence said. “When you have faith, you can move mountains.”

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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph or mylenedayrit@gmail.com.