A prayer to celebrate Mama Mary's birthday!

Today, all Christian Churches, especially the Catholic, Orthodox or Eastern Churches, celebrate the Feast Day of the Blessed Virgin Mary or to us who have a special place for the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and homes… Mama Mary. Throughout the ages, Christians have always honored or venerated our Mama Mary because it is written in Scripture, in the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55 when she proclaimed, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed; the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name."

Indeed, other Christian sects completely misunderstand the role of our Mama Mary in God's salvation history. Most of them think that she was merely a vessel that God used (this is implying that God is a user!) and after our Lord Jesus was born, she was to be completely forgotten. Well, from the words in the Magnificat, God has truly looked with favor upon Mama Mary and because she said "Yes" to the Angel Gabriel, God has done great things for her and generations will call her "blessed". This alone ends all doubt that our Blessed Mother wasn't just a mere vessel that God used. She is the only person on this earth to have that singular title of "Theotokos" or Mater Dei or Mother of God. No woman in the Bible comes even close.

To help you in understanding our Mama Mary, let me tell you that I have encountered questions from non-Catholics who passionately ask, "Why do we Catholics pray to Mary when she's not omnipresent?" The answer to this question is, first of all, we Catholics do not pray to Mama Mary, we pray with her and ask her to intercede with us to her son Jesus. The problem really is that, many Christians, and this is especially true with many Catholics, still do not understand how the spirit world works. Hence, we try to bring it down to human terms, where we are subjected to space, matter and time. In the spirit world, time is of no importance.

For its March 21, 2005 issue, Time Magazine came up with a cover story entitled, "Hail Mary" where it came up with a well-researched article where it emphasized, "Christians of all denominations are finding their own reasons to venerate the mother of Jesus". This was probably the best story ever written in a mainstream magazine about our Mama Mary, that indeed, many Protestants are rediscovering her in their lives.

It is a fact that the staunchest defenders of the Blessed Virgin Mary are the former Protestants who journeyed back to the Catholic Church. My good friend, former Baptist Steve Ray is one of them and of course Dr. Scott Hahn. To celebrate Mama Mary's birthday, may we request the pious reader to please pray the Rosary and ask her to help bring peace to this nation.

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When the People's Power Revolt was new, it was easy enough for the Filipino people to go to EDSA and change our presidents and this happened to the Marcos Dictatorship and the Erap Presidency. Somehow the EDSA Revolt is acting like a car engine that needs maintenance. No matter what people like Tita Cory Aquino does, marching the streets with actress Susan Roces and the other Presidential losers like Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson or Bro. Eddie Villanueva or that obnoxious media hound, former Cabinet member Dinky Soliman, EDSA Tres just won't start!

Clearly, there are certain combustible ingredients that are sadly missing with the opposition today, unlike the EDSAs of yesteryears. The front-page photo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer shows it all… that Santita Cory's rubbing elbows with sore losers makes many of us puke! Tita Cory obviously forgot that she was in Cebu when the EDSA Revolt began and that People's Power had the blessings of the Filipino people nationwide. The opposition's and the Communists' effort to restart another EDSA even with the hallowed presence of Tita Cory is a very Metro Manila activity and it goes without saying that Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) lost badly in Metro Manila as it was an FPJ bailiwick.

So let me say it here that those who openly say in the media that there will be another People's Power Revolt have obviously misread the pulse of the Filipino people. Most of them anyway are political has-beens. What we need today is Christian unity and brotherly love, something that is sadly missing in this nation that is 86 percent Catholic. With the impeachment process behind us (at least for this year) Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ought to focus her attention on charter changes that would give this nation a shift to a better system of government because our present system is no longer working for the greater benefit of our culturally diverse people.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila's columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com