This beautiful letter came to me from Catherine Llanto, whose e-mail address is ayeneelay ku@yahoo.com. I hesitated to print it because it says such kind things about “Mama Mary and Her Children”, and my name is on that book.
But I did not write it, really. The book is a collection of true stories, told very simply by real people, about their heart warming experiences with Mama Mary. So here are excerpts from Catherine’s letter:
“I am a young mother with two beautiful children. Your book, ‘Mama Mary and Her Children’, has revived my devotion to her and reminded me how she has touched my life with her grace and compassion.
“I believe that my finding the book in the mishmash of National Bookstore was no coincidence. I have been looking for the book to buy for a month now, and nothing spoke to me quite as strongly as yours did, even if it was displayed sideways with a very narrow half an inch width that is barely perceptible when put beside the gigantic hardbound books. I was very surprised when I saw that it was printed only this year.
“I do pray that your book and it’s sequel reach Marian devotees everywhere, and rekindle in them the grace and love that Our Lady has always shown us. Please pray for my family, especially my husband, a true-blue Atenean, who has always loved Mama Mary and is in need of her guidance more than ever.
“Thank you for publishing such a moving and straightforward, unpretentious book. It has touched me deeply, and rickety though this signpost may be, it is nonetheless successful on pointing me back to God through the Blessed Mother.”
The lady in white
This came from Ephraim E. Echano, in Naga City. His wife Lhil heard it directly from the lips of the woman concerned:
“The lady said that her brother and his wife were killed in a car accident. While she was on her way to attend the funeral, the bus she was riding in suddenly had engine trouble. The bus driver told them to transfer to another bus.
“Because she was so preoccupied with the thoughts of who would take care of her late brother’s children, she didn’t notice that she was the only one left in the bus.
“And because of her deep sorrow, she even failed to notice a kindly lady dressed in white, wearing rope-tied sandals, who patted her shoulder, comforted her and said: ‘Just don’t worry about your serious problem. It’s better that we pray in church in order to obtain for you the graces you need to care for the problems ahead.’
“She said that she and the lady left the bus and went to the church, which was just around the corner. Inside the church she cried and cried while embracing the statue of the dead, wounded Jesus, locally called hinulid.
“Seeing her grief, the lady in white added more comforting words: ‘Don’t worry, I will help you. Just pray’. With these words, she felt as if a thorn had been removed from her breast and heart. But when she got up to thank the lady, she was no longer around.
“After the internment and burial of her brother and his wife, she and the couple’s eight surviving little children, had to look for a residence to rent on Igualdad Street in Naga City. They found a little house inside of which, to her surprise, was a calendar with a picture of the Virgin Mary, the same lady in white who patted her shoulders and accompanied her to church.
“After that, she really had a problem, taking care of the eight children of her deceased brother. She could not depend on anything else other than the assurance given her by the lady in white that she should not worry. But if you have strong faith in God and in His mother, nothing is impossible, because they have a way of making things happen. They provided the eight children with special talents, so that each one of them was able to obtain a scholarship grant!
“I tell this story to strengthen our faith in God and in His mother. They are with us in our everyday life, ready to help us in our needs if we sincerely pray.”
Barefoot doctors
Thirty-six of the 45 tribal natives, now training at Our Lady of Peace Hospital on the Coastal Road, are women! Our Lady of Peace Mission has trained natives of 135 tribes in the basics of medicine.
Our Lady of Peace Mission is planning a permanent training center for the tribal natives, in which they will teach administration, how to set up a local government, how to organize a school, how to grow productive crops that can be sold in the market, how to run fish ponds and farms for chickens and livestock.
This will bring the tribes into the mainstream of civilization and Filipino culture.