The miracle of Risa Bondoc & ‘A hundred milyon miracles’

There are everyday miracles that we hardly notice but are miracles just the same, undiminished by their anonymity. There is the miracle that takes place in a plane’s wings that keeps it airborne and gives us happy landings. There is the miracle that is the circuitry of our brain – as when your brain orders your foot to step on the brake when someone suddenly darts in front of your car. The miracle of conception. The miracle of birth. And there are the big miracles of Biblical proportions.

On Dec. 16 last year in Rome (Dec. 17 in Manila), Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a miracle attributed to Blessed Mother Eugenie, foundress of the Religious of the Assumption, which has schools in 35 countries around the globe. Marie Eugenie is expected to be canonized sometime this year.

And the miracle attributed to her intercession happened to a Filipino child in the Philippines!

According to a story in the Catholic Free Press published last Dec. 29, "The miracle attributed to Blessed Marie Eugenie concerns Risa Bondoc, who will be 12 in February, who was born in the Philippines with a condition that prevented the two halves of her brain from joining... Normally such children have very little ability to walk, talk or otherwise develop."

Risa was adopted when she was a baby by an Assumption alumna named Carmen Bondoc. Risa was about two months old when Carmen noticed the baby had a hard time focusing. Visit to specialists revealed that baby Risa had a rare brain abnormality.

In an interview in Manila with Gretchen Ocampo-Recto, who was with the group that attended the beatification of Mother Marie Eugenie in Rome in 1975, Carmen recalled that she prayed to the Assumption foundress to intercede for a miracle that would enable Risa to walk, talk and have a normal life.

"We prayed and made the novena and put Risa on Mother Marie Eugenie’s tomb (in Paris). That’s one thing, all the nuns were praying for Risa – not only in the Philippines but all over the world."

Today, the two halves of Risa’s brain have still not joined, but she walks, talks and attends school – the Assumption Convent, of course.

Continues Carmen: "In her last MRI, there was still no corpus collosum, there’s no connection between left and right brain, no corpus pellisidium. The left side of her brain is empty. Considering that, she should not be performing the way she is now.

"(But) Risa is a bubbly noisy girl who talks and talks and talks contrary to what was expected that she would not talk."

The doctors who examined Risa were amazed. They told Carmen that they have had many cases like Risa’s "but not one has come out the way she is."

No medicines were taken by Risa. She just underwent therapy and she was able to walk and talk. She also paints.

From the moment she was conceived to the day she was put in the arms of Carmen Bondoc and her husband Ditos, Risa was already a miracle. And the miracle just goes on and on.

* * *

This February, the Marie Eugenie Theater of the Assumption (METTA) under director Ana Valdes-Lim will present a play on miracles using the music of Pinky Valdes, a former Assumption teacher who is now a human resource expert based in San Francisco. The title of the play: A Hundred Milyon Miracles.

In planning for the play’s music, Pinky asked herself: "What does it take to make a miracle? My take is you need two things: it’s God’s powerful love and all the faith we can muster. When love and faith collide there is an explosion of light we call a miracle. Oftentimes, like the widow in the gospel who gave her only coins, we offer from our poverty. The audacity of hope is to know that ‘two coins’ of faith are enough because it’s all we’ve got.

"The play gambles with the question: what is a miracle? Personally, I believe that miracles are not for the few but for all. A day in God’s world is a ‘hundred million miracles’."

Inspired by the musicale Flower Drum Song, this original play is written by a team of writers from the Assumption community, Ana Valdes-Lim, Rickie Camara, with contributions from Ming Roxas, Bing Yogore, Gilbert Onida and other Assumption College faculty. The musicale features the music and lyrics of Pinky Valdes (Sandalwood and Seasons) and more. Musical arrangements by Joel Navarro, Von De Guzman, Joseph Andal, Kit De Castro, Norman Landsberg and David Hopkins.

Miracles features Pinky Valdes’ newest CD album "I See the Dawn" with new unforgettable inspiring songs by Leah Navarro and Loudette Z. Banson that will surely tug at your heart and soul.

Miracles is unique because it boasts a cast and crew of 120 people, volunteers who belong to the Assumption San Lorenzo family. Labeled an "Institutional Musicale," it is a vehicle for all community team building. Chefs, secretaries, faculty and students all perform together.

Pinky hopes that those who watch the play (show dates are Feb. 9 and 16 at 7 p.m.) at Assumption Makati, "leave the theater singing about your own everyday life: For I have seen, yes I have seen a hundred million miracles today!"

(For inquiries, call METTA at 894-2681.)

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