CEBU, Philippines - It has been three days since Pope Francis left the Philippines but Annaliza Jonson-Caing, a pilgrim from Leyte, is still stunned by the experience and considers every moment leading to the day she met the pope as a miracle.
“Magically, everything fell into place,” said Caing, who is now based in Cebu.
She did not only get to see the pope in person, a once in a lifetime event itself, but the pontiff grabbed the flowers that she was waving when the Catholic leader passed by during the Tacloban motorcade.
“I did not realize that the Pope got the flowers from my hand. The people near me shouted and touched my hand because the Pope touched my hand when he grabbed the flowers from me as the motorcade was done. It was something I could not believe that happened,” she enthusiastically said.
The flowers, she continued, was picked up from a fallen bunch near the altar.
“I did not prepare the flowers. I only picked it up from the floor. I saw it and said to myself ‘what a waste that these flowers are lying on the floor.’ So I picked it up. I did not really plan to wave and give it to the Pope. It was something so spontaneous. I just waved it to call the attention of the Pope so that he will bless me and the rosaries that I was bringing,” she added.
While she initially intended to keep the experience to herself, her moment with the Pope was captured by a photographer and was posted online by ANC news channel.
“Family members and friends were telling me to take a selfie with the Pope. I said, ‘no! this is a personal journey. I will keep my experience to myself.’ But since, naunhan na ko sa ANC, maybe God is sending me a message to share the blessing that I received,” Caing said.
What happened, for her, was total healing from all the struggles that she and her family has gone through.
She and her family survived super typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban.
Caing admitted that meeting the Pope last Saturday somewhat concluded her long-time journey.
“I must admit that I am in a spiritual journey right now. I attended different churches in search for answers to my questions,” recalled Caing, who added that she is still in “euphoria” a few days after the mass at the Tacloban airport.
The favorable circumstances that led to seeing Pope Francis in person, she recounted, started last December.
“I finished the nine-day misa de gallo. I have never done that before but I did it. I did not know why but I just woke up during the first day. I did not know which church to go because we are just new in Tipolo (Mandaue). I only saw a sea of people and asked them where they were going. When they told me they were going to the Aguinaldo mass, I went with them. That was where I found the church for me,” Caing said, referring to the San Roque parish in Subangdaku, Mandaue City.
Since the tradition of finishing the nine-day early morning mass ‘entitles’ one wish, Caing said she wished to see Pope Francis since the apostolic visit was already confirmed then.
It was a friend of her husband, Dr. Dino Caing (who heads the Department of Health-7 Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit), that led to the “answer.”
Despite the stormy weather in both Tacloban and Palo following public storm warning signal number 2, she endured being soaked as this is nothing compared to the chance of seeing the pontiff in the flesh. — (FREEMAN)