Answer to a Simple Prayer

It really amazes me that it still amazes me how God answers prayers!  I mean, for four years now, almost 5, I've been going on missions, relying mostly on the Divine Providence of God, hoping with all that is in me that He hears my prayers, and He always does...perhaps not in the way I was thinking, sometimes it takes a while which helps me to work on my patience, but always He hears me.  Which is why I'm wondering now when I will cease to be amazed at God's unending help to me... well, maybe it is better to always be filled with awe at the loving hand of God instead of taking for granted His generous care.  Perhaps I'm on the right path after all!!

Anyways, I know I've written before about ways in which the Lord hears my prayers, but I just can't help but want to share my experiences so that you too can realize the love God has for each of us and His desire to answer all our needs if only we give Him the opportunity to do it.  So, here's my story:

Every morning we go to mass at 6am and it is always in Waray Waray, the dialect spoken here in Borongan.  I have come to know and understand the mass in this dialect, to be able to participate in the mass and sing the songs, thanks be to God!  But I always try to read the readings before going to mass so that during the Liturgy of the Word, when the readings are read, I can more fully understand and hear God speaking to me at that time.  On Wednesday, February 20th, the Gospel was about Jesus curing a blind man. (Mark 8:22-26)  The people of the village brought the man to Jesus and Jesus took him out of the village to put mud on his eyes and cure him.  Jesus had to do this twice to the man to fully cure him, and then, after the man could see again, Jesus told him to go home, but "Do not even go into the village."

Now, upon reading the last line, I was so confused.  Why would Jesus tell him to go home, but not return to his village...isn't that the same thing?  Is Jesus giving a contradiction?  Did He make a mistake or did the author of the Gospel or the translator goof up??  I was wondering about that all during mass, really thinking about it during the reading of it during mass, trying to hear if the priest would give an explanation in his homily, but he did not.  After mass, we kneel down and say a prayer of thanks to God for the mass and during my prayer, I asked God to help me to understand this Gospel.  That was my prayer, my cry out to God.  Simple...not important at all in the face of what most people cry out to God for each day...but I just trusted God, that He would help me to understand, that He cared for me enough to help me, even in this simple request.

One of our priests here in Borongan, Fr. Berto, often gives the Sisters books that have the mass readings and meditations for each day.  The book is called The Anawim Way, anawim means poor.  We haven't been given these books in a while, much to my dismay, because they are really great.  Now it is the middle of Ordinary Time, Lent starts in less than a month, so I was not expecting to receive a book at this time.  But on this day, even though Fr. Berto was not the priest who said mass, he came out of the rectory after mass to say hello to us, and he handed Sister Minerva 5 Anawim books, one of which was given to me.  Upon returning to our home, I quickly went to my room to read the meditation of the day, and there was the very answer I was crying out to God for. This is what it said:

"What can we learn from this story of the gradual healing of the blind man?  He represents us.  In our fallen nature, we are blinded by sin, unable to see rightly.  We need the grace of Jesus.  But in order to receive His grace and experience His power, we need to allow Him to lead us out of our worldly way of life and into a new way of life with God.  This does not happen all at once.  We can see, but not perfectly.  We need to come back to Jesus again and again and allow Him to touch us with His healing grace.  Jesus' counsel to the man not to go back into the village is also an instruction for us.  Once we have experienced the grace of conversion and healing which Jesus gives us, we must not return to the darkness of our former way of life.  Like the blind man, we put our trust in Jesus, allowing Him to lead us out of our worldly 'village' and we rejoice as he gradually opens our eyes to see life truly."

So, the formerly blind man must find a new home, but with new eyes open to new life in Christ, he can clearly see where to go to live in unity with his new-found faith.  And so it is with each of us.  For me, what I found in this experience was a renewed faith in God that He hears my prayers, even the simplest ones, and He answers them always according to His will.

Since Wednesday when this happened, it has been on my mind to write about it, so perhaps there is someone who needs to read this, to know that God has heard your prayer and will answer it...rest in the peace of knowing God loves you and is faithful to His promise to hear our prayers.  Cry out to Him, trust in Him for He will always be there for you, as is always is for me!!

xoxo

A Missionary's Take on Love

Love.  Somewhere along the way, I think we human beings have lost the concept of what love truly means.  We have all of these amazing examples of what true love is from Jesus, Mary and all of the saints, but somehow in the busyness and noisiness of our world, we forget them and create our own definitions of love.  “I love holidays”… “I love going to the beach”… “I love eating halo halo”  (a favorite dessert among Filipinos containing ice cream, ice, jello, beans, corn, coconut, corn flakes, and coconut milk!!)  But do you see in all of these examples that love becomes a selfish feeling? …it’s all about me.  Or perhaps it’s not that we forget the meaning of love, but that we think true love is too difficult, so we make it easy and make love all about the words, saying “I love you,” but not showing it in actions.  So love becomes an empty concept, without any meaning behind it, without any actions to support it.  But the problem is, it leaves us feeling empty, it makes us search for other ways, perhaps sinful ways, of giving us the fulfillment and satisfaction of love. 

So then, what is true love?  St. Basil the Great says “What is the mark of love?  Not to seek what is for your own benefit, but what is for the benefit for another.”  It sounds hard, and it may seem like it’s no fun, but really, when you are truly putting others before yourself an amazing thing happens…the heaviness of your own load lightens and you become filled with brightness, happiness and joyful fulfillment.  And it just makes you want to love more all of the time.  It’s the grace of truly loving, and I’ve experienced it myself in the Oikos Ptochos Tou Theou Mission.

During the last week of January and the first week of February, Borongan was graced by the presence of missionaries from all over the world giving their time, talent and treasure to the poorest of the poor in Eastern Samar.  Along with the Diocese of Borongan and the Provincial Government, the Diocese of Joliet helped the poor here in a medical and dental mission, a construction mission and an outreach mission, reaching out to thousands of people in need.  As part of the Oikos Community, I was helping with the dental mission, who gave dental care to 625 people in 8 days, working at the Provincial Hospital in Borongan, in Taft, at the prison in Dolores, at a school in 

 Calico-on and in Bato.  When Friday, February 8^th came along, and the missioners left, I was ready for a rest day…more than ready.  However, that was not to be!!  Friday became a prep day for a barrio immersion in Camantang, Can-Avid.  We packed rice and sugar for food packs to give the families, treat bags for the kids, food for dinner and lunch for the people in the barrio and prepped all of the dental equipment for our dental mission.  And so, I worked with the Oikos Sisters and the volunteers of the Oikos Mission getting ready for the two-day immersion.  Was I tired?  Yes!  Did I want to sleep? Yes!!  But when I did go to sleep that night, it was with a feeling of joy and fulfillment knowing that I gave of myself in love. 

On Saturday, February 9^th, the Oikos Mission traveled to Camantang, Can-Avid for our immersion with the people there.  It was a jam-packed two days where, as we always do, we shared our

blessings with the poor.  We have graciously received donations of clothing for men, women and children, slippers, rosaries, blankets, homemade dresses for girls, water filters and menstruation kits for women, all of which we shared with those in need.  We had catechesis with the children, bible sharing with the adults, singing sessions, a movie at night, shared meals for dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday along with a successful dental mission where we served 78 patients and gave fluoride treatments to over 90 children!!  With the help of the Vice Mayor in Can-Avid, Vilma Germino, we all had such an amazing experience sharing God’s love with  the people of Camantang, and left there with that same feeling of fulfillment, brightness, joy and happiness.  Those are the gifts of love.   Here I thought I was the one giving the love, but when I left, I found I had received more than I gave.

St. Francis of Assisi, our patron saint in Oikos, says it is better to love than to be loved.  And actually, the only way to receive love from another, whether it be your spouse, friend, family member or someone in need, is to love them first.  When you are able to see beyond yourself to the needs of another and give what is needed to them, that is love.   It is a challenge for sure, but well worth the sacrifice because of God’s endless graces to those who love truly.