A happy birthday to our Mama Mary!

Today is the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. In her Magnificat, our Mama Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.” This is the title she called upon her lowliness, which tells us that humility is indeed a great virtue.

But we already know that our Blessed Mother has so many titles, amongst them are, Queen of Heaven, the Ark of the New Covenant, Our Lady of Lourdes, our Lady of Fatima, the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, and the most famous for us in the Philippines is Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Please don’t forget that the Blessed Mother also called herself, Our Lady of Mediatrix of All Graces when she first appeared on Sept. 12, 1948 in Carmel to Sister Teresing Castillo. Since July 2004, Sept. 12 has been the “National Day of Pilgrimage to Lipa and a Day of Prayer for World Peace and Sanctification of Priests.”

Call me blessed that last Thursday, we motored to Lipa upon the invitation of Archbishop Ramon Argüelles to see the shrine of the Apparition of our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces. I’ve been to Lipa twice before, but it was the first time for me to make a pilgrimage visit, and what blessings we got because Archbishop Arguelles told the sisters in Carmel to allow me to get inside their cloistered area where the Blessed Mother appeared 64 years ago.

In truth, I never thought that I would be in Lipa last Thursday. I came to Manila upon the invitation of SKAL Club Makati president Robert “Bobby” Joseph to grace their 31st anniversary in conjunction with the 22nd Tourism Personality Awards night at the New World Hotel. I will talk about this in our Tuesday column. But when I learned that my return flight to Cebu was still at 6 p.m. Thursday, I texted Archbishop Argüelles if he would be in Lipa, he fired back a text inviting me to lunch.

Mind you, my article last Thursday about the prophesy of our Blessed Virgin Mary in Lipa about China’s designs for the Philippines was mere coincidence for I really wasn’t planning to go to Lipa. But somehow, by the grace of our Mama Mary, she willed me to go and visit her apparition site.

Call it a special blessing that we had lunch with many friends of Archbishop Argüelles, amongst them Msgr. Alfredo Madlangbayan, parish priest of Taal, who gave me a pamphlet about the Our Lady of Caysasay in Taal, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in 1603 as the Immaculate Conception. This apparition precedes the apparition in Lourdes to St. Bernadette Soubirous. Honestly, it was the first time I heard this story and it is worth looking into, after all our Blessed Mother loves our country and our people.

Also at the luncheon was Mrs. Nora Ilagan who wrote a book “God Speaks to a Filipina” published by The James Reuter, S.J. Foundations. Mrs. Ilagan gave me a copy of her volume VII and reading it… I learned that she had interior locution from our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Mother. While I barely read the book… you can see that it doesn’t oppose any of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

While in Lipa, Archbishop Argüelles gave me a copy of a request from the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) through Presidential Adviser Sec. Teresita Quintos Deles asking Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Archbishop Jose Palma for special prayers for peace as the whole nation observes the National Peace Consciousness Month or Peace Month in September. All I can say about this is Sec. Deles should ask her friends from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to observe peace in September. But for prayers, we in the Lay community are already doing this. But then the Communists do not believe in prayer as they have thrown God out of their consciousness.

If you didn’t know, this coming Wednesday Sept. 12 is the Feast of the Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces in Lipa and as I already pointed out, a National Day of Prayer for World Peace. All that the CBCP would do is adopt this date, so Malacañang can’t say that the CBCP did not respond to their request. On the contrary, the Archdiocese in Lipa is already doing it.

You may want to know how I came to be friends with Archbishop Argüelles? It is because of many of our meetings against the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. Yes, as a staunch Catholic orthodox columnist, I count on the clergy as my readers. But I do have friends from other faiths who are Pro-Life. One of them is Pastor Arthur Corpuz of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP). In fact, he texted me a message why they are against the RH Bill, unfortunately, it arrived just as I was about to close this piece. I will just have to reprint that text message in our columns next week.

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