MARY'S MIRACLE
May is a month dedicated to Mary, our Mother, and so I write
some thoughts about her.
I have to admit that there was a time in my life that I did
not accept Catholic teachings about Mary. Although I was educated in a Catholic
school ran by religious men devoted to Mary, I did not pray the rosary (unless
I was required) and took for granted Mary’s role in the Church. To me, a
devotion to Mary was non-essential and the rosary was a dull and ineffective
way of prayer.
All of that changed a few years ago while I was traveling
back home from a business trip.
A year before that my youngest daughter, then six years old,
gave me a gift for my birthday. It was a small rosary made out of ten beads
laced with a string with a small cross made of woven grass. My youngest child loved giving us small gifts
on special occasions, so I kept it in my backpack, not knowing that someday I’d
be using it.
That day came when having nothing else to turn to; I took
the small rosary and prayed.
A huge wooden locker fell over Marjorie at school, pinning
her down on the floor. I was somewhere in Bukidnon on my way home to Davao when
my wife called me and told me that she was rushing to Ateneo because Marjorie
got into an accident and told me that a locker fell on her. That was all the information I got from my
wife.
I could imagine the locker and I knew that these big school
lockers were made of wood and they were heavy. I could not explain the feeling
I had that day. I wanted to fly and if only I could I would be right there with
them at that moment, but I could not. I was totally helpless. I could not do
anything. Realizing that, I felt tears in my eyes and called upon the Lord for
help.
I remembered the small rosary in my backpack. I reached out
for it. It was all tangled and I held it in my hand and fervently prayed the
Rosary. I remembered asking our Holy Mother to intercede. I prayed my Hail
Mary’s, perhaps to calm myself down at first, but deep inside me I was asking
for help. That is all I could do at that moment.
An hour later, my wife called and told me that they were
already at the hospital getting the x-rays. Although Marjorie was pale and in
pain, but she was out of harms way.
Marjorie was playing with her classmates during their recess.
Their game involved clinging onto the wooden locker. Perhaps the combined
weight of all of the children forced the locker to fall. Apparently, only
Marjorie failed to react on time to get out of the way of the falling
locker. Her angels were there that day
as one of the doors of the locker opened up as it fell, sparing Marjorie from
the full force of the fall. Had that door not opened, her injuries would have
been worse.
I believed that the Holy Mother protected her that day. It
is hard for me to explain and rationalize this belief.
But the other miracle for me is that my entire view of Mary
has changed that day. Somehow it opened my mind to see what is it about Mary
that the Catholic Church gives her a special place in the history of
Christianity. My experience of Mary’s
intercession has given her a special place in my heart.
Praying the Rosary and adoration of Mary for her important
role in the Church is something that we cannot just set aside. Non-Catholics
and some Catholics perhaps would find that hard to understand, but I think that
a devotion to Mary is something to be experienced in order for us to
understand.
Comments
Post a Comment