My Mother Came Back Home

It is extremely challeging to write about something or someone you hold very dear in your heart and regard with great awe.

I have two mothers. One of them--the one who reared me in her womb and nurtured me tenderly into what I am now, passed away when I was barely in my teens.Before her passing at a young age of 39, she had inculcated in me all the values I would need to cope well in my life's journey.

This is about my second mother, the one who has not really left me. She is the one who keeps coming back despite me abandoning her-- or so I thought.The first mother introduced her to me. She taught me how to pray the Holy Rosary in recognition of this Mother's special role in the life of our Saviour. My mother convinced me that every decade of the Rosary is my staircase to heaven. She encouraged me to attend the NOvena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help every Wednesday.The said Novena adresses every possible human concerns and ideals from our personal needs-both temporal and spiritual-- to our role in the community as we travel with our fellow human beings, from God and back to God.In turn, I gifted my only daughter with this Novena prayer.

Neither my daughter nor I have been using the Novena prayers to our Mother of Perpetual Help. I just try to look at it and read a line or two from time to time. For years I have not attended the same novena. Life has taken on a dizzyingly fast turn, the devotion to Mother Mary was one of the precious treasures jettisoned out of my overloaded vessel. Even the Holy Rosary became too long and too repetitious to merit special time from my loaded schedule. Though in my mind, I value it as a string of roses that I can lay before the feet of her son, Jesus.

When I was a child, attending the Novena and going to church for that matter was not only pleasurable-- it was also rewarding. Our catechism teacher used to give us cards for every attendance. It has an equivalent points which the children can use to exchange with gifts on Christmas day. Besides, going to our church anytime of the day and night was a few lesiurely steps away. Our church, Saint Francis Xavier Parish Church of Nasugbu, Batangas was right in front of the house I grew up in. Our former house and the church still stand porch to porch till now, many decades later.

But my Mother--just like the first mother who I believed had stored enough prayers for us her 10 children in her short lifetime-- has not given up on me. Now she is making a very strong come back.

During the Last November 30 Christmas party of my Centering prayer group, a friend and elder in the Centering group, Agnes Chan, gifted me with the book "The LIFE of MARY" by Raphael Brown. It promises an intimate re-encounter between Mother Mary and Me. Another friend, Mayette Dolor handed me a laminated image of "Our Lady of Mary Mediatrix of all Grace. It fills up the void in my private altar in a prominent corner of my home office. Yesterday, Wednesday, December 5, I brought my daughter to her new station where she takes a convenient ride to Makati where she works. The station is located right inside the patio of the Marikina Church of the Immaculate Conception. The Holy Mass was ongoing. Right after the Mass was held the --lo and behold-- The NOvena to our Mother of Perpetual Help followed. Once again, I presented all my concerns, my dreams and everything else to my Mother. As if no time gap has separated me from my Mother.

This morning as I was mulling over writing this blog, yet another surprise from my Mother was waiting on the wings. It is an e-mail from a new-found mentor and friend, Bro. Ric de Leon, carrying the "Totus Tuus" prayer by Pope John Paul II.

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea Tua sunt.

Accipio Te in mea omnia.

Praebe mihi cor Tuum, Maria.



I am all yours, and all I have is yours.

I welcome you into all my affairs and concerns.

Show me your heart, O Mary.

¯¯¯

Totus tuus sum, Maria,

Mater nostri Redemptoris.

Virgo Dei, Virgo pia,

Mater mundi Salvatoris.



I am all yours, Mary,

Mother of our Redeemer,

Virgin of God, Holy Virgin,

Mother of the Saviour of the world.

This Divine truth I now see. My Mother, Mother Mary--introduced to me by my mother, Perla de Veas Riñoza, and God's lasting and ever precious gift, has never left me. Mother Mary has always been dwelling in my psyche, and even if I abandon her ever so often, she will keep coming back home to me in my full consciousness. For after all, she has really never left and together with her Son, Jesus, will never leave me alone.