Home Again!

I went to Manila again last April 13, 2019, this time with my husband Lucas. We spent the holy week observance in Manila with my daughter Martha. She had a four day break from work. Most people in Manila went out of town, to the beach, to the province or abroad for the long break. But this year, I decided to be in Manila, rather than for Martha to come home to Cotabato because I was going to see my dentist for a tooth capping before the holiday and undergo a left eye cataract procedure after.

During the Holy Thursday observance, my husband Lucas, my daughter Martha, my sister Theng, my brother Ollie and his wife Solan and and I went visiting different churches in Metro Manila. We began at Santuario de San Jose in San Juan, proceeded to Sacred Heart Church, to the Pink Sister's Chapel at New Manila, to the nearby Mount Carmel Church, and lastly to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cubao, - 5 churches in all. That night, there were plentiful of people doing the visita iglesias. Some like us, visited the transferred  repository; others were doing their way of the cross, others the rosary perhaps. That night, some churches opened up several confessional services to their faithfuls. There were lines of people patiently waiting for their turns. There were so many pilgrims. I was amazed at the throng of believers. I am pretty sure my Lord knows us by our names. He will certainly bless us for our faith. And by the way, I would like to mention that Santuario de San Jose had the most beautiful repository of all. We stayed there longer for the vigil and I made some personal prayers inside, I hope St. Joseph will intercede and bring my petitions to the Lord our God. I promise to go back. I will wait for the Lord to perform many miracles yet. Remember me and remember us, O Lord!

During the remaining holidays, we watched home movies at my sister Helen's place. Helen who walks with two canes now, has put up a big tv and a movie entertainment gadget at her home. To include her in our holy week activities, we watched old academy award movies at her place such as "Song of Bernadette", "Jesus Christ Superstar" a rock musical; and "Fiddler on the Roof". They were beautiful movies.

On Easter Sunday, I suggested a house warming event at Ollie's new place. We brought pot luck dinner. I cooked native chicken adobo and streamed fish with Chinese herbs. Helen brought pork liempo, Theng brought hofan and Solan ordered many delicious dishes from Mannhann. They were all yum-yummy. I also brought my maids to cleanup after dinner. After dinner though, we watched another home movie picture at Ollie's new residence. Ollie had a new television set and Martha used her netflix to scroll down for entertainment. We watched "Operation Finale" a movie about the capture of nazi's head Adolf Eichmann by the Mossad agents. It was an interesting movie but Theng fell asleep and so did Lucas. Hahaha!

 After the holy week, I prepared myself for my cataract procedure. It was a good thing I had the "best doctor" at American Eye. My cataract procedure took longer than usual because my eye was not responding to the medicine drops. It was not dilating so Doctor James Lee had to manually dilate it. My husband Lucas was my companion but he was outside the operating room. Yet with him around, I felt safe and wholly confident, although I was really really scared and nervous inside. During the procedure, I knew something was not right, so I kept on praying...."Heal me Lord and I shall be whole, save me and I shall be safe. In you I hope." In you I trust. I prayed the Hail Mary, reiterating "....pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death....pray for us sinners, now.....". I repeated the guardian angel prayer several times too.... .And then....... thank God it was over.

Thank God, the doctor did well. Everything was good. When I reached home, I felt exhausted and slept the whole day at home, waking up every two hours for the eye drops and back to sleep again. I also went to sleep the next day too. Lucas watched over me while I slept. He woke me up for meal time and my eye drops too. I was so glad he was with me. I would be lost without him. Thank God, all is well and that I am back home to Cotabato and blogging about it right now. Thank you God, so very very much!!!