One fine sunny day with our own little miracle.

It's always good to start the day on a positive note. Then your song will be on key all day long and at bedtime, you'd be whistling as you turn the lights off.

One fine sunny Sunday, I drove my co-navigator, La Veya, (Vicky) to her Zumba class and on my way home, I stopped by our local church, the San Andres Apostol, to say a prayer to the visiting Image of the Blessed Virgin Mother, the Our Lady of Piat. 

Then a little miracle happened. 

Our Lady of Piat, enshrined at the San Andres Apostol Church, May 16 - 18, 2014

Our Lady of Piat came visiting our Church all the way from the northern province of Cagayan, a valley. I'd been to Cagayan many years ago. It is a lovely place - clean and charming, but very hot. These summer days, it's temperature hovers between 32 - 39 degrees Celsius.

Our Lady of Piat, a bronzed image of Our Blessed Mother carries in her arms the image of the infant Jesus. She is said to have originated from Macau.

ORIGINS. 
"The itinerary of the Blessed Image of Our Lady of Piat started in Macau from where it was brought to Manila in 1604. Its first home was the convent of the Santo Domingo in Intramuros.  From Manila she was taken to Nueva Segovia (now Lal-lo) to aid in the evangelization of the Itawes region, covering the towns of Tabang, Malaweg, Tuau (now Tuao) and Piat until it was brought to and stayed on Piat for five years.

No description of the image is given by any of the historians, though it is often mentioned that is "of talla (sculpture)" made from paper-masche. Eventually the image was taken to Piat, and erected on a side altar. It was not long when the people felt special manifestations of divine favors through Our Lady. Their love and devotion to Our Lady had grown with the years, and attachment to her image bordered fanaticism. This was clearly seen when Fr. Juan de Santa Ana sent the same image to Tuguegarao in 1622 and ordered another one more beautiful from Manila to replace the image.

In no time, the people rose up in public protest and asked to the point of insistence that the original image be returned to them. Knowing the peculiar character of the people, Fr. de Santa Ana finally gave in, and the image was brought back amid great rejoicing of the people. There arose, however, a dispute between the people of Piat and Tuao as to where the sanctuary should be constructed. Happily, solomonic solution was found, and it was agreed to have the sanctuary built between Piat and Tuao."

BASILICA MINORE. 
The lady is enthroned at the Basilica Minore Nuestra Senora de Piat which was recognized as a shrine by the Vatican on June 22, 1999.   It celebrates its feast every July 2 wherein the Lady is drawn for a procession.

The Basilica Minore Nuestra Senora de Piat in Piat, Cagayan.

Today, Our Lady of Piat is considered one of the oldest Marian images in the Philippines. On June 20, 1954, in a ceremony led by papal delegate Egidio Vagnozzi, she was named “Queen of Heaven and Earth.” The Ibanags call her “Yena Tam Ngamin” (Mother of Us All) and to the natives of Piat, Cagayan, she is known as “Apo Baket” (Grand Matriarch). Many miracles had been attributed to her.

On that fine Sunday morning as La Veya emerged from her Zumba class, she passed by the San Andres Apostol Church to buy souvenir items of the Lady. There were just two images of the Lady remaining, and she didn't have enough money in her coin purse. The cost of the image was 350 pesos.

She implored the Manang (lady vendor) to reserve one for her and that she'd come back for the payment later that day.

About the same time, another church worker came out of the church from  rosary prayers, saw her and told her how she felt a prompting to go home.  This church worker had bought a T-shirt uniform weeks earlier from her and had not paid yet. So when the church worker saw La Veya, she immediately said she'd go to her house to get the money. The cost of the T-shirt: 350 pesos.

La Veya was able to buy the image of Our Lady of Piat, who was scheduled to return home to Piat in Cagayan that evening of Sunday.

In the early afternoon on our way to run errands, we passed by the church again to bid Our Lady of Piat our last farewell.

ADIEU Our Dear Mother, Our Lady of Piat.

Be safe on your journey home and grant us safety, too, in the journeys of our lives.

The Holy Week Drill.

A cousin of mine travels from the East Coast of the U.S.A to the Philippines every year just to tend to his family's Santo, the Santa Magdalena, in its participation in Holy Week rituals.

Santa Magdalena (Mary Magdalene) has been with his family for maybe ninety years or so. The other Santo in our family, Santa Veronica, should also be the same age as Magdalene.

The Santo which is now under our care, another Saint Magdalene, has been in the family of its original Bustos-based clan for over forty years. The family's old Saint Magdalene was gutted by fire in the 70's.

Our local church's Holy Week procession was held for three days this year as in other years past.  It was held on Holy Wednesday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

This year, the local church's Patron Saint, San Andres Apostol, had been assigned to the Biblical Apostolate committee. It meant taking care of the carrozza (carriage), its decoration and management of the image in all the processions.

San Andres Apostol during the Holy Wednesday procession 

The Gospel of John states that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, whose testimony first led him, and another unnamed disciple of John the Baptist, to follow Jesus. Andrew at once recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and hastened to introduce him to his brother. Hence forth, the two brothers were disciples of Christ. On a subsequent occasion, prior to the final call to the Apostolate, they were called to a closer companionship, and then they left all things to follow Jesus.

Fr. Vic Flores, Parish Priest of San Andres Apostol Parish, blesses the Image before the procession

Andrew was close to Jesus. He was the one who told Jesus about the boy with the loaves and fishes (John 6:8), with Philip told Jesus about the Greeks seeking Him, and was present at the Last Supper.

Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras (Patræ) in Achaea, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese.  Early texts, such as the Acts of Andrew known to Gregory of Tours describe Andrew as bound, not nailed, to a Latin cross of the kind on which Jesus is said to have been crucified; yet a tradition developed that Andrew had been crucified on a cross of the form called Crux decussata  (X-shaped cross, or "saltire"), now commonly known as a " Saint Andrew's cross" — supposedly at his own request, as he deemed himself unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus had been."

"The familiar iconography of his martyrdom, showing the apostle bound to an X-shaped cross, does not seem to have been standardized before the later Middle Ages,"  Judith Calvert concluded after re-examining the materials studied by Louis Réau.

Andrew preached in Scythia. The Chronicle of Nestor adds that he preached along the Black Sea and the Dnieper river as far as Kiev, and from there he traveled to Novrogon.  Hence, he became a patron saint of Ukraine, Romania and Russia. According to tradition, he founded the See of Byzntium, (Constantinople) in AD 38, installing Stachys as bishop.

According to Hippolytus of Rome,  he preached in Thrace, and his presence in Byzantium is also mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Andrew, written in the 2nd century; Basil of Seleucia  also knew of Apostle Andrew's mission in Thrace, as well as Scythia and Achaia. This diocese would later develop into the Patriarchate of Constantionople. Andrew is recognized as its patron saint.

Early Easter Procession after the Philippine Catholic rite of Salubong, where the images of the Risen Christ and the Virgin Mary meet up at dawn

Neighbourhood Crusade.

In their effort to curb crimes, barangays and village groups in the Philippines have had watch crime groups established in their neighbourhoods.  In Toronto, Canada there are even sticker/badges you place in your main door signifying that you're an active neighbourhood crime watcher.

In another kind of neighbourhood watch, one aimed to promote peace through prayers, rosary crusades had been promoted by Catholic neighbourhoods in the Philippines and all over the world.

Yesterday morning, Oct. 6th, our Parish Church, the San Andres Apostol, held a dawn procession honouring The Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Manaoag.  

Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag (Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario de Manaoag)  is a 17th-century Roman Catholic ivory image of the Blessed Virgin Mary placed in the high altar of a shrine in Manaoag, Pangasinan. Under that invocation, Mary the mother of Jesus is locally venerated as the patroness of the town and is often referred to in both the Pangasinense and Ilocano dialect as Apo Baket (English: "Venerable Madam").

The 6 a.m. mass celebrated after the procession by Fr. Vic Flores was held in honour of the Blessed Mother,  St. Josemarie Escriva who founded the Opus Dei, and the BEC organization which brings the Divine Mercy and Our Lady of Fatima - into the homes  of Greenwoods residents.

Let's all together promote peace through prayers.