“AMEN: BLESSINGS AND THANKSGIVING!

CELEBRATING THE 75 YEARS OF THE BACLARAN NOVENA”

Sharing My Reflection

(Sister Marivic V. Flores, MPS)



Hail Mary, Sisters! It was truly a special gift from the Lord to be able to participate as one of the delegates of the Baclaran Pilgrimage Congress last June 23-25, 2023 at the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Together with the many devotees and missionaries (devo-missionaries) of our Mother of Perpetual Help, it was an opportunity for me to make known to our Blessed Mother and to all her other children my great love for her.

On the third day of the Congress, honored and blessed at the same time to be part of a panel of participants on the third day, let me share with you here the words that my heart spoke at that sacred moment.

Good morning everyone! For those who don’t know MPS yet, it stands for Missionaries of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a religious congregation founded in 1934 by a Redemptorist priest from Spain, Fr. Agustin Nistal Garcia along with a Mexican catechist who eventually became its first Superior, Mo. Maria Teresa Rivera Carrillo. We just completed our 40 years of missionary presence in the Philippines last year (2022) and in January this year, we were formed as an Asia Region together with our communities in Macau and India.

I believe that with our very name, having Our Lady of Perpetual Help as the titular and Patroness, every member of our Congregation has the duty to spread the devotion to our Mother of Perpetual Help. So, what are my particular experiences of making our Mother known in order to make known her Son Jesus, Perpetual Help?

Let me share it with you with the help of the acronym “Ho-Co-Ho” that stood out in my reflection.

The first Ho means the word HONOR.

Three months ago, my beloved mother passed away and as I try to cope with the grief and loss, I choose to continually honor her by living the values ​​she had taught me. This idea of ​​HONOR reminded me of my experience in Mexico in 2016, when I was part of the 150th Anniversary Commission for Making the Icon Known for our MSP. There were two MPS and two Redemptorists on this Commission that planned the three-day National Congress. Tasks were distributed and apart from the four of us, along with other Redemptorists to give lectures on the Icon, the team leader assigned me to preach at the closing Mass. That was the first time that the Redemptorists in Mexico allowed someone other than a priest to preach at the Mass. Of course, that was too big a challenge for me. I tried to prepare well for the Congress. Everything was going to be in Spanish and that made me more nervous. For the closing Mass, the Provincial Superior asked that we (along with the other MPS sister on the Commission) join the entrance procession and sit next to them at the altar.

As the mass continued and the Liturgy of the Word approached, I could feel my heart beating faster. Well, that time I tried to calm myself down, and as I looked at the large assembly in the Church, members of the Confraternity of Our Mother of Perpetual Help from its different parishes in Mexico, seminarians, sisters, and active collaborators. I took a deep breath and said to myself. I will offer this to my 3 mothers: my beloved mother, my homeland, and of course my Mother of Perpetual Help. Being far away from my country and being the only Filipino in that gathering, I believed that for many of them it was the first time they met a Filipino. I would honor my country by giving my best. I would give my best for the love of my mother whom I loved and missed so much and of course, I would give my best with all the graces that God was giving me for the love of Mary, our Mother of Perpetual Help, for whom we had gathered at that very moment to celebrate and make her known. I believe that nothing was in vain with the love and dedication that I have put there, since one of the priests came to me after mass and asked for a copy of my reflection so that he could include it along with all the materials given as contributions in the conferences. He even commented as he said in Spanish: “It was very good and all.” In the same way, as MPS, by making her known in our life, presence and apostolates, we honor not only Mama Mary but our Founding Father, Fr. Agustín Nistal García, CSsR who gave the name Mother of Perpetual Help to our Congregation. We also honor the God who called us to be part of this religious family. And if we do our best, we also honor the people we serve.

The second part of the acronym is Co which stands for “Heart.”

We are able to make our Mother of Perpetual Help known by serving the people from the heart. It is being able to imagine ourselves in the shoes of others who approach her to ask the Lord for his favors. In other words, it is with compassion and mercy that I must approach the person or people to whom I wish to present the Perpetual Help of Mary.

For this purpose, it would be good to recall my missionary experiences here at the Shrine. I was fortunate to serve here as Shrine Coordinator not just once, but twice. After more than ten years in vocation and formation ministry, I asked my Superior to give me a break and be kind enough to assign me to another apostolate. When I was asked which apostolate I would like to be assigned to, I told him that since the National Shrine of Perpetual Help is very significant to my vocational history, I want to have an experience here.

The first time was between 2008 and 2010. Brother Manuel mentioned that on our first day of this Congress, the Baclaran Church, including the outside grounds on Wednesdays, especially the first Wednesdays, were packed with people. We have a saying in Filipino “di mahulugang karayom” which when literally translated is “could not drop the needle” but actually means too crowded. I have seen that. It is overwhelming. The love and devotion of the people for Mary was truly inspiring and challenging at the same time. The long and numerous queues of people for Holy Communion were unbelievable. On Ash Wednesdays, people seemed endless, they started arriving from very early in the morning until very late at night. I experienced giving ashes until late at night. Even though we were already tired, we were touched to find still many people coming with the need to be blessed and to encounter the Lord.

My second experience of working here at the Shrine was during the peaks of the pandemic when at one point the situation got worse and the government ordered the closure of all churches, something that had never been imagined to happen in our Shrine as it has always been open 24 by 7. This particular situation happened during Holy Week that we placed the Altar of Repose at the Entrance of the Church so that people outside the closed door could at least catch a glimpse of the Blessed Sacrament even from afar.

Little by little, churches were allowed to open their doors, but with protocols to be strictly followed, such as the use of a mask and a face shield. While the face is covered, it is only through the eyes that one can see and somehow feel the heart of the other. Every time I gave communion to these people with a mask and a face shield, knowing that despite the possibility of getting infected, especially in those times when vaccines were not yet available, every time I said the words “the Body of Christ” I felt God’s great mercy for those people, I knew that the more they wanted to receive Him, the more He wanted to dwell in them… and I witnessed that indescribable love between the Lover and the Beloved. I think that, in some way, in that seemingly simple but very profound experience, it was like Mary, our Mother in the icon, giving us and showing us her Son.

Heart symbolizes the love for me that pushes me to serve without counting the cost. My missionary dynamism came from the heart. And let me go to the last part of the acronym, the last Ho….

Home. The Shrine is my home, because my mother resides here and I am convinced that she is always waiting for me. I can always go to her at any time. This was very true for me when I was sent to have my apostolate here. The Shrine was never a place of work for me, but always a home, in which I cooperate to keep it as a beautiful home for the Lord, for our Blessed Mother and for all her children.

HOME also means Making our Mother of Perpetual Help known, making everyone feel at home, that we are indeed brothers and sisters in the Lord and our Mother of Perpetual Help. However, whether in the Shrine or not, we make her known by helping people to trust that they have a Mother who guides them, protects them, and teaches them to “do whatever the Lord tells you.”

A specific and recent spread of the devotion to our Mother of Perpetual Help, with a HOME attitude, is the increase in the number and quality of our MILAPS. In 2020, we had only three lay missionaries, then they became 8 in 2021 and 11 in December 2022. Making them feel at home is sharing with them our same charism and spirituality. We can find in our Constitutions: “We live the virtues of openness, welcoming attitude, respect and hospitality as part of our prophetic witness that today's world demands of our religious life. “Our convents may not be as large as those of other Congregations, but our lay missionaries know that it is their home.

To name the effects of this living devotion, I can say that for me it is an experience of awe, of being challenged, reminded, taught to realize a revelation of God and to have a deeper relationship with Him. For others, I can say and see that they gain a desire to grow more in their spiritual life/prayer life, a desire to serve more (MILAPS), developing that openness to God's will for them and eventually become co-propagators of the devotion.

May our love for Mary grow ever deeper and stronger as we experience her constant companionship on our journey toward full union with her Son Jesus, our Lord and Redeemer.