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At long last, I have finished the promised prayer page for Kriztin, who is now battling with cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. I also dedicate this page to other people out there who may be afflicted with other illness or experiencing life troubles. So I hope you visit the Prayer for Faith&Healing page and feel free to comment and even contribute some short prayers or words of encouragement, which hopefully would touch not just Kriztin, but other people as well, in gaining more strength to overcome their personal battles.

I am not being godly. I admit I am not even a devout Catholic and I don’t hear the mass regularly especially during Sundays. Though I try to read the Bible more often again, including inspirational books and life stories, and I do my own private novenas to St. Jude and Mother of Perpetual Help (which in many times I don’t finish ’til the 9th day). Nevertheless, I have strong faith in God and I always feel this special bond with Him specially during times of worries and problems. Many friends before tried to convince me to join other Christian religions, but I couldn’t. Despite my lapses, I still got my strong affinity to the Catholic Church, which I think I got from my childhood having spent it with my Ninang Sion (actually a lola since she was my parent’s wedding sponsor) - a very devout Catholic woman. A dressmaker to many priests and seminarians, she would always bring me along to most of her church activities, including nightly rosary at the church, CWL meetings, processions, etc. In many occasions, I was the only child there among those old,er, matured devotees. I even joined the Legion of Mary until highschool where we were required to pray the rosary every week and report weekly activities, i.e., how many times we attended the mass, visited the sick, confessions, etc. Ironic, I still use my prayer guide when I pray the rosary coz up to now I haven’t memorized the Hail, Holy Queen (Aba po santa maria hari, ina ng awa…hay, hanggang dun lang ako.). I even joined the church choir, hehe, even if I don’t have the voice coz the choir leader is my Ninang Sion’s niece - but it was shortlived, I realized soon enough that I didn’t belong there.

With my upbringing as a Catholic, hence my first ambition was to become a nun, which obviously didn’t happen. Hehe, just looking back I couldn’t imagine myself wearing those sacred habits. Anyways, even if I lost that Catholic devoutness, I always believed that religion is a special relationship with God, no matter how conventional it is or not. So it doesn’t matter which church or religion you belong. I have this never ending belief that with God, everything is possible. I have strong faith in Him, though sometimes I feel the nerves when throngs of problems are pounding me. But in all times, God never faltered to prove that He is with me, making me stronger with all the challenges, and that all the tribulations He’s bringing would come to pass and would be answered in the right time. In most times I visit the Adoration Chapel for solitude and search the Bible for all the answers and assurance that I need. When I was in college, I made this sort of covenant to read two verses every night until I finished the whole new testament. It was a big feat for me but after I finished reading, I had a deeper insight on how to deal with life and stronger faith so I highly recommend this to everyone.

I personally marvel at stories of triumph, especially with miracles and overcoming troubles and sickness with strong faith. So I really admire Kriztin and Frederick for such belief in the absolute power of God. When I think of them, it hits me back to reality that my problems are petty compared to Kriztin’s battle against cancer, yet their faith is much bigger than mine. When I see the poverty of my neighbors, who, despite their shanty house and tattered clothes, can still manage to smile and laugh heartily, it makes me ashamed of complaining sometimes about my life and not being contented with the material things that I have.

Prayer and strong faith have high healing powers, not just for a disease-striken body, but more so for a shattered spirit. We have our own battles and we can’t measure the infinite power of God. But as have pointed out by Jesus in Matthew 17:20, “…I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” So instead on focusing to our own doubts, problems and afflictions, shouldn’t we instead pay more attention on growing our mustard seed of FAITH? Then our personal healing would surely follow, right? I myself should better start this process.

Lastly, I wish to share with you this story I got from Philstar.com’s Daily Bread column dated 24 November 2007:

Not Why, But Who

While appearing on a panel with other bereaved parents, I was surprised at how much I learned by listening. We were there to help a group of chaplains minister to the grieving, but we ended up learning from one another.

One mom, who had lost her infant daughter to meningitis, shared a simple truth that touched me. She related that as she tried to work through the huge question of “Why!” she spoke to her dad about it. He told her that a better question to ask is “Who?” He explained that she may never know why her daughter was taken so early, but the help she needed most would come from pursuing who God is in this tragic situation.

Think of what this means to us in our difficulties, When we face unexpected grief and ask “Who?” we get this answer: “The Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3). When we face a period of weakness, we discover that “the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer” (Ps. 18:2). When the ungodliness of this world seems overwhelming, we can know that the “God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:20).

When “Why, God?” is on your heart, ask instead, “Who are You, God?” Then seek Him in His Word. — Dave Branon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each anxious, puzzled “why,”

From doubt or dread that grows

Finds answer in this thought:

I know not, but He knows. — Flint

               

Related posts:

God Is Never Too Far Off

The Lord is My Shepherd

Prayer for Faith & Healing

Beauty of LIFE

Got a Problem? No Problem - Read the Bible

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Healthy Life, Inspirationals, Life Challenges . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.