The miracle of Mass for my mother's conversion

 

God has used my sufferings to save sinners -- so I was told by a prophetic man of God.

Probably, one of the concrete beneficiaries of my sufferings was my mother who lived an adulterous relationship with my father, already a married man.

My father was petitioned to immigrate to California in 1979 together with his legal wife and the first family for "greener pasture."

He would go back to the country probably every two years to be with us.

While father was away, I would talk to my mother to try to end their sinful relationship. I would tell her, it's OK to be friends with him but "no strings attached" -- meaning, no bed activities whatsoever. She agreed.

One time, he never came back for five or so years.

After 10 years of no communication, father was suddenly back.

But the tone of Ma's story was already different.

She never kept what she agreed upon.

I rebelled, somehow. Ma told Pa, I kept telling her to sever ties with him as it was sinful.

They both knew their relationship was sinful because every time they went to Mass together, they would not take Holy Communion.

Father arranged an occasion to talk to me alone and told me it would be easy for him to leave my mother, had she been unfaithful to him for all those years he had been away.

So life went on.

Later in life, there was a time I was too sick to go to Mass on a particular Sunday. God would understand. I was exempted to attend Mass on that Sunday because I was very sick. But I bargained with the Lord that should I be able to attend Mass that Sunday, He would grant my prayer-request on Monday. In short, I had been given the strength to attend Mass despite my illness because I would be granted the prayer I would be asking Him in exchange for the Mass I would attend that Sunday.

The prayer-request I chose to ask from the Lord: for my mother to confess to a priest her adulterous relationship with my father!

To cut the story short, I was able to attend Mass that Sunday.

But I was not expectant God would answer that prayer. It was enough for me it made me able to go to Mass that Sunday.

Next day was a Monday.

Mother woke up at dawn to prepare to go to church! She had not been doing that.

I did not ask why and for what.

When she returned, her eyes were swollen and reddish as if fresh from shedding tears.

"What happened to you, Ma?" I asked.

"I just went to confession!" -- she said.

I gasped.

"What did you confess?" -- I asked again, excited for her reply.

She said, "My relationship with your father!"

After that, Ma was graced by God this way: Pa's legal wife called her up via overseas call and Ma was able to ask for forgiveness -- to her and to all her children. Mama was trembling talking through the phone. She was forgiven.

Fast forward, Ma had a heart attack and was able to recover. She was able to talk still and she used that opportunity to talk to my father over the phone, to end everything with both of them. Father was only listening to everything my mother said.

And then she had a fatal stroke so that she was already unable to talk. Out of desire, she "confessed" to a visiting priest who gave her extreme unction before she died days after.

Types of visions in my experience

 

Visions, according to my personal experiences, are seen through three ways or, if I may add one, four ways: dreams during sleep, visions seen while my eyes are closed before the Blessed Sacrament, visions seen while I am conscious or in my waking state and natural impressions captured by my camera that, I learned later, have prophetic significance. Let me term the fourth way as "photo-vision" -- or prophetic vision captured through photographs.

The most common are visions seen through dreams and the most rare are visions seen while I am wide awake.

Seeing visions while I am conscious and awake are done two ways: seeing a vision with my own eyes but only I can see it (in my recollection, this kind of vision happened only once and it happened during one of my daily activities); and seeing visions through my mind's eye (this happened a number of times during Holy Masses).

There is still one way that I have difficulty putting a terminology on and this is the fifth way of seeing visions. It's as if God put into my eyes how He sees and it happened during the Holy Masses I attended way back before.

Thinking it was an angel, I was aghast to see it was the Lord Jesus!

 

I had these visions on three separate occasions I visited the Blessed Sacrament chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Obrero.

On the first day, I was seated on the carpeted floor of the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament as there were no chairs and kneelers yet provided for adorers. While my eyes were closed, a silky light green robe-wearing apparition I perceived as angel carrying an earthen jar was coming to me from the altar and poured water into my lap while I was squatting on the floor.

On the second day, there was this apparition again coming to me carrying an earthen jar -- this time, pouring water into my head but the water was laced with some garbage! Meditating over the apparition, I made up my mind to look up on my next visit to be able to see the face of an angel.

A trial was already besetting me in that church, a wealthy woman was wary on my presence although I was only attending the Mass or praying the rosary. I was like regarded a snatcher or a robber or a lunatic or a weirdo. She appeared afraid of me. She even clang or held onto her husband in fear almost crying. And I suffered because the way she perceived me was not true in reality.

On the third and final day, there came to me this apparition again -- now carrying an elongated, almost flat clam. I was all eyes every time to what the apparition was carrying. The apparition opened the clam before my sight and inside the clam were revealed full of pearls and I was awed at its beauty. There, I remembered my plan to look up and see the face of the angelic apparition. Slowly, carefully, although excited to see the face of an angel, I brought my face slowly up -- and, lo, the penetrating gaze of the Eyes of the Lord Jesus of the Sacred Heart met mine! Surprised, it was the Lord all along since Day 1; I gasped and opened my eyes!

From sprinkler to shower

Prior to the pandemic, when the new Blessed Sacrament chapel of Sta. Ana Shrine Parish was opened to the public, I had a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ when I closed my eyes before the Blessed Sacrament. There were no chairs and kneelers yet for the adorers. We just knelt on the floor before the altar of the Blessed Sacrament.

I was kneeling in the right side of the chapel and other adorers were spread on the whole floor also kneeling. When I began to close my eyes facing the Blessed Sacrament, I saw the feet of Jesus (both marked with wounds) as it was in the act of going down the altar. The wound was fresh and red yet not bleeding. I was only looking intently at His Feet and the end part of His white satin robe flowing.

When the Lord was already standing on the floor, He blessed each one present with holy water using a sprinkler like a priest does -- but when the Lord turned to me, the sprinkler became a shower and He didn't take it away from me so that I opened my eyes in astonishment and the vision ended.

Earliest vision: 3 huge pillars of smoke

One of the earliest, unforgettable visions that I saw in my dream was a vision of three huge pillars of smoke rising and swirling up to the heavens from the earth as I looked at myself standing on the earth looking to the vision amidst the immensity of the outer space.