Way back in 1981 up to 1990, I nursed my elderly and sickly mother. She was suffering from asthma since the age of two from a freak accident ( falling in the Abra River ) while she was carried by their domestic helper. Since then, she suffered asthma attacks all her life till her death no matter how many doctors were consulted. She went to Cebu with a sibling to teach at the age of eighteen. She was a very religious woman, and so devoted to our Lady of Mount Carmel. She a had a few little prayer booklets which she prayed daily and the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was a woman so dedicated to service that even when she was sick and aged till the age of eighty, when we were in my sister's place, she'd do her chores daily. Sweeping the front yard, washing her clothes, assisting at the little sari-sari store my sister owned. Time came she could no longer do her chores. She had to rest. the family doctor diagnosed her terminally ill. Due to asthma, it was always hard for her to breath. Her coughs dry and hard made my cry to God for help. I am helpless in this case. She never complained of her sufferings, pains, and poverty. She calmly longed for heaven and eternal rest.
This made me anxious to seek the ways for her to avoid purgatory. I longed for her and me to know God more and more so we can recognize Him at the moment of death. God is so good. I found the picture of the Holy Face of Jesus from the Holy Shroud of Turin. Mama was very happy to see this.
In God's providence, I became a member of the Crusaders of the Holy Face of Jesus. I am so very to have this devotion.
Thanks God, she died a happy death on the first Tuesday of October after recieving the last sacrament and all of us, her children and grandchildren having privately ask and give her forgiveness. We gathered around her to pray the "OUR FATHER" as the priest told us. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy was never forgotten.
Seek the Face of God not only in holy pictures, but also in the face of the poor, the sick, the lonely, the brokenhearted, the sinner.
Most Holy Face of Jesus, stay with us and save us. Amen.
good to know that Lola died a happy death
ReplyDeleteHi Ate hope you could come to the National Convention of the Crusaders of the Holy Face on March 16, 2014. visit our facebook page for more info.
ReplyDeleteSister of the Holy Face of Jesus