–Matthew 6:5
A little sacrifice
by Maria Kathrina Lopez Yarza
March 5, 2012
It was Holy Week of 2006, everything dawned on me — that I was so sick, that I could not move freely that I was so weak. My eyes were so blurry; I could not chew and swallow my food properly. I was already completely deaf.
I wanted to scream: “Noooo!” I had an anxiety attack. I kept on saying, “Nababaliw ako. Nababaliw ako.” I felt like I was going insane. I felt like dying, I wanted to give up. It felt like I was just waiting for death to come after me.
What was I thinking then? I was sad, weak and couldn’t sleep. We even sought the help of a psychiatrist to help calm me down with medicines. My mom kept telling me, “Lumaban ka anak.” The good needed to reign over evil so my mom would let me hold a small crucifix and we would pray together. She posted different bible verses and prayers by my bedside so that I could read them. My brother would silently pray with us.
From then, “Nababaliw ako,” became “On Sunday, on Sunday.” They would ask me what would happen on Sunday. It was a sign of hope because I was looking forward to something even though I had no idea what it was. On that Easter Sunday, during Mass, my mom surrendered everything to God and prayed, “Lord ikaw na bahala kay Kcat. Your will be done.”
The next morning after Easter Sunday, I told my mom, “Mommy, we will get better. Gagaling na tayo!” and continuously and excitedly said, “Madami pa kong magagawa and I will do everything that I can despite of my disability.”
My mom cried with gratitude to God for the beautiful miracle that had happened. I too was so amazed because it was like magic that I went back to my old self, better and stronger.
During the season of Lent, we are given 40 days to prepare before the coming of Jesus Christ who rose from the dead for us; to be able to hope and live for a new and renewed life. We can’t rise to new life without dying within ourselves. That experience In 2006 made me face a new and wonderful life ahead which I never imagined before.
Lent is a season of soul-searching, repentance, turning away from evil and surrendering ourselves to God in mind and in heart through fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
Spiritual fasting is a personal act of devotion to God that instead of focusing our attention on food and other luxuries we can focus more on God and prayers. As the Scriptures say: “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own” (Is 58:6-7).
My friends and I chose to join our parish’ Lenten offering via Pondo ng Pinoy’s HAPAG-ASA by adopting an empty can and putting whatever amount we would save up as our Lenten offering; whatever we save from fasting, we offer it instead.
Hapag-Asa is a nutrition program that aims to alleviate extreme hunger among poor Filipino children and to improve their overall health condition through supplemental feeding program and education classes on health, nutrition and livelihood.
This Lenten season let us all sacrifice for God, share for God, pray to God and have a deeper and closer relationship with Him.
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I asked Talitha to take 1 or 2 photos of the can w/ a hand & coin and she gave me a bunch of photos. She had her photoshoot w/ the Banico sister (Katren & Batching) kaya ang dami!!! Photo Addicts!
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