Marian devotion is quite new to me. I didn't understand why Catholics honor her. In the point-of-view of non-catholics, Catholics idolize her, pray to her, worship her. I am a Catholic but I wasn't educated in a Catholic school so I didn't understand the "technicalities", not until college anyway. Let's just say I had a Protestant foundation of faith. I believe in Jesus Christ but not so much of the saints, sacraments, etc. Maybe because when I was younger, I went to a protestant church. I think it was not until high school that I attended a catholic mass.

The other day was the feast of the Immaculate Conception (December8). UST had a grand celebration! After all, the former name of the school was Colegio de Santisimo Rosario. About 20,000 students and faculty members took part on what was dubbed as UST's Largest Living Rosary as an honor given to Mary, the lady of the Holy Rosary, and at the same time an attempt to break into the Guiness Book of World Record. The original schedule of that event was supposed to be during the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October8) but due to "unpredictable weather", it was postponed.

As I mentioned earlier, I was pretty skeptic about Marian devotion, praying the rosary, offering to saints, etc. I remember my catechism teacher told us that we give honor to the Holy Mother because Jesus as her son will be happy if people honored her mother, that rosaries are supposed to be giving flowers to Mother Mary, scapulars are supposed to be ropes that will help you get into heaven, the Holy Eucharist was supposed to serve as sort of "glow in the dark" during your journey to death. Part of me considered those as just shenanigans. For me, accepting Jesus Christ as you savior was enough.

As I spend my time here in the Royal, Pontifical, CATHOLIC, University of Santo Tomas (400 years of unending grace! :)) , slowly I was able to understand why our faith has all these what I considered as shenanigans before. (yes, I do listen in my theology classes! :)) But the turning point would have to be when the image of Our Lady of La Naval came to our school. Let me tell you the story:

That day, I was feeling really down because I was having a hard time in school, I felt tired, homesick, angry at myself for choosing such a demanding course, lonely, depressed, in short, there was burden deep inside my heart. I felt like I couldn't do it anymore- be away from my family, memorize all those muscles and bones, understand the complexities of organic chem, lead my groupmates in all our activities, etc. Let's just say it was a point in my life that I felt really down- a disappointment to myself. On my way back to my dormitory, just after an exhausting day at the laboratory, I don't know why there was something urging me to visit the church. It was like the air are urging my feet to go in that direction. It was something different for me since I am not a very religious person. When I went inside the church, a mass in honor of the Our Lady of La Naval had just ended it was during the feast of the Holy Rosary. And people where going near the image and touching it. So, naki-uso naman ako. haha! I went near the image and touched it, and prayed. I ask help that my burdens might be lightened, that I may be guided in my studies, and etc. (And based on my 1st sem grades it seemed like the Holy Mother indeed listened to my prayers coz i was able to pass with flying colors eventhough I thought that there wasn't any chance:)).

So now, I realized that yeah, there isn't anything wrong with praying while touching the images, etc., because if it helps you pour your heart out then it might be a good thing. Images are there to remind us that God is within our reach for we humans are sensory beings. So starting today, I'm bringing my rosary with me in my bag. Just to remind me that God is ALWAYS with me-through thick and thin. :)