INA’s Miracles

It is certainly great news that as we celebrate the 300^th year of our devotion to Ina, Our Lady of Peñafrancia, we hear about the miraculous healing of our very own Archbishop Leonard Z. Legaspi. Indeed, we trust that his present remission from lung cancer would be a permanent cure. And we continue to pray for his good health.

For sure, each one of us has our own stories to tell of Ina's little miracles in our daily lives. Yes, miracles do not have to be earthshaking. Being touched in whatever way by Ina's loving care even in the most mundane of things is more than enough miracle.

For my part, a miracle I attribute to Ina is the healing of unexplainable knee pains that I had to endure as a child and well into my college days. But the one and only time I was able to join Ina's fluvial procession as one of her image bearers, I prayed to her in the pagoda to take away those knee pains. Days and months passed, and I realized my knees didn't hurt anymore. To this day, my knees have remained good.

More importantly, I am most grateful that I was privileged to have been able to write the book "Ina and the Bikol People: a Journey of Faith." This was Fr. Wilmer Tria's "world class" coffee-table book project that the Archdiocese of Caceres published in 2002. This is the book that commemorated the trilogy of big events: Golden Anniversary of the Archdiocese of Caceres in 1999, Jubilee Year 2000, and 75^th Year of the Canonical Coronation of Ina as Patroness of Bicolandia in 2001. Copies of this book may still be ordered from Ina nin Bikol Foundation, Inc. (IBFI) at http://inafoundation.org

So, too, it was the miracle of Ina's devotees who supported and bought copies of this coffee-table book that also led to the creation of the IBFI. IBFI's vision is to create a social environment in Bikol which is conducive to human development. Its threefold mission is the promotion of the gospel values, the promotion of social justice and development, and the empowerment of the people.

Through its many projects led by Fr. Tria, IBFI works to achieving these miracles: that every Bikolano is able to translate faith and religiosity to a sense of responsibility and common good; that every Bikolano family has Mary as its model of hope, patience and endurance; that every Bikolano understands his or her rights as God's creation and respects the rights of others; that every Bikolano has access to education as tool to alleviating poverty; and that every Bikolano is healthy in mind and body to better serve Bikol.

The tercentary of our devotion to Ina gives us once more the opportunity not only to ask for miracles, but more importantly, work to realize our own miracles for our people. After all-