2024 Update: A Catholic religious book that I collected and edited has a new edition - MAGNIFICAT: MAMA MARY'S PILGRIM SITES gathers 24 people's accounts of Marian sites wherein they found comfort, solace, and sometimes miracles. The pilgrim sites include familiar shrines in Lourdes, Vailankanni, Guadalupe, Fatima, Ephesus, as well as lesser known ones including several in the Philippines (Antipolo, Manaoag, Odlot, Caysasya and more). It is available from Amazon.
Don't forget the book launch of MAGNIFICAT: MAMA MARY'S PILGRIM SITES is June 30, 3 p.m. Powerbooks,Greenbelt 4. Here's a link to an article by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo that came out in today's Philippine Daily Inquirer:
"Magnificat" Stories
by M. Ceres P. Doyo
June 28, 2012, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Mama Mary. That is how she is fondly called by many Filipinos who
have a special devotion to her. Frankly, I don’t know how the name came
about or who started it. I did not hear anyone calling her Mama Mary 25
years ago. She was called The Blessed Virgin, The Blessed Mother (with
or without “The”), Mother Mary, Our Lady and Santa Maria with their
equivalents in Filipino languages and dialects, Birhen Maria among them.
As it is used now, the Mama in Mama Mary would translate as Inay or
Nanay (Mother), which is more intimate than the titular and honorific
Ina (ng Awa, or Mother of Mercy, for example). Ah, but the Bicolanos
would protest because Ina, as they refer to the Virgin of Peñafrancia,
is not merely a title but a claim, a declaration that she is their
mother.
I spent some quiet time figuring out the semantic loads of the
maternal titles used to describe Mary. I then sort of realized that Mama
Mary is a Filipino coinage. Or is it? Anthropologists, sociologists and
even the language police might know the answer.
Now most Filipino Christian Catholics (sorry, I’m not comfortable
with the word “Roman” before “Catholic”) call her Mama Mary in whatever
language or dialect they are speaking. They can’t sound more intimate
than that. The convict in prison, the penitent, the supplicant, the
prostitute, the sinner, the saintly, doting mothers, macho fathers,
irrepressible sons and daughters—you hear them whisper, cry out or
affectionately utter the name Mama Mary. How personal, like the way the
neighborhood tambay (bum) would say “bahala na si Lord” in referring to
the compassionate God next door. So, si Lord at si Mama Mary. How Pinoy.
If I am waxing Marian it is because the book “Magnificat: Mama Mary’s
Pilgrim Sites” (167 pages, published by Anvil) will be launched on
Saturday, June 30, 3 p.m., at Powerbooks in Greenbelt 4, Makati. The
book (price: P295) contains 24 essays by devotees on their experiences
in Marian pilgrim sites in the Philippines (eight in this book) and in
other countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, India,
Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the United States). Also
included are short write-ups on other international Marian pilgrim
sites. Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Tagle gave the book an
imprimatur.
The book editor, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, collected the stories.
Brainard is a writer and editor (19 books and counting) known in both
Philippine and Fil-Am communities.
The essays are varied. Many are personal. Celeste (pseudonym of a
contributor), writes about her unwed daughter who was pregnant and how
mother and daughter embarked on a spiritual journey to the Basilica of
Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. A surprise ending waits.
Linda Nietes-Little, seller and promoter of Filipiniana books in
America, writes about her pilgrimage to Fatima with her convert-husband
and ailing sister Violeta “who brought me back to Mama Mary.”
Penelope V. Flores, a professor at San Francisco State University,
writes about her visit to the Maryam Monastery in Lake Tana, Tigray,
Ethiopia. Using a local twig brush, she began painting “as if Mama Mary
told me, ‘Lose yourself. Paint my Lake Tana emanation and your canvases
will show feelings.’”
“At Maria Lanakila, Our Prayers were Heard and Answered” by Millicent
Dypiangco is about her yearning to have a child and how her prayers to
Our Lady of Maria Lanakila in Maui, Hawaii, were answered with the birth
of her daughter Miranda.
Jaime C. Laya writes about the Shrine of Our Lady of the Abandoned in
Sta. Ana Church. My own story is about Our Lady of Caysasay in the
heritage town of Taal, Batangas.
Each essay begins with a photograph of the Marian image in the
pilgrim site and basic information. The book also contains prayers for
devotees. “Magnificat” can serve as a pilgrim’s guide book and show a
path for those in search, on a journey or simply trying to find their
way home. The simple stories may hold answers to questions. The book is
by no means exhaustive but it may lead readers and writers to other
unexplored and little-known Marian sites laden with inspiring stories.
There’s a Marian site in Indonesia that I visited some years ago. It
is the Shrine of Our Lady of Sendang Sono, a “little Lourdes” tucked in a
lush, forested place outside Yogyakarta. I wish I had written about it.
Maybe next time.
The other “Magnificat” contributors are: Lucy Adao McGinley, Angelita
Caluag Cruz, Maria Ciocon, Millicent Dypiangco, Ma. Milagros T. Dumdum,
Almira Astudillo Gilles, Ma. Teresita Herrera-Tan, Fe Aida
Lacsamana-Reyes, Guia Lim, Ma. Teresa Z. Lopez, Aimee Gaboya Ortega
Lucero, Lynley Salome R. Ocampo, Ma. Cristina Padilla-Sendin, Marsha C.
Paras, Rev. Dr. Sebastian Periannan, Brian Ascalon Roley, Julia H.
Wolski, and Linda Yamamoto. Dr. Paulino Lim Jr. wrote the Introduction.
In her blurb, writer-editor Erlinda E. Panlilio says: “Running as a
leitmotif in all the essays in this book is the writers’ palpable love
for Mama Mary. Each writer has undergone a change in his or her life or
outlook following a visit to a Marian site. Some may have experienced a
‘miracle,’ or felt consoled and renewed, others a deepening
spirituality, or an epiphany, an insight into the divine. Although we
know that Jesus is the only Way to the Father, it is our belief in the
power of Mary’s intercession to her Son, borne out of the Bible’s Cana
story, that makes us all turn to Her, whom Her divine Son will never
refuse.”
Magnificat, as Mary’s prayer-song (Luke 1: 46-55) is known, is a
fitting title for this little book of praise and gratitude. Ave Maria!
Send feedback to cerespd@gmail.com or www.ceresdoyo.com
