Book Review - Finding God: True Stories of Spriritual Encounters

Book review of "Finding God" BY ALLEN GABORRO (Philippine News, November 20, 2009)
TITLE: Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters
Edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Ysip Orosa
PUBLISHER: Anvil Publishing (Manila)
158 pages
nonfiction
Distributed in the US by palhbooks.com, email palhbooks@gmail.com
http://www.palhbooks.com/cbrainardfg.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters” is a righteous anthology of works that focus on the mark that God has made on the book‘s writers. A total of 18 pieces have been contributed to “Finding God” which was put together and edited by author Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and book publisher Marily Ysip Orosa.

Their publication is timely, depending of course on how you would identify yourself as either a religious person, an agnostic, or as a non-believer. The book attempts to fill the void between Christian ideals and the confounding reality of our modern, secular existence by trying to inspire its reading audience into realizing a closer, more personal relationship with God. And in a time when Filipinos and Filipino Americans are ever-mindful of the pressing demands of the temporal world, “Finding God” seeks to rebrand humanity with God’s fullness and grace.

At the risk of sounding evangelistic, Brainard and Orosa have touted their anthology as nothing less than “God’s book” and that they were “His tools” in the creation of that book. A little melodramatic perhaps, but that is not to say that the true believing reader will not feel God’s presence throughout the pages of “Finding God.” In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the editors have indisputably attributed the conception and the production of the book to God himself.

“Finding God” finds unity in diversity as it respects the authors’ individualism and the awareness that they share something in common that is very sublime and transcendent. That something is their Christian faith and it is the glue that holds all of the book’s contributors together. Brainard and Orosa apply that faith to create a consensus of spirituality out of a collection of people who, judging from the multiplicity of their backgrounds, may not agree at all on other issues.

Foremost among the stories in “Finding God” is the anthology’s very first one, titled “Losing God” by Mila D. Aguilar. To understand Aguilar’s essay, one need look no further than her life both as a young girl and then later, as a political revolutionary. As a young girl, Aguilar determined that God did not exist, that “there was no God, that he was but a figment of man’s imagination.” Her first-hand look at poverty in the Philippines caused Aguilar to conflate the deprivation she saw with the nonexistence of God. Consequently, her mindset acknowledged no other philosophy other than atheism and communism “as the ultimate solution to social inequality.”

The images of Aguilar’s arrest and incarceration in 1984 by Ferdinand Marcos’s security forces are filled with tension, drama, and danger. Surviving her imprisonment becomes tenuous at one point, as one of her interrogators implies that her days on earth are numbered. Ironically it is at this point that Aguilar, the atheistic revolutionary, refers her fate to a divinity in her moment of impending doom: “If that is what God wills…I was as ready to die or be butchered.” Aguilar eventually finds her way to God after her release from prison following the downfall of the Marcos regime.

A spiritual being can easily find divine inspiration in the collection’s narratives for “Finding God” reverently depicts the vital spirituality that colors its assortment of stories. However, a principally secular humanist and rationalist—there are far more of them among Filipinos and Filipino Americans than one might think—would take issue with this. The book is to the Filipino Christian faithful what a prayer meeting is to a gathering of devoted attendees. “Finding God” conveys a message that is totally commensurate with the Christian worldview and ethos, but one that is also at variance with any model of critical discussion. In this sense, Brainard’s and Orosa’s publication is a microcosm of Christianity’s immutable version of compassionate conservatism and pathos.

With seemingly intricate candor, “Finding God” tries to do justice to the completeness of God by posing an interchange between the spiritual lives and faith of its contributors and those who choose to closely consider the moral and historical contradictions that surround the Christian religion. By doing so, the book’s editors deliver a spiritually sobering yet uplifting message of faith that some readers will embrace and others will take with a grain of salt.

ALLEN GABORRO

FINDING GOD WINS PRESTIGIOUS GINTONG AKLAT AWARD FOR 2009

I just learned from Marily Orosa that the anthology we edited, Finding God True Stories of Spiritual Encounters, won the prestigious GINTONG AKLAT AWARD FOR 2009. This award is given by the BDAP (Book Development Association of the Philippines. Book entries are judged for all-around excellence, and are subjected to close scrutiny by three professional panels in book manufacture and design, writing and editing.

I'm waiting for the details from Marily, but here's information about the book again:

Published by Anvil Publishing, Inc. Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters is a collection of 18 essays about people’s true-to-life experiences of encountering God. Contributors have written honestly about their spiritual encounter after the death of a family member, or illness of self or of family members, or infidelity of a spouse, or difficulties with family members. Others write of experiencing God’s presence during childbirth, in school, during a zen-moment, and during pilgrimages to Lourdes and Medjugorje. The experiences are varied; some writers are Catholics, some are Born-Again Christians. Eleven of the contributors are based in the United States, while seven are based in the Philippines. The book thus provides a Filipino and Filipino American points of view.

Contributors are: Mila D. Aguilar, Raquel Villavicencio Balagtas, M.G. Bertulfo, Susan Evangelista, M. Evelina Galang, Evelyn Regner Seno, Tony Robles, Edgar Poma, Aileen Ibardaloza, Paulino Lim, Jr., Brian Ascalon Roley, Marlinda Angbetic Tan, Lisa B. Martinez, Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, C. Sophia Ibardaloza, Reme A. Grefalda. Cecilia and Marily also have essays in the book.

Blurbs:
There is one thing I am sure of, and it is that God will never do anything that is bad for us. Our puny minds often cannot understand how all our sufferings can be good for us, but if we look back at our lives, we see how everything eventually works out well in the end. This is the faith that underlies the essays in this book. It is a simple faith, but a profound one.
Isagani R. Cruz, Philippine Star

My father confessor once told me, that at times one would not be able to see God's plan until one looks back or partake in the experience of others. This book, a collection of narratives on finding God will surely uplift our faith as we learn from the experience of others.
Jocelyn B. Gerra,Ph.D, OPL, ( Lay Dominican), Executive Director, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc.

Finding God on earth, next to entering heaven in eternal life is, to my mind, the greatest gift one can experience.I know that not everyone can be aware that he or she is finding God at
precisely the moment this experience is happening, but all the contributors are to be envied, for finding God can be such an awesome moment whether it happens when one is in great physical pain or in deep spiritual anguish. I am privileged to write one of the blurbs of a book being dedicated to the memory of my dear friend, Jose de Santos Orosa, who taught me what forgiveness is all about.
Josefina T. Lichuaco, columnist, former Secretary of the Department of
Transportation and Communications

BOOK REVIEW: "Finding God" BY ALLEN GABORRO (Philippine News, November 20, 2009)
TITLE: Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters
Edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Ysip Orosa
PUBLISHER: Anvil Publishing (Manila)
158 pages, nonfiction
Distributed in the US by palhbooks.com, email palhbooks@gmail.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters” is a righteous anthology of works that focus on the mark that God has made on the book‘s writers. A total of 18 pieces have been contributed to “Finding God” which was put together and edited by author Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and book publisher Marily Ysip Orosa.

Their publication is timely, depending of course on how you would identify yourself as either a religious person, an agnostic, or as a non-believer. The book attempts to fill the void between Christian ideals and the confounding reality of our modern, secular existence by trying to inspire its reading audience into realizing a closer, more personal relationship with God. And in a time when Filipinos and Filipino Americans are ever-mindful of the pressing demands of the temporal world, “Finding God” seeks to rebrand humanity with God’s fullness and grace.

At the risk of sounding evangelistic, Brainard and Orosa have touted their anthology as nothing less than “God’s book” and that they were “His tools” in the creation of that book. A little melodramatic perhaps, but that is not to say that the true believing reader will not feel God’s presence throughout the pages of “Finding God.” In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the editors have indisputably attributed the conception and the production of the book to God himself.

“Finding God” finds unity in diversity as it respects the authors’ individualism and the awareness that they share something in common that is very sublime and transcendent. That something is their Christian faith and it is the glue that holds all of the book’s contributors together. Brainard and Orosa apply that faith to create a consensus of spirituality out of a collection of people who, judging from the multiplicity of their backgrounds, may not agree at all on other issues.

Foremost among the stories in “Finding God” is the anthology’s very first one, titled “Losing God” by Mila D. Aguilar. To understand Aguilar’s essay, one need look no further than her life both as a young girl and then later, as a political revolutionary. As a young girl, Aguilar determined that God did not exist, that “there was no God, that he was but a figment of man’s imagination.” Her first-hand look at poverty in the Philippines caused Aguilar to conflate the deprivation she saw with the nonexistence of God. Consequently, her mindset acknowledged no other philosophy other than atheism and communism “as the ultimate solution to social inequality.”

The images of Aguilar’s arrest and incarceration in 1984 by Ferdinand Marcos’s security forces are filled with tension, drama, and danger. Surviving her imprisonment becomes tenuous at one point, as one of her interrogators implies that her days on earth are numbered. Ironically it is at this point that Aguilar, the atheistic revolutionary, refers her fate to a divinity in her moment of impending doom: “If that is what God wills…I was as ready to die or be butchered.” Aguilar eventually finds her way to God after her release from prison following the downfall of the Marcos regime.

A spiritual being can easily find divine inspiration in the collection’s narratives for “Finding God” reverently depicts the vital spirituality that colors its assortment of stories. However, a principally secular humanist and rationalist—there are far more of them among Filipinos and Filipino Americans than one might think—would take issue with this. The book is to the Filipino Christian faithful what a prayer meeting is to a gathering of devoted attendees. “Finding God” conveys a message that is totally commensurate with the Christian worldview and ethos, but one that is also at variance with any model of critical discussion. In this sense, Brainard’s and Orosa’s publication is a microcosm of Christianity’s immutable version of compassionate conservatism and pathos.

With seemingly intricate candor, “Finding God” tries to do justice to the completeness of God by posing an interchange between the spiritual lives and faith of its contributors and those who choose to closely consider the moral and historical contradictions that surround the Christian religion. By doing so, the book’s editors deliver a spiritually sobering yet uplifting message of faith that some readers will embrace and others will take with a grain of salt.

For more information, please visit the book's site: http://www.palhbooks.com/cbrainardfg.html

World Literature Review of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's Magdalena

MAGDALENA by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard published by Plain View Press Austin, Texas. Plain View. 2002. 164 pages.ISBN 1-891386-29-8 Philippine Edition of Magdalena, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2016 Available in eBook from from Kindle

 Review by World Literature Today
Copyright 2003 by World Literature Today

World Literature Today, April-June 2003 v77 i1 p100(2)

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. Magdalena. Book Review by Kathleen Flanagan.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2003 University of Oklahoma

CECILIA MANGUERRA BRAINARD'S novel Magdalena takes its title from a protagonist descended from several generations of equally compelling female characters. Brainard's earlier novel When the Rainbow Goddess Wept (1994) employed the viewpoint of an adolescent girl to recount the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II. With Magdalena Brainard uses a nonlinear narrative and multiple points of view to describe the history of the Philippines that roughly corresponds to its contact with the United States from the Spanish-American War to the war in Vietnam. Magdalena begins and ends with the perspective of Juana, daughter of the title character and her American lover (a POW in Vietnam), who is herself pregnant and curious about her family history. Letters, diaries, and narratives from numerous characters help Juana reconstruct her maternal and, to a lesser extent, paternal lineage.

Book Review: Growing Up Filipino:Stories for Young Adults, Ed. Cecilia Brainard, Reviewed by Booklist

Booklist, April 15, 2003 v99 i16 p1462(1) 

Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults. (Book Review)_(book review) Frances Bradburn.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2003 American Library Association
Ed. by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. Apr. 2003. 283p. PALH, paper, (0-9719458-0-2).
Gr. 9-12.
Available in eBook form from Kindle

In this fine short-story collection, 29 Filipino American writers explore the universal challenges of adolescence from the unique perspectives of teens in the Philippines or in the U.S. Organized into five sections--Family, Angst, Friendship, Love, and Home--all the stories are about growing up and what the introduction calls "growing into Filipino-ness, growing with Filipinos, and growing in or growing away from the Philippines." The stories are introduced by the authors, who illustrate the teenage experience as they remember it or as they wish to explain it to the reader--whether the focus is the death of a grandparent, budding sexuality, or going to the mall. The cultural flavor aspect never overwhelms the stories, and readers will be drawn to the particulars as well as the universal concerns of family, friends, love, and leaving home. While the stories are fairly easy to read, teens might be intimidated by the dense book design and small type. Take the time to help them overcome this. The stories are delightful!


Tags: Philippines, literature, young adults, book, #PhilippineLiterature

Read also
Book Review: Magdalena, novel by Cecilia Brainard, reviewed by Eileen Tabios
Book Review: Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, Edited by Cecilia Brainard, reviewed by Harold Augenbraum
Book Review: Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, edited by Cecilia Brainard, reviewed by Manoa
Book Review: Vigan and Other Stories, by Cecilia Brainard, reviewed by Allen Gaborro
Book Reveiw: Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters, Eds Brainard & Orosa
Book Review: Journey of 100 Years: Reflections on the Centennial of Philippine Independence, Eds Brainard & Litton

Book Review: Journey of 100 Years: Reflections on the Centennial of Philippine Independence, Eds Brainard & Littom

BOOK REVIEW
JOURNEY OF 100 YEARS: REFLECTIONS ON THE CENTENNIAL OF PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE

Edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard & Edmundo F. Litton

PAWWA (1999), 260 pages

AMERASIA JOURNAL

JOURNEY OF 100 YEARS

by Roger J. Jiang Bresnahan

As in most colonies in the nineteenth century, the grievances of Filipinos were many and resistance became more frequent, resulting in 1896 in the first phase of the Philippine Revolution. After its suppression, its leaders were paroled to Hong Kong. Two years later, the United States declared war on Spain, ostensibly on behalf of Cuba. With American help, Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the exiles in Hong Kong, was returned to the Philippines with a mandate to complete the revolution. In 1898, he inaugurated the Republic of the Philippines but eventually ran afoul of the Americans who opted for imperialism. Thus, the fledgling republic was short-circuited and the Philippines subjected to a harsher colonial rule than after Spain, involving a level of cultural and linguistic co-optation and economic domination that prevails even today.

Book Review: Fiction by Filipinos in America, edited by Cecilia Brainard, reviewed by World Literature Today

FICTION BY FILIPINOS IN AMERICA edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard published by New Day Publishers, paper, ISBN 97110-0528X Available in eBook from Kindle   Review by World Literature Today, Autumn 1994 v68 n4 p894(1) COPYRIGHT 1994 University of Oklahoma

The stories in Fiction by Filipinos in America, as editor Cecilia Manguerra Brainard puts it, "deal with oppression, flight, dislocation, unrequited love, longing for an idealized home; these are stories of humans dominated by values that run deep, of fierce loyalty for family and friends, and always that Filipino tenacity to deal with life's hardships and remain undefeated. Together these stories paint a gigantic picture of the Filipino, whether in the Philippines or in America, and it is a wonderful picture, this of a person who struggles, fails at times, but keeps on, a most resilient human being." Resilience is a quality long associated with Filipinos. As a poet once said," A Filipino is pliant like a bamboo." Neither typhoons nor monsoons could break the Filipino spirit; like the bamboo, it sways and bends with nature's relentless onslaughts, but it refuses to yield or die.

"Loving Vincent" Movie Review and Reflections by Cecilia Brainard

"Loving Vincent" Movie Review and Reflections
by Cecilia M. Brainard

There's a new movie out, Loving Vincent, by Breakthru Films and Trademark Films. It's reportedly the world's first fully painted feature film, with over 62,000 oil paintings used as frames for this animated movie. Watching the movie was a fascinating experience: I felt as if I entered the world of Vincent Van Gogh! (Be sure and watch the Trailer here.)

Research Sources and Links re Cecilia Manguerra Brainard #Philippines Literature

Some students have asked for help regarding their research.  Here are sources and links about Cecilia Manguerra Brainard or Cecilia Brainard, official website http://www.ceciliabrainard.com

Wikipedia site on Cecilia Brainard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Manguerra_Brainard

Other Sources about Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

* Abao, Jane Frances P. 2001. "Retelling the Stories, Rewriting the Bildungsroman: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's When the Rainbow Goddess Wept ." Humanities Diliman (January-June)

* Adler, Les. 1996. "Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories: A Review." Pilipinas 26 (Spring)

* Aubry, Erin. "A Child's Vision of Life During Wartime." Los Angeles Times. November 15, 1994, E-8.

* Beltran, Marie G. "Woman With Horns and Other Concerns." Filipinas (May 1995_: 29, 56.

* Casper, Leonard. "BACK-AZIMUTH Filipino Writers Abroad." Kinaadman XXVII (2005): 69-82.

Some Anthologies that include Cecilia Brainard's writings

Some Anthologies that include Cecilia Brainard's writings:

Asian American Literature, Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2001
A Taste of Home, editors Ed Maranan and Len Maranan-Goldstein, Anvil, 2008
The AA Literary Realm, Asian American Literary Forum, 1991
Amerasia Journal, Asian American Studies Center, UCLA, 1986
An Anthology of Philippine Writing in America, Philippine American Press Club of LA, 1989
Babaylan: An Anthology of Filipina and Filipina American Writers, Aunt Lute, 2000
Behind the Walls: Life of Convent Girls, Anvil, 2005
The Beginning and Other Asian Folktales, PAWWA, 1994
Cherished: 21 Writers on Animals They Have Loved and Lost, Abrecrombie, New World Library, 2011
City Dialogues: Life During Wartime, ed. D. Hideo Maruyama, City Dialogues Project, 2003
Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, Brainard, Anvil, 1998
Dis-Orient Journalzine, Hong, 1994
Going Home to a Landscape, ed. Villanueva & Cerenio, Calyx Books, 2003
Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults, PALH, 2003
Linking the World Through English, Diwa Textbooks, 2006
Fast Food Fiction, Noelle Q. de Jesus, Anvil, 2003
Fiction by Filipinos in America, Brainard, New Day Publishers, 1993
Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters, Anvil, 2009
Forbidden Fruit, Anvil Publishing Inc., 1992
From America to Africa: Essays of Filipino Women Overseas, FAI, 2000
FIL-AM: The Filipino American Experience, Publico, 1999
Fern Garden, UP Press, 1999
Harvest I, Ed. Lina Espina Moore, New Day Publishers, 1992
Home to Stay: Asian American Women's Fiction, Ed. Bruchac & Watanabe, Greenfield Review Press, 1990
Journey of 100 Years; Reflections on the Centennial of Philippine Independence, PAWWA, 1999
Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and About Asian American Women, Ed. Asian Women United California, Beacon Press, 1989
New to North America, Burning Bush Publications, 1998
The Perimeter of Light:Writing About the Vietnam War, New Rivers Press, 1992
Philippine American Short Stories, Giraffe, 1997
Philippine Speculative Fiction, Alfar, Kestrel, forthcoming
Pinay: Autobiographical Narratives by Women Writers,1926-1998, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2000
On a Bed of Rice, Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1995
Our World of Reading Gr. 7, Anvil, 2010
Remembering Rizal: Voices from the Diaspora, Lozada, PAWA, 2011
Search, The Augustinian Journal of Cultural Excellence, Colegio San Agustin, 2005
Seven Stories From Seven Sisters: A Collection of Philippine Folktales, PAWWA 1992
Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images, Galang, Coffee House Press,2003
Sojourns, Mar Productions 1998
Songs of Ourselves, Anvil, 1994
St. Andrews Review, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, 1985
Tulikarpanen: Anthology of Filipina Writings, translated into Finnish, ed. Ritta Vartti 2001
The Quill: The Asian Writer's League Journal, 1991

Student Films Based on Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Many of my books and stories are used in classrooms.  Some favorites are "Woman with Horns" and "Flip Gothic", used in the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, the University of San Carlos in Cebu, and the Cebu Normal University. I believe other schools use my stories in their curriculum, but these are the universities whose students have posted YouTube film clips.  I invite you to watch them. The students have so much energy and creativity, it's a joy to watch. 

Woman with Horns: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz7ikxykpTk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH1En32Smmk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwMUdhbzwnY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvFBscLD6a8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K163zx7a7Pk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbZFJFR1THc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPxBtKGkvBM

Flip Gothic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmDTrN7B7DA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb3JJeMyS6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv5I_2d1q-U

https://prezi.com/k_vglhcgukk2/copy-of-copy-of-flip-gothic/

When the Rainbow Goddess Wept  

Theme Analysis for When the Rainbow Goddess Wept

Wallenberg "When the Rainbow Goddess Wept" Theme Project

Tags: Films, movies, Student films, YouTube, Philippines, Cebu, Ubec #studentfilms

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New York on a Budget? Visit Christie's Auction House for Great Art

Our dual-tour included a visit to the Top of the Rock and Rockefeller Center Art and Architecture Tour.  Frankly we had difficulty getting to the right group as there were no signs, and personnel seemed not to know what was going on. We were not alone; every other tourist had to ask people as they meandered about trying to get to the right place. Even though we insisted we had a dual-tour, we were sent up the top of the building (Top of the Rock). The lines were long and personnel spent a lot of energy taking our pictures, then selling our pictures --- we had to work hard to finally get someone to understand we had a walking tour scheduled.

When we finally did the walking tour, it was fine.  Our tour guide pointed out the 14 buildings that make up the Rockefeller Center Complex (including NBC and nearby Fox). He talked about the art on the buildings, works by Paul Manship, Isamu Noguchi, Michi Ihara, Jose Maria Sert, Frank Brangwyn, and others. We heard about the quarrel between Diego Rivera and a Rockefeller over the image of Lenin in Rivera's work, and how Rivera's work was ultimately destroyed.

We also saw men setting up the platform for the gigantic Christmas Tree. People were skating on the nearby skating rink -- I could imagine just how festive the place will get in a few days. 

Foregrounding Myths and Legends in Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's "When the Rainbow Goddess Wept", Ruth S. Rimando - Thesis Paper

FOREGROUNDING MYTHS AND LEGENDS
IN CECILIA MANGUERRA-BRAINARD’S
“ WHEN THE RAINBOW GODDESS WEPT”

A Thesis Submitted to the
Faculty of Arts and Letters of the
University of Santo Tomas

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
Major in Literature

By
Ruth S. Rimando
February 2006

Mary Is With Us: Our Lady of Lourdes, France

During this difficult time of Coronavirus, I will be sharing excerpts from the book, Magnificat: Mama Mary’s Pilgrim Sites, a collection of 24 testimonies by people whose lives were changed by Mama Mary. I hope that these articles remind us that Mary is with us during this difficult time. May you find solace in these personal testimonials. ~ Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, editor of Magnificat.

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.

~~~

Our Lady of Lourdes

FRANCE – The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

In 1858 the Virgin Mary appeared to sickly 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous at a wooded grotto near the Gave River. In 1872 the neo-Golthic Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was built above the grotto, which itself is a lovely shrine. Since then, many more places of worship were built, including the Rosary Basilica and the underground Basilica of St. Pius X. Not to be missed: the sanctuary's nightly candlelight procession led by a statute of the Virgin Mary carried by white-robed priests. Holy spring water said to have healing effects flow from rows of spigots near the shrine and pilgrims come to bathe in its waters.

~

THE GIRL IN WHITE

Brian Ascalon Roley

The Little Boy

WHEN IT became clear that my little boy could not walk unassisted, my mother began to suggest that we bring him to Lourdes for a cure.

“I don’t know,” my wife said, when I related to her the idea. “Europe’s hilly and the streets and buildings are old. It isn’t so easy to travel with a disabled child.”

“My mother and father would help. I’d carry him.”

“And you believe in that stuff?”

Women and My Writing by Cecilia Brainard #literature #Philippines #CebuLitFest

I wrote this in 2014 ~ Cecilia Brainard

Women and My Writing

By

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

I’ve been writing and publishing for many years now. It wasn’t easy navigating this road then as well as now. I was never sure if the difficulties were because I’m a woman and a “minority” working in California, but it’s always been a struggle. It’s a challenge to write a good story, it’s another hurdle to get that published, and still another to get good reviews. I’m not complaining because I’ve realized that I could not have done something else; writing is my gift. In fact I feel fortunate that I have this ability as well as the opportunities to get my work published. It’s also gratifying to have earned the respect of my communities.