Faith - A Calling

I was baptized at San Nicolas Cathedral in our province on a Christmas day, 36 days after I was born. A common practice of catholic parents in compliance to following the Sacrament of Baptism as mandated by their catholic faith. My parents gave me a new life in Christ and forgiveness of sins through water and the Spirit and make me share in the Trinitarian divine life as adopted sons and daughters of God Almighty and bringing me as part of a community. When I was in Grade 3, I received my first communion after being taught by our Religion teacher and the most important thing that I learned from her was when she said that if I wanted to talk to God, I must talk to Him in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and He will listen to everything that I will say. And since before reaching my school, I pass the church first, I always make it a practice to make the sign of the cross in front of the church, vow my head and when I go home, I enter the church to talk to Him in the Blessed Sacrament and cry my heart out. And remember Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar when I hear mass and receive the Holy Eucharist during communion. My religion teacher taught us to pray the I Believe, the very core of our faith, Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, the basic prayer when praying the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception. I had my Sacrament of Confirmation at the age of 18, I have chosen this age to receive my Gifts of the Holy Spirit from a Bishop. I felt I am matured enough to know, understand and develop my deep spiritual relationship with the Lord. I myself cannot really understand the meaning of my dreams when I was still a child. A question that becomes a mystery to me as a person. And I cannot erase in my memory my spiritual experience of going to Heaven, talking to the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate Conception, seeing small Angels and hearing their angelic voices. I was 12 years old when I first encountered this mystery in my life, a divine revelation, an encounter with the Mystical life. I thought it was only a dream, a long travel of more than 3 hours of deep sleep. The story started in a walk on a big road which have 3 big holes lined up in a straight line. I was alone and only a voice guided me, and I was following what was told to me to do. On the first hole, I was advised to put my foot in it. There was this thought of what if it is deep, why is it black water? But in a little while I saw myself putting inside the hole my feet and felt that the water is just almost knee deep. Then I walked again to the next hole, another black water and the same thought lingered in my mind, but I followed the command of the voice. When I get into the water, I sunk up to my neck and I cried for help. Two person came near me and helped me out of the water. I gave thanks for helping me out. Then the last hole came, I heard again the voice telling me to look into the water and taste it. Quite afraid because of what happened to me, I peep into the water and saw it was clear and I saw my face on it. A voice told me to taste it, so I followed. After the trials on the 3 holes I started walking again and there I saw a man companion. We were walking on the street and I saw a key, picked it up and told my companion, I will look for the owner of the key. We were walking together when we saw a hermit type of man, he has a very long beard,wearing a sandals, with a wooden stick in his hands and his clothes was colored brown. I asked the man if he saw a person walked this way because I saw a key and this might belong to him. The hermit replied, you are lucky, you will use that key to open the beautiful palace in the middle of the woods, pointing to me a forest. Enter that place and in the middle of it, you will see a palace, go in there and use the key to the door of the palace. And there we went but my man companion just left me enter the place, he just accompanied me to my destination. A beautiful palace indeed and after opening the door, I saw a long stairway going up, so I went up while I can hear angelic voices at the background and little children smiling. Upon reaching the top, I saw in front of me the Blessed Virgin, Mary Immaculate Conception, and She said: Bumalik ka, may ipagagawa ako sa iyo balang araw. Ang tanong ko sa kanya: Ano po yon? And She said: Balang araw malalaman mo. Sa iyong pagbaba ay matatapakan mo ang mga tinik ng rosas, magtiis ka lang at pagdating mo sa dulo ay makikita mo ang isang ilog at kailangan mo tumawid duon. Ang sagot ko sa Kanya: Hindi po ako marunong lumangoy. At ang wika Niya. Huwag kang mag-alala, padadalhan kita ng tutulong sa iyo, meron kang makikitang balsa na iyong sasakyan. Lalagi akong nasa iyo. Humayo ka na at baka mahuli ka sa oras. After that assurance, I went my way out and true enough to Her words, I stepped on the thorns of roses, saw the wooden raft and some animals, rice stalks to go with my travel to the other side of the place. I don’t know what happened to me because I saw myself lying on a coffin and my brother was staring at me and he saw me get up from my sleep. When I woke up I was thirsty and lacking air in my breathing so I run immediately to the comfort room beside my room and drunk water. That day our house helper told me: You are like a dead person, I have been trying to wake you up since 5 am in the morning, now it is almost 9 am. This encounter made me believe that I am being called for a purpose by Our Mother of the Immaculate Conception and I only need to wait and bear the pains of the thorns that I will experience in my life. And this dream also bring me more closer to my Catholic faith, to the Blessed Virgin and Her son Jesus. I thanked the Lord for His goodness of choosing me serve Him/Her. I know a lot of you has this kind of encounter in your life. Since this is a Year of Faith, may we have the courage to share with our Brethren our faith life experiences to give light to others too, in that way, we can invite those who are still living in doubt, as to who is the true church, by showing them the way to salvation and the true Church. As the saying goes, there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. May we all be One with the Triune God in Spirit and in Truth. God bless us all and may the Holy Cross of Jesus (+) enlighten our thoughts and heart and with this experience of our spirituality brings encouragement and believe in the true faith. Jesus said: Blessed are those who believe but have not seen God. Our Faith will save us.