Busto: Getting sober with Padre Pio

AFTER several attempts to go to the Philippine Centre for Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, I was finally able to go there a few days ago. I do not know but it just dawned on me to go there, maybe because I wanted to be sober after really going nuts over a house help.

And who would not if you had your week all planned out when things suddenly do not go the way you wanted it to be because of a house help? That's what exactly happened to me last week after my house help did not come back as she promised to do so over the weekend. It was mad as hell as I had to attend to two bazaars and that I had already trained that house help in selling my goods and I must admit, she has a knack for it, even my fellow concessionaires notice it.

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To make the long story short, I was desperate and frantic as that house help never came back and I had to juggle my time from one bazaar location to another to inventory, set up and pack up our goods in our stall. I did not have a weekend and I was not able to spend time with my seven-year old son. It is heart-warming though that my son understands why I, together with our eldest sister, had to do bazaars.

My son knows that I am doing it for his Lola Daisy, who has remarkably shown improvement since her discharge from the hospital more than a month ago.

Because of the physical and psychological heaviness I felt after the house help brouhaha, I was grouchy and irritable. After realizing being such, I told myself I wanted to be calm and sober because I know the past week had been so exhausting that I had to let go of such feeling.

The only way I know I could let go of such weariness is through contemplation or prayers. And I thought about going to the Padre Pio center as I have been wanting to do so for many times but just did not find the opportunity to do so because of work.

I had asked a female colleague if she wanted to go with me as I know she was also burdened with domestic concerns. She willingly obliged, so off we went to the center which was located only a few minutes away from our office.

When we entered the chapel, there was a feeling of blessedness or as we Filipinos call it -- "banal" and lightness. It felt so good to be inside it that I immediately knelt down and prayed for my our mother, who continues to amaze us with her remarkable strength and for the rest of the family members that we continue to hold on to each other in these trying times and that we find the means and the strength to sustain our mother's medical needs.

It was after praying that I headed towards the chapel's walls to read the various testimonials of individuals who have experienced the miraculous "powers" of Padre Pio, among them were Lucy Torres-Gomez' parents as well as ordinary individuals. I had also read in a national daily the day that I went to the center, Boots Anson-Roa's story on how Padre Pio's miracle sustained her when she was still looking her late husband who later succumbed to cancer.

Already an established show business personality, Roa admitted that her husband's illness drained her financially and that was she among the requests she entrusted to Padre Pio aside from making her husband deal with his illness as pain-free as possible. After praying to Padre Pio for some time, Roa clinched three advertising endorsements that allowed her to sustain her husband's medical needs. Gomez' parents, on the other hand, are both cancer-free after committing themselves to praying to Padre Pio.

I, myself, could also attest to the miracles of Padre Pio. Even before my mother's seizure, I have already been praying it and there have been remarkable answers, the more when my mother suffered stroke and was operated on. This is the reason why I send friends leaflets and novena booklets when I feel they need to draw strength and enlightenment.

In the end though, I know it is not only Padre Pio who makes possible the unexplainable, it is the Father Almighty and we just have to keep the faith and continue believing.