08/09/2026
Happy birthday Mama Mary, Feast of Virgin de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies)! The Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and in the same way she visits our homes or ‘Dalo Bale’. Mary teaches us three kinds of visitations:
1. A visit to heaven: Mary in glory who knew suffering so deeply reminds us that this world is not our final home implying that all the sufferings we carry at this moment are temporary and we take hope in the comfort of heaven which is already open to us through Christ. So when life gets difficult, Mary reminds us to look up to heaven in prayer.
2. A visit to others: Mary had received an extraordinary blessing, that is she was to be the Mother of God, the Mother of Jesus. With this news she didn’t keep it to herself but rather she went out to serve. If we want to reach heaven, we too are called to serve while on this earth. Service does not need to be extraordinary; it can be as simple as visiting and caring for our loved ones and being a neighbour to one another.
3. A visit to the innermost self: Mary proclaims ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord’ and reminds us that God is in our hearts, that rather the idea is not to reach the top but rather to reach the innermost self, letting our lives be directed towards God, looking at God who is present and reverberates in our hearts. A journey to the interiority of the heart.
Let us pray and ask Mary who has gone before us to help us live well on this earth, so that one day we may join her in heaven where we would do limitless visitations with God, with others, and with our own hearts. Amen. Virgin de los Remedios, ipanalangin mu kami, Santo Cristo del Perdón, pacaluluan mu kami. 🇵🇭🙏🏻🎶 Jeshamin Mae Silerio Michelle Epondulan Vanj MB Vanj MB Rene Fajardo Ian Epondulan Filipino Chaplaincy Diocese of Parramatta Percival Osa StClair ErskinePark Catholics Holy Spirit - St Clair-Erksine Park
