After our stressful spring and summer, it was lovely to come across a story offering peace and calm. This story is from Sister Maria del Rey Danforth’s book Pacific Hopscotch, found among the many books at the Maryknoll Mission Archives. Sister Maria del Rey describes a pilgrimage she took with Sister Miriam Thomas Thornton to the city of Lipa in the Philippines. It is home to the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. According to Sister Maria del Rey, Filipino Catholics had a deep devotion to Our Lady, so the Monastery was a popular pilgrimage site.
Sister Maria del Rey painted such a clear picture of her experience, I almost felt like I was on the trip too. In weird and frightening times, I find it helpful to read stories like these. They describe calmer times and can remind you of peaceful moments, if only for a minute. I hope you enjoy Sister Maria del Rey’s tale of the pilgrimage in the Philippines, and find a moment of peace in whatever way you like best.
“Lipa is a place of prayer – you might almost say, of pure contemplation. There is absolutely nothing in the crude shed, the choking dust, the congested road, the hard benches, to attract people who come for any other purpose. The statue of Our Lady is placed in a window of the Carmel [Monastery], facing out to the people gathered outside. A shed of wooden supports and a corrugated iron roof had been erected to protect Our Lady’s pilgrims from the sun. This is all. The people stand under the shed and look at Our Lady. Nothing more…
We stood for some five minutes or so, just looking at the lovely face, the delicate hands, as everyone else was doing. Then we said a rosary; then we just looked for ten minutes more. All during this time, the people in front of us had not moved. No one had turned his head; no one had coughed or shifted his position; no one had dug a sandwich out of his pocked and started to eat; no one moved away. They just looked and looked. One wants to do nothing else…
I cannot describe the place. Such an atmosphere of humble love for Our Blessed Mother, desire to do what she has asked us to do so, sorrow and apprehension for the storm clouds gathering so fast over the world, a welcome to her and gratitude that she has honored her Philippines – all of this makes one feel that a mere factual description of the shed, the dusty, dusty lot in front of it, the approaches lined with ‘tiendas’ selling food or pictures of the statue or Sacred Heart badges, would be inadequate. It is enough to live through these things, and get close to Our Lady, and just look and look at her sweet face, and graceful, generous hands.”
