CONFIRMATION OF MISSION

By Bro. Josefino Rona

The Blessed Mother Confirms my Mission and My Marriage

April 22, 1974

It was Choly’s birthday. (We were not yet married at this time.) We were back at my nipa shack from a picnic at Tandag Beach together with a few relatives. The air was fresh. The early afternoon sun was bright and pleasant.

Choly and I were seated by the big low window behind us in the living room of my nipa shack. My helper looking into the viewer of my old Yashica camera suddenly exclaimed with surprise, “The Blessed Mother is here in the camera!”

“What Blessed Mother,” I responded. “There is no Blessed Mother here.” (I, pointing to the window behind me.) “There is nothing here but an open wide window. And there is no Blessed Mother’s picture anywhere where the camera is facing. You must have a vivid imagination.”

The helper was insistent. So I stood to find out for myself. I indeed saw the viewer open; but I saw no Blessed Mother. However, at the lower right corner of the viewer was a very strong white pin light. I thought it was a reflection of the afternoon sun. But on second thought I realized that the sun was to the west and the camera was facing east; so it could not be a reflection of the sun at all. So I asked for a blanket to cover me and the camera to ward off any semblance of reflection, so I could examine the camera closely. When I covered myself and the camera, I did not see the pin light anymore. In stead, at the spot where the pin light was supposed to be, I saw a living image of our Blessed Mother as she was clad in her apparition at Lourdes, France. Our Lady of Lourdes was my devotion at that time.

The Blessed Mother was simply radiant. But the strange think about what I saw was to notice that the light was not on her. She was the light! She was glowing and beaming all over from within her body. All her feature was made of light. Her skin and clothing were not the skin nor the clothing that we human beings are used to see. Her skin, her clothing, all about her were made of light. She wore white with the blue sash, the way she appeared in Lourdes, France, to St. Bernadette Soubirous. The vision I saw of Our Lady in the camera was barely an inch, but every detail of her was as clear as no ordinary human eye could decipher. Her eyes were deep blue, with black eyelids and eyelashes. She had the motherly smile that brought love, compassion and understanding more than anything else. She looked at me and talked to my soul, to my whole being, not physically through my ears, for I heard nothing. But in my soul her message was as clear as the blue clear day sky. “Whatever my Son told you” (referring to the five mornings in February apparition of our Lord when He gave me my mission.) “follow Him.” Then to my surprise, Our Lady continued saying, “You will be married in my month, on the 9th of May at 8:00 o’clock in the evening.” That was all she said. And she smiled with that sweet smile that I cannot forget in my soul.

I beckoned Choly without telling her what I saw and what I heard. She came and looked into the camera and said. “It is the Blessed Mother!” After a little while, the vision disappeared, light and all. Nothing remained but only the camera.

*****