Severe tropical storm Paeng lashed the Philippines on the last week of October just few days before we celebrated All Souls and Saints Day.
Typhoon Paeng brought prolonged rains. Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao were all affected. The floodings as well as the land and rock slides were deadly and worse than the tyhoon itself. We could only see a roaring ocean pushing its way in no direction making roads, residential homes and plains submerged.
The miseries of the affected Filipinos are happening before our own eyes. The damages cost is huge. Typhoon Paeng claimed many lives, swept away homes and everything on its paths. Bridges were torn apart and roads were cracked and are left unpassable. All these just made it more difficult to reach and extend help to the affected families.
It breaks our hearts seeing the agonies of many displaced Filipinos when they lost loved ones and left homeless, cold, hungry and injured. I find no word to help ease their pains in this time of great distress. Healing does not happen overnight as it takes time to mend a wounded heart.
On November 1 the weather was still unkind. It poured rain while we were attending the Holy Mass, squeezing ourselves in a small chapel on a hilltop of the cemetery. It was so slippery from the previous days of heavy downpours. We needed to go up and down from grave to grave, from one cemetery to another where our loved ones laid. But it did not hinder us from lighting a candle for them, offering flowers and praying that they may all be resting happily and peacefully in Our Father’s house. They may have gone from our sights but their memories will forever live as they will always hold a special space in our hearts.
I believe up there they are watching and guiding over us. They are our angels as well as messengers conveying our prayers to God. And I truly can feel it. Their passing may have left us so empty and only God can fill that missing space within us.
We also pray for the typhoon victims. May they all be comforted and healed from their trauma’s, pains and wounds. May God help them mend their broken hopes and dreams, rise up strong from the mud of storms. And we may also help them in one way or another to see the rainbow promised by God.
Lastly, may all who have gone in typhoon Paeng find eternal rest and peace in God’s kingdom.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
Lynn Salinas-Batoliño
The Philippines
