http://www.sisterraquel.com/2015/09/rainbow-of-hope-911 eastwind journals By Bernie Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com A day before the 14th anniversary of 9/11, a rainbow shone brilliantly across Manhattan. It is maybe a reminder from the Lord for us to stay with Him during trying times. (Photo by Ben Sturner – 9/11-rainbow-of-hope).
It was the same rainbow that Noah saw after the flood, symbol of hope, symbol of the God of wrath turned into the God of mercy by Man’s prayers and atonement.
It was the same rainbow a day after Yolanda, as told by Archbishop John Du. On the night before Yolanda came, he was praying the rosary with some priests amid a deadly calm. He thanked Mama Mary for sparing them. On the fifth mystery, Yolanda , the strongest typhoon of human history, came like an angel of death. Next day, he emerged from the cathedral and saw thousands of corpses in the cathedral yard, which were dumped there by people who believed it was sacred ground. He walked a kilometer to the ruins of his residence atop a hill, which looked like ground zero of a nuclear blast, 6-inch thick walls torn like paper. He was in tears, thinking Mama Mary abandoned him, until a rainbow suddenly appeared., the same rainbow of hope of Noah and 9/11. Then, he knew Mama Mary did not abandon him. He knelt in prayer, asking forgiveness for his lack of faith. It was total hope after total despair, blinding light after deep darkness. Seeing that rainbow, he decided to tell the people of Tacloban the message of hope. He commissioned Willy Layug, the noted Filipino Michaelangelo, to build the image of Our Lady of Hope, now displayed in the cathedral. During his visit to Tacloban, amid a mini-storm that came and left suddenly, Pope Francis embraced that statue, as he uttered, “Ah, la Madonna, la Madonna.” (See photos.)
Statue of Our Lady of Hope in the Palo Catheral in Tacloban, as rendered by Willy Layug. The Santo Nino and a boy, a Yolanda survivor, are reaching out for each other. Our Lady is wearing a Filipino dress.
Amid a mini-storm that came and left suddenly, Pope Francis, during his visit to Tacloban, embraced the statue of Our Lady of Hope, saying, “Ah, la Madonna, la Madonna.
This article was written on the anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima, September 20, 2015. News went viral in the Internet that, a day before, the eyes of the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes blinked several times. True or not to doubters and believers, we may now be in the midst of tribulations prophesied in the Book of Revelation and the Third Secret of Fatima – an era of cataclysms due to global warming, an era of wars in the grapple for dwindling energy, an era of a human crisis due to the refugee dilemma in Europe and America, an era of incurable pandemics across the globe.
Yet the rainbow of hope will always be there to uplift us in the darkness and despair of our lives, as long as we return to the Lord and atone for our sins.
by Bernie V. Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com
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