About Us

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1   BIRTH AND BEGINNINGS
Background on the Mother Ignacia Healing Ministry

2   FROM SEEDLINGS TO RAINFOREST
Biography of Mother Ignacia, foundress of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM)

3   CANCER HEALER FOR THE LORD
History of Sister Raquel’s Gift of Healing

4 HISTORY of foodforthesoul

1   BIRTH AND BEGINNINGS

Background on the Mother Ignacia Healing Ministry

The ministry is an undertaking of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM), a Vatican-approved Catholic religious congregation of sisters. The RVM was founded by Mother Ignacia, after whom the ministry is named.

The ministry had small beginnings. When Sister Raquel Reodica, a member of the RVM congregation, was bestowed her healing powers in 1991, she began healing those who approached her. A great portion of these people she has healed through the years were terminal cases, especially from cancer. This is why she has been tagged as ‘cancer healer for the Lord’. Sister Gloria, the other RVM healing nun, started healing as far back as the early 50s. There are other RVM sisters who heal or assist in healing, such as Mother Remy, the mother superior at the healing center as of this writing, December 2006, and Sister Rosales.

Later, because of television and newspaper coverages, the number of visitors ballooned into huge proportions. It was not until many months when the ministry was formalized, not so much in terms of registered name but in terms of volunteers, mostly from those who were healed, helping in the ministry in many different ways. The number of visitors, some from distant lands, gradually tapered into manageable size today.

The primary goal of the ministry is to render healing – spiritual, mental, physical, or financial. The secondary goal is to give material support for the poor in terms of food, scholarships and other means.

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2   FROM SEEDLINGS TO RAINFOREST

Biography of Mother Ignacia, foundress of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM)

by Sister Maria Anicia Co, RVM

the Christ of love and mercy

is the Christ of fear and punishment

He is the gentle storm

and the violent breeze

He jolts us in our indifference

soothes us in our despair

He is the lull and the storm

He greens our pastures that He will burn

He makes us see in our blindness

yet He blinds us to make us see

He gives wisdom and healing

through anguish and pain

eastwind

The mulberry seed that Jesus talks about in the Bible is so small, you can hardly see it. Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo planted that seed in 1732, more than two centuries ago, and today, that tiny seed has grown into a gigantic tree spreading its branches across the entire Philippine archipel­ago. That tree is the Religious of the Virgin Mary or RVM. And it is but a small part of the spiritual rainforest of the Lord Jesus that nourishes theearth. The few primary sources and historical documents avai­lable yield enough information to reconstruct the story of Mother Ignacia and the com­munity she founded.

Mother Ignacia was born during the Spanish colonial era in the Philippines. The precise date of her birth is not known. Her baptismal record mentions only the date of her baptism, March 4, 1663. This confirms the statement of Pedro Murillo Velarde, who later wrote about Mother Ignacia, that she was 21 years old in 1684. Igna­cia was the sole surviv­ing child of Maria Jeronima, a Filipina, and Jusepe Iuco, a Chinese immigrant from Amoy, China, who was con­verted to the Catholic faith in 1652 and resided in Binondo, Manila.

When Ignacia was 21 years old, her parents wanted her to marry. Heeding a call deep within her but not wanting to disappoint her par­ents, Ignacia sought counsel from Fr. Paul Klein, S.J., a Jesuit priest from Bohemia, who arrived in Manila in 1682. She underwent the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, a Jesuit retreat of prayer and meditation, under Fr. Klein. After this period of solitude and prayer, Ig­nacia decided to ‘remain in the service of the Divine Majesty’ and to ‘live by the sweat of her face’. She left home and brought with her nothing but a needle and a pair of scissors. She started to live alone in the house located at the back of the Jesuit College of Manila.

Her life of prayer and labor attracted other Filipino women who also felt called to the religious life but could not be admit­ted into other existing congregations. Mother Ignacia accepted these women into her company and the first community was born. They became known as the Beatas de la Compania de Jesus (religious novices of the company of Jesus), since they frequently received the sacraments at the Church of St. Igna­tius, performed many acts of devotion there, and had the Jesuit fathers for their spiritual directors and confessors.

Mother Ignacia centered her life on the sufferings of Christ and tried to imitate Him through a life of service and humili­ty. She conducted a life of prayer and penance as a way to the Lord. Her spirituality of humble service was expressed in her capacity to forgive, to bear wrongs patiently and to correct others with gentleness and meekness. This type of spirituality fostered peace and harmony in the commun­ity, love and care for each other, and the commonness of heart, which became a witness to the love of Christ and the maternal care of the Blessed Mother.

This spirituality sustained the beatas in their moments of difficulties, especially during times of extreme poverty, when they had to beg for rice and salt, and scour the streets for firewood. The beatas continued to sup­port them­selves by the labor of their hands, and some­times received some finan­cial help from pious people. In all these, they did not cease to thank God and to trust in divine provi­dence.

The growing number of beatas called for a more stable lifestyle and a set of rules. A daily schedule was drawn up and community practices were defined. Following the spirit of St. Ignatius, Mother Ignacia exhorted her beatas to live always in the presence of God and to develop great purity of heart. She emphasized charity in the community, which was dedicated to the Blessed Mother. The spirit of Mary ran through the rules which were written for the guidance of the beatas. Her type of leadership drew inspiration from the Blessed Virgin Mary. She strove to be the living image of Mary to her companions and exhorted them to take Mary as their model in following Jesus.

Mother Ignacia gradually realized that the community in the beaterio (convent for movices or aspiring nuns) was called by God to a life not only of prayer and penance, but also of apostolic service. The beaterio admitted young girls as boarders, who were taught Christian doctrine, as well as works proper to them. Mother Ignacia did not make any distinc­tion of color or race but accepted natives, mestizas (half-Spanish half-native) and Spaniards as recogidas (recruits). The beatas were also involved in retreat work, and helped the Jesuit Fathers by preparing retreatants to be disposed to take the Spiritual Exer­cises.

Mother Ignacia submitted the 1726 Constitutions of the beaterio to the archdiocesan office for approval. After the appro­val was given in 1732 by the Fiscal Provisor of Manila, Mother Ignacia decided to give up her responsibility as superior of the house. She lived as an ordinary member until her death on September 10, 1748. Murillo Velarde saw this as a great sign of her utter humility. She had no desire to command and control. In his estimation, she was a ‘true valiant woman’ who overcame the great difficulties which she met in the founda­tion from the beginning to the end. She was ‘mortified, patient, devout, spiritual, zealous for the good of souls’.

A few months before her death, the Archbishop initiated a process of securing royal protection for the beaterio. Mother Ignacia died without knowing the response of the Spanish King, but her long life in the beaterio must have taught her to trust in the providence of God. Little did she expect that the mulberry seed, the beaterio, would become a giant tree, the nationwide congregation of today, more than 200 years after her death. Thus, the Religious of the Virgin Mary, is a living testimony to her life as God’s handmaid who opened the doors of religious life to native women in the Philippines. She proved that God is the God of all people, of whatever color or race.

The royal protection granted in 1755 guaranteed the safety of the beatas but it did not recognize the beaterio as a community of religious women. It was ordained to remain as a pious association. In spite of this seeming setback, the beat­as, faithful to the spirit of their foundress Mother Ignacia, continued to live the religious life even without being offi­cially recognized as such. The expul­sion of the Jesuits in 1768 was another blow to the beatas. They lost their spiritual guide. But they continued to enjoy the support of the Arch­bishop of Manila and other Church officials. In the spirit of Mother Ignacia, the beatas lived by the sweat of their faces and persevered in their service to God through education and retreat work. Despite attempts by the Governor-General to change the nature of the beaterio, the beatas remained true to the vision and charism of Mother Ignacia and survived the dark years.

The growth of the beaterio into a congregation and its response to the apostolic challenges of the times show the vitality of the spirit of Mother Ignacia. Indeed, her lamp continues to shine today as her daughters courageously strive to respond with zeal to the call of different mission works.

The story of the congregation that has grown from the small beaterio of Mother Ignacia continues to unfold. It bears witness to the enduring vitality and strength of the founda­tion, the spirituality of Mother Ignacia. The lamp she lit to guide the path of native women aspiring for religious life and the maturity of faith continues to shine. It remains undimmed. The life of this lowly native and the fruits of her spiritual­ity proclaim the immense goodness of God, whose generosity is unbounded. Mother Ignacia trusted in the loving providence of God and she was never disappointed.

late have i loved You

o Beauty ever ancient ever new

late have i loved You

You were within me but I was away

there within of late

i searched for You

in my un-loveliness

and You touched me

st augustine

******************

jonathan livingston seagull

was always learning and practising his flight

trying so hard to achieve perfection

but because he was different

from the rest of the other seagulls

he was sent away to live as an outcast

he later attained perfection

only after he knew about love

for there are no more limits to flight

when one has achieved love

bernadette lopez

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3   CANCER HEALER FOR THE LORD

History of Sister Raquel’s Gift of Healing

By eastwind

my thoughts are not your thoughts

my ways are not your ways

as high as the heavens are above the earth

so are my ways above your ways

and my thoughts above your thoughts

for just as from the heavens

the rain and snow come down

and do not return until they have watered the earth

making it fertile and fruitful

to give seed to him who sows and bread to him who labor

so shall My Word

isaiah 55:1-11

Back in June 1991, right after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, when Sister Maria Raquel Reodica, RVM, did not have healing powers yet, a Filipino woman, a visionary, approached her. The visionary said that she will soon receive healing power from the Lord. Sister Raquel brushed off the idea with a laugh. She said who was she to get such a gift. Whether the visionary’s words were true or not is not the contention of this book. This book merely recounts a story told by Sister Raquel herself. It is up to the reader to believe the words of the visionary or not.

The visionary instructed her to go to Poong Bato (lit­erally ‘the Lord made of rock’), a remote village at the foot of Mt. Pinatubo in the province of Zambales. There, the vision­ary said Sister Raquel was supposed to pray to Our Lady and ‘pick her up’. In Poong Bato, a six-foot statue of Our Lady made of cement fell to the ground, half buried in ash because of the violent Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Twenty odd men tried to put the statue upright but they could not. The statue was just too heavy.

When Sister Raquel finally went to Poong Bato, she prayed to Our Lady for guidance concerning the words of the vision­ary. She was thinking what the visionary meant when she said she was supposed to ‘pick up Our Lady’. After prayer, she was able to gather 10 men to try once more to put the statue upright. They said they might not be able to do so because, earlier, 20 men failed. She insisted anyway and the men were shocked when 10 of them could do what 20 men earlier could not. A military helicopter was requested by the local government to move the statue to higher ground. The pilot scratched his head, saying the helicopter was not powerful enough to lift such a heavy cement statue. Evreyone asked him anyway to try. So he did. Like a feather, the helicopter lifted the statue with ease. The pilot later reported that he was surprised that the helicopter instruments registered that the statue had a weight of ‘zero’. This author could not verify the story from the pilot himself, and simply reports this story as told by the local government and by Sister Raquel. And so Sister Raquel did ‘pick up’ Our Lady there. The statue was eventually named Ina Poong Bato, or Mother Poong Bato. A replica stands at the Manila Cathedral today, and another at the Mother Ignacia Healing Center, donated by the local government.

Sister Raquel believes that it was at Poong Bato that she received her healing power. For in a few days, the Lord was able to heal the sick through her hands. In fact, she told the story of how she prayed to stop a second eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Refer to Chapter 16.

It is hard to take the word of an unknown and self-proclaimed visionary casually because he or she may be an instrument of the devil rather than the Lord. Who are we to know? One has to be extremely care­ful. As of this writing, there were about eight vision­aries who have talked to Sister Raquel.

In all cases, their predictions were considered but there was always room for doubt. For Sister Raquel, they may or may not happen. She believes strongly that the hand of the Lord is her final and absolute guide in all these. It is His will which will finally prevail, not the words of vision­aries. So let it be, she says. If she is an instrument of the Lord, the Lord will make ways to make it so in His time and in His way. So Sister Raquel is never worried, even though she proceeds always with caution.

A French lady came from Paris, looked everywhere for her for a whole month, and found her ‘accidentally’ at the RVM headquarters in Cubao, Quezon City. She said Sister Raquel would one day be involved in ‘global evangelization’, whatever that meant. Another visionary predicted that one day she would receive the gift of prophecy.

The hundreds of stories of Sister Raquel is now available in the e-book ‘Healing Stories of Sister Raquel’ (which you can obtain from this website, refer to DOWNLOADS). Sister Raquel’s healing power is perhaps related to a cataclysm, namely the erup­tion of Mt. Pinatubo. And the gift of prophecy, if it will indeed be hers, may be a third eye to see future cataclysms in order to give a message to Man­kind, the same message of the Bible throughout the Old and New Testaments, the same message of all the Marian apparitions of 450 years or almost half a millennium, from Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico in 1531 to Our Lady of Medjugorje, Yugoslavia in 1981.

This message is really so short and so simple, a child cannot miss it, namely, pray, return to the Lord, repent from sins in order to receive His blessings and avoid His wrath and punish­ment. Cataclysms were in many biblical events as much as they are today, just like Pinatubo. It is really the combination of the theology of fear and love, of punishment and salvation. Since the time of Abraham and Moses, this message has always be the same. It is also the message of the healings of Sister Raquel. Every terminal cancer she heals has the same message as the Bible, return to the Lord and be blessed. Healing is a product of conversion, of returning to the Lord.

And so, after Pinatubo, Sister Raquel was swept into a whirlwind of healing beyond her imagination. The Lord has healed thou­sands, many of terminal dis­eases, cancer of the brain, breast, bone, leuke­mia, lupus, even leprosy through the hands of Sister Raquel. The Lord has healed the blind and the deaf through her intercession. It is their stories, not Sister Raquel’s. The stories in this book are simply their testimonies.

After her first heal­ings, her fame spread like wildfire. She conducted healing missions in 10 countries around the world in the next four years, Spain, France, Taiwan, Thailand, Hongkong, Italy, Canada, United States, Japan, and England. In 1992, she covered five countries in three months. Her second and third trips were in 1993 and 1995. Filipinos from Califor­nia to New York flocked to her.

She was swept into the violent vortex of media co­verage, interviewed by radio, television, and the press. Thousands came to her for help. She was offered her own radio and television program, but she refused, not knowing if she was ready for such a high-profile lifestyle.

After a few years, the frenzy died down. After the storm was the lull. Sister Raquel settled in a quiet remote place. She became the superior of the RVM-run Mother Ignacia Retreat House in Novali­ches, Caloocan City. Occasionally, some people came for healing, but the storm had left and the big crowds had vanished.

On September 8, 2000, on the birthday of Our Lady, an article written by the author of this book was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, entitled You can see forever, in Pilipino, Tanaw mo ang walang hanggan, which is the story of Chapter One in this book.

After that article came out, the second storm in Sister’s life came. Like a deluge after the drought, many came to Sister Raquel once more, some from as far as Davao and Taipei. When the article came out, the telephone rang the whole day. Suddenly, the big crowds came to the once-quiet Nova­liches retreat house.

The focus of this book is not so much on Sister Ra­quel but on her healings as the hand of the Lord. Her hands, as she explains, are not hers but the Lord’s. This book is about the Lord, who is called ‘the hound of heaven’, not so much about Sister Raquel. His voice echoes through the wilderness, through the dark dun­geons of human life, seeking souls for salvation, which are lost in the spiritual wastelands of modern civili­za­tion. This book is a collec­tion of published articles on the healings of Sister Ra­quel, and the testimonies of those who were healed.

Searching for God’s Will

When Sr. Raquel Reodica, RVM received her gift of healing, there were two big hurdles before she would accept the gift. First, is the gift really from the Lord? Second, would the Church approve of it? In a span of days, the two hurdles would be bridged. It took the Church 20 long years to approve the Fatima miracles. Why was the Lord in a hurry to heal the world through Sister Raquel?

First is the hurdle – is the gift really from the Lord? The gnawing question echoed in her mind – has the Lord indeed chosen her? How would she know?

A rich French woman visionary named Caroline came up to Sister Raquel two weeks after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, “I have been looking for you for so long. At last, I have found you.”

Sister Raquel was startled, “Who me? Why?”

“Jesus told me to look for you and give you His message.”

Sister studied the woman carefully. She did not look crazy, and seemed normal in spite of her seemingly ridiculous statement. She was ready to dismiss her as she was tired, but out of curiosity, she asked what the message was. The woman said the Lord has chosen her to have the power to heal in His name.

“How do you know all this?”, she asked.

Caroline replied, “He told me. I am only a messenger. He will give you a sign so you will have no doubt whatsoever.”

For three hours, the woman related her story, months of searching through Africa. She stumbled into the Philippines. By accident, she ended up in the RVM convent in Ilocos. They sent her to the headquarters in N. Domingo. She was on verge of giving up, until Sister Raquel arrived. Caroline knew instantly somehow and without doubt it was her in her vision.

Bothered that there may be some truth to the vision, in spite of her skepticism, Sister Raquel did the only thing she knew. She went to the RVM Mother General and asked what was she to do. The Mother General said, “Go ahead. Try it. If it is not the Lord, we will find out. If you cannot heal even a toothache, then it is all a farce. But then if you can, we will know for sure, right?”

Sister Raquel admired the wisdom of the Mother General. To believe or not was not important at that moment. The task was to find out. So let it be. There was no need to speculate, just bow in obedience.

Sister went to the garden to meditate, saying, “Lord are you there?” She felt a strong presence to her right. It was His silent reply that indeed He was there.

“What do I do? Am I to be Your healer? What is your agenda? Suppose You are not God and I promote you, what happens to me?” The question was logical and challenging.

Sister recalls the reply that came in the deafening silence, “Go ahead, heal in My name.”

Sister recalls how most of the prophets in the Old Testaments refused the call but they had no choice if they were chosen. Suppose she was indeed chosen. She asked, “Are You telling me the same thing You told all those prophets? Why me? Why not the Cardinal or Mother General or the Carmelites? Why me?”

Sister knew the answer in her heart. She just had to obey the Mother General who said, like the Lord in silence, “Go ahead. Try it out.”

The chance to prove if Caroline’s message was true came like a lightning bolt. That very evening, one of the RVM sisters in her staff from Cebu suddenly appeared. She was in extreme pain and the Mother General told her to go to the hospital after she reported to Sister Raquel. And so she went ot Sister Raquel.

Sister Raquel asked, “Lord, is this it?”

She told the sick nun to stand before the statue of the Sacred Heart and close her eyes. Sister Raquel prayed, “Lord, here are my hands. They are now your instruments.”

Sister Raquel touched the nun on the forehead and on every part of her body which was in pain. The nun jerked when she touched her lower spine, complaining how hot her hands were. All her pains vanished instantly. In her excitement, the sick nun told the Mother General, who said she did not have to go to the hospital, and to keep the incident a secret.

Jesus told a leper not to tell others that he was healed. Like the leper, the nun told everyone anyway. The news spread like wildfire. Every sick RVM nun came to Sister Raquel. From then on, the whirlwind began. Her world changed instantly and profoundly. Within two years, she would circle the world many times in healing missions, China, Japan, Spain, California.

Today, 15 years after, she wants to hear from Caroline but she never replied to her letters. Caroline, if you will somehow read this in the Internet, please come and visit Sister Raquel.

The second hurdle was – would the Church approve. For Sister Raquel, who knew the history of the Church and the turmoils surrounding Fatima, Lourdes, and Medjugorje, she was scared of this second hurdle. In these three cases, archbishops and cardinals became the hurdles by playing devil’s advocate, which was their role. For they would not risk the Church endorsing a farce.

So the day of reckoning came. A month after she received the gift of healing, when the news had spread like wildfire, the late Cardinal Sin invited her for breakfast. His car picked her up, which made her more nervous. Was the Cardinal angry at her that he was not informed of her healing activities?

Sister Raquel was nervous when Cardinal Sin invited her for breakfast. She asked herself, “If the Cardinal says he does not believe in my gift of healing, what will I answer him? Perhaps I should say, whatever you say, Cardinal. No problem. If he says I should stop, I will stop in obedience. No problem.” Sister Raquel prepared herself with all sorts of answers to all sorts of imagined questions. She was afraid that the Cardinal was angry that she did not tell him about her healing activities, if the Church approved of them. But the fact that she had the go signal from the Mother Superior comforted her. Still, this was the Cardinal, the highest Church official in the nation, to whom her congregation was beholden as the agent of the Pope.

Cardinal Sin greeted her with his famous smile as wide as the Cagayan River. Instantly, Sister Raquel’s fears vanished, but still some apprehension remained. The Cardinal told her to go to the dining area for breakfast. There, he was greeted by a host of priests asking her to heal them after breakfast.

Later, after breakfast, she sat down with the Cardinal who said, “I have heard you are into healing.” Sister nodded her head nervously.

“Let us go into the chapel. My shoulders are heavy and painful. Be kind enough to heal me.”

Let me put it without drama. In a few minutes, all the pain vanished, and Cardinal Sin said, “I give you my blessing to heal in Jesus’ name.”

And so what took the Fatima miracles 20 years to bridge ecclesiastical hurdles, Sister Raquel took a month. With the two hurdles bridged, the first – was it really a gift from the Lord (part one), and the second – does the Church approve, Sister Raquel was ready for the world.

But why did it seem the Lord was in so much hurry to get Sister Raquel going in her healing ministry? Is it perhaps because of our era of many disasters due to Man’s sins? Is the Lord in panic to make people pray and return to Him, otherwise there will be more, tsunamis, bird flu, hurricanes? Is it Agape, God’s love for sinful Man who will be the object of His wrath if he does return to His fold?

Later, Sister Raquel would have the gift to talk to nature. When she prayed for Mt. Pinatubo to not erupt once more, which the late Punongbayan predicted, the high temperature and steam at the crater suddenly vanished. When she ordered a super-typhoon to make a detour, suddenly it did. This was featured in many news reports. When she prayed for SARS to go away in a global telecast with Julie Yap Daza, Time Magazine reported two weeks after that SARS suddenly and mysteriously vanished as fast as it emerged. Skeptics doubt if all these could be attributed to a lowly Filipino nun in prayer. But the thousands who have been healed in the last 15 years believe she has the power to talk to nature as much as she has the power to heal them.

Recalling the story of her gift of healing, Sister Raquel says that it is so easy to reconcile the will of Man to the will of God. All Man has to do is surrender himself totally and God will do everything. This does not mean Man will simply sit there waiting for God’s hand. He must also act, but his movement must search for the will of God. That is the only way God can work wonders. He cannot act if Man’s will resists. They must work in tandem.

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4   HISTORY OF food for the soul

By eastwind

Possible uses for foodforthesoul –

· print and frame for your office

· email to friends as greeting card gifts on occasions

· use as title/cover/visual for powerpoints and documents

· use poster folder as screensaver slide presentation (only in XP)

· burn into CD as gifts or give-aways

foodforthesoul began as an email address for inquiries on the healing of Sisters Raquel and Gloria, cancer healers of Jesus. Sister Raquel heads the Mother Ignacia Healing Ministry. Sisters Raquel and Gloria are members of the Catholic religious congregation for women called Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM).

Journalist and writer Bernie Lopez, nom de plume eastwind, wrote the first published article on Sister Raquel’s healings on September 18, 2000, the first birthday of Our Lady in the 21^st century. Since then, he has written about 40-odd such articles published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Business World which are now collected in a the e-book ‘Healng Stories of Sister Raquel’. Click DOWNLOADS.

In all the publications, eastwind’s email address appeared for inquiries. Through the years, eastwind kept an email address list of all those who inquired about healing, accumulating thousands who later became the first batch of subscribers to foodforthesoul. Eastwind began sending short prayer poems every week to this growing list to inspire and give hope to the many who were in despair over terminal sickness, to induce ‘keyboard prayer and meditation’, to spread the Word in the Internet. This, foodforthesoul has made its campaign slogan “the Lord reigns even in cyberspace”.

Later, a meditation poster was added to the prayers, small-file-sized and email-friendly. photos from the eastwind photo collection and from National Geographic Magazines and other sources set into prayer-poem text. As of this writing, December 2006, the foodforthesoul archives has accumulated about 2,000 prayer poems and about 200 meditation posters. Portions of the archives are emailed or mailed to subscribers on special occasions or religious holidays, The archives are available for free to all website visitors. It is the ministry’s policy that these materials are not for sale and are distributed only on a non-commercial basis.

The overwhelming clamor for the hope and inspiration the foodforthesoul email facility gave led to an expansion of subscribers, about 5,000 to 7,000 and growing as of this writing, including pass-on the e-groups. It has spread worldwide from the Philippines to the Middle East, Europe, Asia and America, especially through the millions of Filipino Overseas Workers (OFWs) who found solace and comfort in foodforthesoul in the midst of harsh working conditions. The foodforthesoul thus evolved into an e-apostolate of the Mother Ignacia Healing Mininstry.

A service was added wherein prayer requests from people who were sick, especially of cancer, were sent to a handful of ‘prayer warriors’ who could pray for them from their keyboard. The e-group-based prayer warriors had members now totaling hundreds as of this writing. The requests were also read during healing sessions so the entire congregation could also add their prayers.

The first foodforthesoul book is due to come out early 2007. This consequent website of the healing ministry is also due to go live early 2007, to spread worldwide even further. It is the hope of the ministry that the website will increase the number of subscribers.

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