Nine days of special prayers

Last weekend, our family friends came by to visit my dad. Along with them is a statue of Our Lady of Piat. When I saw the statue, I knew one thing: one week (and two days) of special novena prayer to Our Lady of Piat for my father’s illness. I thanked them for this opportunity to share some prayers for my dad, and right from the first day, the rosary prayers began.

As a practicing Catholic, there is one thing that I will have to admit. I am not a devoted rosary practitioner. It takes about some 20 minutes or so¹ to recite them. Also, it’s rather difficult to keep up and also to stay devoted to the prayers, especially when you are busy with life in general, from school to work or even get ill or exhausted. But, as a Catholic, one way or the other, I would be praying the rosary, even though if it’s not every day, every night, or so. I remember as a child, I would stay in my room just doing my own thing while the parents would pray the rosary (whether it is in a novena or just simply a time to pray) because I was still too young to recite, remember, and pray. I even remember as a teen and a college student that the parents would want me to study more. I just simply make up for the missing prayer days by attending mass every Sundays as always and share my own prayers.

I don’t think we had any special novena prayers when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer some four years ago. However, the parents did pray the rosary every night by themselves in their room before bed, as they have their own altar there. This year, when the family friends came, along with the Immaculate Mary statue, this was a good opportunity to pray along with the family. I don’t know if I’m thinking this way because of my age, but somehow deep inside, I knew it was definitely the right time.

Not all Catholics pray the rosary,² or rather devoted to rosary praying, but some time along the way, they would have to pray once and often.³ Usually, rosary prayers are best during funerals, special intentions, and through novenas, but that all really depends on the person. Some pray every day, others pray once a week, twice a week, once every two weeks, once a month, etc. etc.

It’s amazing how much I still have yet to know about my own faith, these mysterious Marian apparitions, and other ways of showing devotion to the Virgin Mary. I actually have never known about the story of Our Lady of Piat, so I actually looked up Google for the history behind the statue.⁴ Having visions of the Virgin Mary in different shapes and colors didn’t have to be based on an actual Marian apparition, but they can be based on the many miraculous stories that people have experienced or witnessed. The history and purpose behind them are just way too long and too complex to explain in this entry. Just search around Google or visit Wikipedia for further reading.

Normally, we would pray our novena at night, usually before 9:00 p.m. Sometimes we would pray in the late afternoon.⁵ After we were finished, we just go our usual night before bed.

In some ways, this is one of the reasons why I have been on and off social media as of late. The other reasons aside from novena prayer was that I wanted to be alone: building/working on my sites, concentrate more on my online classes and in my project coding, and the fact that this week is that time of the month, I have been feeling crappy and moody. Right now, even on the third day, I could still feel a lot of muscle joint and abdominal pains. When this happens, I just don’t feel like socializing or even hang out in social media. When one or two people do decide to give me a hard time by complaining, all the more that I just want to ignore them.

Signing off now. Time for bed.

On the sidenote...

1. depending on the type of rosary prayer and how fast can you read or recite the prayers [↩]
2. not all Christians pray the rosary also. I do know that Anglicans, Lutherans, and Eastern Orthodox Christians do pray the rosary. I don’t think the other Christian sects even bother… [↩]
3. unless if they’re one of the lucky ones in which they witness a Marian apparition (sightings of the Virgin Mary to a certain person or people at a particular location out on a whim) in their lifetime… [↩]
4. like the more known Our Lady of Guadalupe (one of Mexico’s important symbols), Our Lady of Piat was also portrayed as being dark-skinned [↩]
5. mainly because the parents do not want to miss an NBA playoffs game, not even just a few minutes from the game’s start. [↩]