Born With A Mission

Every person is born with a mission in life, whether it be special or ordinary. For some, it is pleasant. For others it is unpleasant and absurd; but this is for all of us a part of life that has to be accomplished for a greater good. This is the way Lornacita Gonzales, an Administrative Services Officer IV of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas considers her life. After having been charged with two great responsibilities, she continues to be her good, kind and compassionate self and fulfills her obligations with dignity and love.

Life and mission

Lorna was born in Lemery, Batangas to Rodrigo and Corazon Gonzales. Her father worked at the Central Bank Foreign Exchange Commission and her mother at the Civil Service Commission. She has a lone sibling, Rodrigo Jr., whom she considers a treasure, being the youngest and the only boy in the family. Both chil- dren were reared in the fear and love of God and in compassion for the needy. Their parents were benefactors of many priests and religious. Piety and closeness to the Church were a legacy handed down to the children.

After finishing AB-BSC in the Holy Spirit College, Mendiola, Lorna took a job at the Central Bank of the Philippines. She wanted to become a nun but her family, especially her grandparents, objected. In order to preserve her original inclination in life, she made no romantic relations with anyone and until now lives piously as a model Christian. She main- tains her promise to help religious and priests and contributes generously to the needs of the Church. When her father died in 1980, she felt it was her respon- sibility to care of her mother and brother.

But Lorna's real mission started when her brother Rodrigo (Bhoy) met a fatal accident. He was coming home from his duty as an intern medical student in a government hospital when an unidentified man hit him with a wooden club on the head. He was brought to the hospital and was at the brink of death. The family turned to God and to the Virgin Mary. Fortunately, he eluded death, but he was never the same again.

Lorna's brother became an invalid. The family's hopes for him to become a physician were turned into sorrow. But their grief has found consolation in the presence of the statue of Sto. Niño which now performs miracles, mostly of physical and spiritual healing. Lorna says that instead of her brother, the Sto. Niño now takes his place, not as an ordinary doctor, but as the best of all physicians. The miracles began in 1992, a year before Lorna's mother left this earth for her eternal reward.

How everything began

The following is Lorna's own story about the Sto Niño:

"The rather small statue of the Holy Child was brought home by my late mother, sometime in 1988, from a certain store.

"When my only brother met a fatal accident, we placed the image in the middle of our sala for our continuous prayer. My brother underwent craniotomy (skull operation) but afterwards the doctors gave up on him. However, my mother did not lose hope. With her unwavering faith, she entrusted my brother's fate to Sto. Niño, Mama Mary, St. Joseph, and to all the angels and saints she knew. She pleaded and begged the Holy Child for my brother's life.

The flood of oil

"It was Monday, at about 10:30 a.m. on January 27, 1992. When I went out of my room, I saw our wooden sala flooded with a very sweet smelling and sticky liquid.

For fear of what was before me I sat in a sofa to regain my composure. I thought I was going out of my mind or some- thing, and when I looked around, I saw the statue of the Holy Infant shedding oil profusely from His tantalizing eyes.

"My instant reaction was to scoop the liquid that was flowing down His chubby cheeks. I applied the oil over the body of my bedridden brother. Immediately after the application, my brother's terrible and endless convulsions ceased and he started to improve gradually. I consid- ered it a miracle. Meanwhile, the oil from the statue continued to flow so we had to keep it in containers.

"My mother was in Manila at that time so I phoned the Eucharistic Disciples, nuns living nearby, for help. At about noon, nuns and priests of various religious institutes came to see the strange phenom- enon and to pay homage to the Sto. Niño. The Missionaries of the Child Jesus in Makati came and gave us hundreds of novenas to be given to the devotees. We also began to distribute cottons soaked in the Holy Child's oil.

"From then on people came every day to our house. We had to construct a small prayer room inside the house to be able to accommodate the visiting devotees. When Msgr. Josefino Ramirez came on June 16, 1992, he blessed the room which we began to call the Holy Family Room and he gave the Holy Child a name -- the "Miraculous Sto. Niño de Providencia."

Since the marvel began, the statue of the Holy Child had been sweating oil every day. Dang, my cousin, has to place the oil in small bottles for free distribution to all devotees who keep coming.

"Since 1992 blessings and miraculous healings of fatal and serious ailments of faithful devotees have been reported. Most of them came from the various parts of the country, but there were some from foreign countries.

"Among these numerous graces is the miraculous cure of Dr. Terencio Gener. Dr. Gener is a retired physician who believes strongly in the power of the supernatural."

It would be inspiring to know how Lorna was able to forgive her brother's attacker who, until now has not been identified. It is also very encouraging to observe how she fulfills with love her twofold mission of caring for her brother and the Sto. Niño. She also takes care of two children: a twelve-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. They have become her family.

You may come to meet Lorna, in her home in Las Piñas. She is a person you would love to know and count among your friends.