Cory’s rosary: Made by Lucia, blessed by Mary herself

By Fr. Catalino G. Arevalo, SJ
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:23:00 04/06/2008

Filed Under: Religions, Culture (general), People

(Reprinted with permission from ?The Messenger of Divine Love? January-March 2008 issue with minor changes to fit the Inquirer style and for brevity.)
MANILA, Philippines--When Corazon Aquino was Philippine president in 1988, she made an official visit to the Vatican on June 18 that year. That was a really memorable event in her life.
We were told that Pope John Paul II, as he read his message, departed from his text to tell Mrs. Aquino that she represented for him the Filipino people?s special love for Our Lady, and that he trusted she would foster that special love (pueblo amante de Maria) in her years as the leader of our land.
Surely, Mrs. Aquino has helped keep that love for Mary, Mother of Jesus, alive and ardent among our people through the years as a public figure. It is something she continues to do up to the present. She is an active ?apostle of the Rosary.? She is, thus, simply living out her authentic devotion to Our Blessed Mother, something very deep and very real in her own life.
Mrs. Aquino has a special rosary which she has had since 1986 when the People Power revolution (Edsa I) brought her to the presidency in a historic and unique way?with People Power as Prayer Power.
In September of 1986, Jaime Cardinal Sin and Howard Dee, who was then Ambassador to the Vatican, organized an international theological symposium on ?the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary? which was held in Fatima, Portugal. This was attended by a number of outstanding European theologians.
During the meetings, Cardinal Sin took time off to visit Sr. Lucia dos Santos, ?the last seer of Fatima? at the Carmelite convent in Coimbra. The Holy Seer, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger?s office in particular, granted the privilege of the visit.
Sister Lucia was really happy to talk with the cardinal, who was accompanied by Fr. Socrates Villegas, now bishop of Bataan.
Sister Lucia had been told of the events leading to the People Power revolution and she assured the cardinal that she and the other sisters had prayed?and prayed much?for the Filipino people?s peaceful liberation from dictatorship. She seemed well-informed about Edsa I.
What followed was something the cardinal did not expect. She took out a rosary which, according to Sr. Lucia, she had made herself, bead by bead. She wanted Cardinal Sin to give the rosary as a personal gift to Mrs. Aquino. She also said, somewhat surprisingly: ?Tell her to take good care of it.?
It was a promise of Our Lady?s blessing on Mrs. Aquino during her presidency and beyond.
Let me now cite what Mrs. Aquino said: ?Sr. Lucia sent me this rosary which she herself made, with the message that I would be supported and protected in my presidency. She added, however, that more suffering would come my way. I now know that it was a prophetic message, as I had to fight back seven coup attempts to save my administration from power-grabbers in uniform. With Our Lady?s protection, I stood my ground and never left Malacañang, even when it was being attacked.?
The special rosary saw Mrs. Aquino through seven coup attempts. She finished her term, handing over the presidency to her duly elected successor, Gen. Fidel Ramos, in 1992. She entrusted the six years of her governance to Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady?s Immaculate Heart.

Cory visits Sr. Lucia
The year 1992 marked the 75th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions and Mrs. Aquino, who was no longer head of state, went to Fatima that year, armed with a permission to visit the Carmel of Coimbra and to talk with Sr. Lucia. Her daughter Kris accompanied her on this trip. Mrs. Aquino also brought a small group with her, who, unexpectedly, were all allowed to see Sr. Lucia.
The former Father General of the Comboni Fathers, Fr. Manuel Lopes, who had served in Manila before being elected Superior General, was with the group. A native of Portugal, he acted as translator in the conversation between Mrs. Aquino and Sr. Lucia.
Again, let me quote Mrs. Aquino: ?When I visited Sr. Lucia in 1992, the first question she asked me was, ?Do you still have the rosary I sent you?? I replied, ?Yes, but right now, a niece who lives in Boston and is hoping to have a baby [has borrowed] it. I feel so blessed and privileged to have this bond with Fatima, I have shared this rosary with relatives and friends.??
When we asked Mrs. Aquino the names of some of the people who had borrowed her rosary, usually at a time of crisis or a health need?a serious surgical procedure, for instance, or when begging for some important grace from the Lord?she sent this text message: ?Some names I remember who prayed using the rosary given by Sr. Lucia: Teddy Benigno, Chino Roces, Ed Angara, Violy Drilon, Bea Zobel and her daughter, Titoy Pardo, Sasa Lichauco, Doding Carlos, Meldy Cojuangco and her son Tony, Sr. Christine Tan, Mercy Tuason, Howard Dee and Dodo Dee, Arbern Santos, Bettina Osmeña and ... my sisters, my children and grandchildren.?
The list went on quite a bit and there were moving stories that accompanied many of the ?borrowings.?
The last weeks of Chino Roces? life was one story worth telling.
The heroic Chino had asked Mrs. Aquino to let him borrow the rosary as he waited for death. He prayed it daily with his loved ones, returning filial devotion to Our Lady when the end came.

Legendary
Sr. Lucia?s rosary has become somewhat of a legend.
Mrs. Aquino has been touched by accounts of how much healing, strength and comfort (even miracles) the rosary has brought to those who have borrowed it. But she has also wondered, as others have, why the humble and saintly Sr. Lucia was so insistent that she ?take good care of the rosary.?
One of those who were with Mrs. Aquino at Fatima in 1992 said: ?It seems to me that the sisters at Coimbra knew that Our Blessed Mother still appeared to Sr. Lucia, from time to time, even in her later years. It is interesting to note that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB, the present Vatican Secretary of State, who ?officially interviewed? Sr. Lucia more than once before her death, said the same thing: ?Sr. Lucia received visits from the Blessed Mother in later years of her life.??
Some of the sisters believe that Our Lady, during one of her visits to Sr. Lucia, held the rosary in her hands and blessed it for Mrs. Aquino, promising her presence and strength in times of suffering and need. That was why Sr. Lucia reminded Mrs. Aquino to take good care of the rosary. Our Lady had held it in her own hands.

Lessons of Fatima
Let me share Mrs. Aquino?s words on trusting Our Blessed Mother and praying to her:
?What are the lessons of Fatima, which I have experienced in my own life and which I can share with you? When people talk of Fatima, they invariably focus on the secrets of Fatima. These are the ?three secrets? of Fatima which Ninoy and I discovered:
?First is the power of prayer, especially the daily praying of the rosary of Our Lady.
?Second is the acceptance in faith of God?s plan in our own lives and the entrustment of our lives to Mary.
?Third is the spirit of sacrifice to carry out God?s designs, after the example of Mary, offering personal sacrifice for a greater good toward God?s purposes.

Praying with Sr. Lucia
?These three elements are actually intertwined, as one leads to the others, to complete the process of one?s total conversion.?
Sr. Lucia dos Santos died in Coimbra on Feb. 13, 2005. She had earlier witnessed the beatification of her two cousins, Francisco and Giancinta Marto, on May 13, 2000, in Fatima.
Now that, as we hope and trust, Sr. Lucia has joined her cousins in heaven, we know she joins Mrs. Aquino whenever she prays with her ?special rosary.?

A Selfless Heroine Act of a 12-year-old Girl

LONG BEACH, Washington - As Charles Ostrander failed in the turbulent waves of the Pacific, it was another 12-year-old who put her life on the line to save him - the first in a series of responders who eventually pulled Ostrander back from the brink of death.


Nicole Kissel's daring actions provided rescue crews with what turned out to be a crucial extension of time. Ostrander, who goes by his nickname Dale, ended up spending several minutes lost in the water, was found lifeless in the surf but has since been revived in a remarkable recovery that defied even the expectations of his parents.

On Wednesday, he was out of the ICU and starting to talk with his family.

After hearing Dale's call for help Friday, Nicole immediately turned her boogie board toward deeper waters despite the objections of her father, who shouted over the crashing waves about the dangerous conditions. Nicole managed to reach Dale, who was struggling to stay afloat, and helped him onto the three-foot board. Together, the two youths struggled against the rip current that had turned an average day at a popular beach into chaos.

"When we were on that board, I kind of shouted out to myself: 'We're going to die. I can't die like this,'" Nicole recalled.

Dale, meanwhile, had offered words of assurance: "Keep paddling. We're almost there."

If only.

A rogue wave slammed into the pair, knocking them off the board. Nicole managed to get back up, but Dale disappeared back into the surf.

By the time rescuers had reached the beach, fellow members of the church group Dale had been traveling with were huddled in tears and prayer while some stood on trucks trying to get a vantage point to spot him.

Eddie Mendez, a volunteer water rescuer, was working his day job at a construction site when the emergency call came in. The 34-year-old immediately drove over to the beach and changed into a wet suit while his colleague launched two jet skis. Mendez said he saw a shadow moving under the breaking water offshore, so he and a diver rushed over.  They scanned the area for a few minutes before Mendez spotted the shadow again.  They found the boy floating about two feet below the surface of the water.

"He was white-pale and face down," Mendez said.

As they pulled the boy on board, Mendez realized he was rescuing a child — about the age of his own daughter.

"I thought, 'Wow, this is like my own child,'" Mendez said.

Mendez drove the boy to the beach, where emergency responders began trying to revive him. There was no sign of life but they kept performing CPR as they transported him. Finally, after Dale reached a nearby hospital, his pulse returned.

Then Dale was flown from the southwest Washington coast to OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Ore. His parents were still steeling themselves for the worst.

"I expected to say our goodbyes and so did my wife, and we were just prepared for that," said Chad Ostrander, who was at the family's home in Spanaway, Wash., when it happened. But on Sunday night, as he was eased off sedatives, Dale opened his eyes.

"At that moment, that was the first glimmer of any hope," his father said. "It didn't mean he was going to make it. It just meant that there was hope."

It's unclear whether he'll fully recover, but his parents have hope.

"There's been several miracles just in the circumstances of finding him, the fact that he's not dead, the fact that he can move, the fact that he can speak," Chad Ostrander said. "Unbelievable."

Generally, the chances of surviving a near-drowning increase when a person is young, the water is cold and the time spent underwater is short. Dr. Mark Morocco, an emergency room doctor at theRonald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, said medical literature cites at least one case in which a person survived after being submerged for about an hour.

Morocco said the fact that Dale was wearing long sleeves probably helped him.

It is not clear how long the boy was actually underwater. Mendez said about 15 minutes elapsed between the time rescuers were dispatched and the time Dale was pulled from the ocean.

Morocco, who was not involved in Dale's care, said swift treatment was key. He credited rescuers for continuing resuscitation efforts even though the boy lacked a pulse and reflexes.

"When this kid came out of the surf, he looked dead," he said. "But you have to ignore the fact that he looks dead" and give CPR.

Dale starting talking on Monday. When his parents encouraged him to cough to clear his throat, he replied, "I don't have to."

Doctors have cautioned his parents that even if Dale survives, he could have permanent brain damage.

The physicians "were very clear that he had been under for too long, had been without oxygen for too long," Kirsten Ostrander said. "We trust (God) no matter what."

Dale will need speech and physical therapy, and can't get out of his hospital bed yet, his father said.

"Things are going along better than anyone expected so at this point we're very happy," he said.

"Honestly, all of the doctors' prospects are very negative. They're very honest and blunt. But they said every once in a while there's a miracle, and we don't want to give up on that," Ostrander said.

Dale has uttered a few more words. Ostrander said that when he told him he couldn't get out of bed, "He reared up and said, 'Yes, I can.'"

Two more words came Wednesday, when Nicole Kissel visited him.

She said he seemed to have trouble focusing his eyes for most of the 15-minute reunion. But as she left, he made eye contact for the first time and said, "Thank you."

JAPAN'S TOUCHING REUNIONS AMIDST CRISIS

There's not much good news in the wake of last week's devastating 9.0 earthquake in Japan. So far, the disaster may have left as many as 10,000 dead and half a million homeless, as well as sparking a nuclear crisis that is still unfolding. But amid the tragedy, some tsunami and earthquake victims have--against the odds--reunited with their loved ones and shared their incredible tales of survival.
Akiko Kosaka, who was studying English in California, had all but given up hope of hearing that her family had survived in the coastal village of Minami Sanriku. Nearly half the town's inhabitants are missing or feared dead.
After a friend tipped her off, Kosaka found a YouTube video of local news coverage that shows her older sister wearing a hard hat and calling out to the cameras to let her little sister in America know that the family has survived, Kosaka told CNN. The video shows that the houses next to her family home have been destroyed, making the family's survival all the more miraculous. You can watch her story, and other moving reunion vidoes, below.

"I didn't think they survived," she told CNN. "I cried for three days--Friday, Saturday, Sunday." Kosaka is now trying to let them know she's received their message through a video she uploaded.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has documented an elderly couple's journey to a small coastal town devastated by the tsunami to see if they could find their daughter and three grandchildren living there. 

CNN has translated NHK video showing a slew of reunions three days after the quake first hit. One man speaks to his wife over the phone and hears for the first time that she has survived. Another man searches for the employees in his now-destroyed sake factory, and finally reuintes with one.

"Today Show" host Ann Curry helped worried family members find Californian Canon Purdy, who returned to the town of Minamisanriku, where she taught English, the day the earthquake hit. Purdy's sister tweeted Curry that she was still missing, and asked for help finding her. Curry found Purdy in the town--where a four-story wave swept away many buildings--and got her on the phone with her sister.

A Japanese soldier right after he discovered a four-month-old baby in the rubble in the village of Ishinomaki. The soldiers somehow managed to locate the baby's father, who thought his baby had washed away with the tsunami's waves, and reunite them. "Her discovery has put a new energy into the search," a civil defence official told The Daily Mail. "We will listen, look and dig with even more diligence after this."

Japan’s nuclear crisis: Where things stand

The ongoing crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has turned into what one analyst calls "a slow-moving nightmare," with fires, leaks of poisonous radiation, and mass evacuations.
With events shifting quickly, and a sometimes confusing succession of announcements coming from authorities, it can be hard to get a clear sense of exactly what's happening, and of what to expect going forward. So here's a rundown, based on several recent news reports, on where things stand five days in…


What's at the root of the problem?
Friday's earthquake and tsunami caused power outages across northern Japan -- including at the Daiichi plant, which comprises six separate reactors. That in turn caused a failure of the reactors' cooling systems, which are needed to keep the nuclear fuel from overheating and melting down and/or triggering an explosion, releasing poisonous radiation into the atmosphere.

What's the current situation at the plant?
Yesterday, an explosion caused the containment vessel covering the Number 2 reactor to crack, releasing into the air a surge of radiation 800 times more intense than the recommended hourly exposure limit in Japan. One third of the fuel rods at the reactor were reportedly damaged. In addition, another powerful explosion blew a 26-foot wide hole in the side of Number 4 reactor, causing fires to break out and a pool containing spent fuel rods to begin dangerously overheating.
The Japanese military tried to use helicopters to dump water from the air to cool the Number 4 reactor, but that plan was abandoned after a third explosion -- this one damaging the roof and cooling system of the Number 3 reactor -- because it would have meant flying a helicopter into radioactive steam. Gregory Jaczko, the top U.S. nuclear official, said today that all the water was gone from the pool containing the fuel rods at the Number 4 reactor -- an assertion denied by a spokesman for the Japanese power company that runs the plant. If Jaczko is correct, it would mean there is nothing to stop the fuel from melting down, spewing radiation.
Water was also poured into the Numbers 5 and 6 reactors, suggesting that essentially the entire plant could be at risk of overheating.
In what appears to have been an understatement, the plant operator described the situation at the Number 4 reactor as "not so good." But in some ways the rupture at the Number 3 reactor is especially troubling, because it's the only reactor that uses plutonium as part of its fuel mix. If absorbed into the bloodstream, plutonium can stay in the liver or bone marrow and cause cancer.
Japanese officials said early Thursday they're close to completing a new power line which would restore the cooling systems for the reactors, but it's unclear when the line will be up and running.

How much of the surrounding area is likely to be affected by the radiation?
The government has told the roughly 140,000 people who live within 18 miles of the plant to stay indoors, but has said that people outside that zone can safely go outside. However, some experts have accused the Japanese authorities of underplaying the severity of the crisis. The U.S. embassy has recommended that Americans within 50 miles of the plant evacuate the area or stay indoors.
Tokyo, 180 miles south of the plant, has recorded radiation levels only slightly above normal. Still, both France and Australia have urged their nationals throughout the country to leave, and many Tokyo residents have been staying indoors. One American couple living in Tokyo told family they don't yet see a need to leave, but are monitoring the situation closely.

What other ideas are being considered?
In what experts describe as a last-ditch effort, police are hoping to use a water cannon -- usually used to quell riots -- to cool the nuclear fuel. Officials have also proposed using boric acid, which can help slow nuclear reactions by absorbing neutrons.
On Monday, 750 workers were withdrawn from the facility, leaving a core of 50 to battle the crisis alone while exposing themselves to potentially deadly levels of radiation. But even those workers appeared to have been withdrawn today after a surge in radiation caused by new explosions made the area too dangerous.

What are the best- and worst-case scenarios?
The best case scenario is that efforts to cool the fuel rods succeed, and damage to the surrounding environment is limited to an area within about 15 miles of the plant. The worst is a full-scale meltdown of the reactors caused by overheating, which would release much larger amounts of radiation into the air than has yet occurred.  In that case, the damage could potentially approach the level of the Soviet Union's 1986 Chernobyl disaster, for which estimates of deaths vary from 4000 to close to one million.
How does the crisis rank, in terms of nuclear plant accidents?
On Saturday, Japanese authorities ranked the incident a Level Four on a one-to-seven scale used to rank nuclear accidents. but things have worsened since then, and yesterday France's nuclear authority said it should be classified as a Level Six. Chernobyl is the only Level 7 accident ever to have occurred.
In this image released by Tokyo Electric Power Co., smoke billows from the No. 3 unit among four housings cover four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.  (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)

JAPAN'S MIRACLE

Four-Month Old Baby

Amid the silent corpses a baby cried out - and Japan met its tiniest miracle.
On March 14 soldiers from the Japanese Defense Force were going door-to-door, pulling bodies from homes flattened by the earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki City, a coastal town northeast of Senda. More accustomed to the crunching of rubble and the sloshing of mud than to the sound of life, they dismissed the baby's cry as a mistake. Until they heard it again. (See 7 ways to help earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.)

They made their way to the pile of debris, and carefully removed fragments of wood and slate, shattered glass and rock. And then they saw her: a four-month old baby girl in a pink woolen bear suit.

The tidal wave literally swept the unnamed girl away from her parents' arms when it hit their home on March 11. Since then her parents - both of whom survived the disaster - have taken refuge in their wrecked house, and worried that their little girl was dead. Soldiers managed to reunite the baby with her overjoyed father shortly after the rescue.
"Her discovery has put a new energy into the search," a civil defense official told a local news crew. "We will listen, look and dig with even more diligence after this." Ahead of the baby's rescue, officials reported finding at least 2,000 bodies washed up on the shoreline of Miyagi prefecture. How the child survived drowning - or being crushed by fallen trees and houses - remains a mystery. (See pictures of the calamity of Japan's quake.)
In a nation short on good news, other rescues have buoyed morale, too. In Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, the devastating tidal wave swept away an elderly woman along with her entire house - but it couldn't extinguish her will to live.

The infant was apparently safe and unharmed, and was reunited with her father after she was spotted by member of Japan's Self-Defense Force who had gone house to house looking for bodies.

Details about the child's amazing rescue were few, with some even suggesting she had been with her father since the area was ravaged by Friday's twin devastations, but the image of a baby in a pink jacket being held by a soldier is bringing much-needed comfort at a time of uncertainty and crisis.

70-Year Old and 60-Year Old Found Alive

Rescuers found the 70-year-old alive inside her home on March 15, four days after the black tidal wave wiped out much of the region. Osaka fire department spokesman Yuko Kotani told the Associated Press the woman is now receiving treatment in a local hospital. She is conscious but suffering from hypothermia. (See how to tend to Japan's psychological scars.)

Elsewhere, 60-year old Hiromitsu Shinkawa survived two days at sea by clinging on to his floating rooftop. He was discovered 10 miles off the Japanese coastline. "Several helicopters and ships passed but none of them noticed me," he said after his March 13 rescue. "I thought that was going to be the last day of my life." (via Daily Mail)