Maligayang Kaarawan Mama Mary

With eyes closed in fervent prayer, I wish you a Happy birthday MAMA MARY.

It is happening again, my stats is turning those magic numbers for so many years now every time we celebrate Mama Mary’s birthday.

Catholic churches are closed again because the group handling Covid 19 here opted to return to MECQ (Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine) after declaring three days ago that Metro Manila would be under GCQ (General Community Quarantine). No matter what they term it, even how many CQs are there, bubbles, localized lockdown, granular lockdown as long as the problem of this pandemic is not properly addressed, we will remain having those positive cases everyday. Every sacrifice is borne by the Filipino people because of the inefficient way those retired generals are handling this pandemic. The(ir) president woudn’t trust the expertise of the medical sector to address the problem.

For almost two years now, I haven’t been inside the church because of so many restrictions. I guess the Philippines is the only country with the longest lockdown. I just rely on online masses everyday.

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Un Pueblo Amante de Maria

The Philippines has been a nation known for its devotion to Mama Mary

Pueble Amante de Maria. People in love with Mary. It is an endearment we use for Mama Mary. Roughly translated in Tagalog, it’s bayang sumisinta kay Maria.

Tomorrow is Mama Mary’s birthday. I was always in awe of the stats I gathered on my previous posts about her birthday. I garnered the highest stats in one day in one of my birthday posts about her. If I remember, got a total of 4,843 visits. Amazing.

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Happy Birthday Mama Mary

Ad Jesum per Mariam! To Jesus through Mary.

Of all the images that I saw of Mama Mary, I love this the most. NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA LECHE. An image of a mother breastfeeding her child.

I took this in one of the exhibits I attended with a friend  back in 2012. Oh, and my stats at WordPress is again doing a crazy dance since last night. There was a time when I garnered more than 4,300 hits in one day because of my blog on Mama Mary’s birthday. And every time her birthday comes, there is always a spike in my stats.

Let it be known that we don’t worship Mary, we venerate her.

MALIGAYANG KAARAWAN MAHAL  NAMING INA!

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Fitbit And…. Happy Birthday Our Dear Mother

Have you heard of this gadget? Nissa has one not exactly like in the picture because hers has metal band. It is a digital watch which also shows the number of steps or strides you have taken in one particular day.

When I was at the hospital, Nissa made me wear it every time I go out to visit the university campus or to buy food. The more you move and walk or run, it would register on your fitbit. Accordingly, “Your speed depends on the length of each stride and the rate at which you turn strides over. If you want to go faster, you have to increase either stride length or stride turnover.” 

Such a lovely and smart fitness tracker. It records the number of strides you have made within the day via Bluetooth on your cellphones. Nissa has to make 12,500 strides  a day to earn points which have equivalent gifts  converted monthly.

I enjoyed going up and down the stairs, sometimes not using the elevator to keep track of my strides. Nissa was billeted at the fourth floor so you can imagine the exercise just walking.

Today is Mama Mary’s birthday. I  have always made a short blog of it through the years. It is always a nice surprise that I get lots of views  every September 8.  Attended the early mass at 6am. It was a lovely homily from one of my favorite priests, Fr. Leo Luanzon. We sang the Salve Regina in her honor.

Ad Jesum per Mariam! To Jesus through Mary!

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Thank You MAMA MARY

I hope it is not too late to say “happy birthday  Mama Mary”. 

For those of you who read  my blog regularly, you might have noticed that since 2011, I’ve been getting upward spike every time I blog about Mama Mary’s birthday and the bulk of views comes from my country. I love Mama Mary.  Yes, every September 7 and September 8, I get notifications from  WordPress. Last year was the highest so far with a total of 4,893 in one day alone.

WordPress has sent me notifications  since the other day and again I am amazed by the amount of views I got until this morning. This one is the latest so far with this message:

Your blog, DREAMS AND ESCAPES, appears to be getting more traffic than usual! 303 hourly views – 6 hourly views on average
A spike in your stats.

Your blog, DREAMS AND ESCAPES, appears to be getting more traffic than usual! 303 hourly views – 6 hourly views on average A spike in your stats

Translated into numbers, I got 2,020 views the other day and 2,713 views as of this morning. It is still moving upward. Thank you Mama Mary, my blog posts about you are instrumental in these numbers.

May you all be touched with everyday blessings.

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When Your Stats Go Crazy

It really did for two consecutive days and all because it was Mama Mary’s birthday. For the past five years, I blogged about Mama Mary’s birthday – quotes, prayers and my personal feelings on celebrating such an event as a Catholic. And for the past five years, I’ve noticed the crazy dance on my blog views and stats. The last time it did was about two years ago with a total of 2,889 stats in one day and I was happy but what I saw the past two days made me even happier. And it’s not only because of the additional significant stats, it’s because so many people especially from the Philippines really love to celebrate the event.

I took  screenshots of my total stats. The bar graph for the past two days looked really weird with my average views of 200 really looking like dots compared to these.

The joys of blogging and reaching out to people from all walks of life.

Thank you for all those who viewed and visited my blog, read my posts on Mama Mary for the past two days.  It is simply amazing.

Thank you Mama Mary!

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Happy Birthday Mama Mary

Ad Jesum per Mariam! To Jesus through Mary!

If there is one event in the Catholic calendar that we all love to celebrate, it’s Mama Mary’s birthday. And for those who think that we worship Mama Mary, WE DON’T but we honor her. We see motherly love, goodness and gentleness in Mama Mary.

And here’s a lovely picture and message posted earlier at our Catholic site, the Apostles Filipino Catholic Community (AFCC).

 

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Salamat Maria

Hail Mary, full of grace….

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Saturday, Saturday, What An Amazing Saturday!

I was chatting with a friend last night and I told him Mama Mary must be proud of me because every time her birthday comes, I blog about it and my stat goes haywire. And I mean, it could not be crazier than this. Last night, I thought I have surpassed my previous stat last September 08, 2011 when it registered a total of 1,553, my highest so far in my two years of blogging. Last night though, it registered a high of 1,686, surpassing my previous stats on the same date but then I was truly amazed when it kept pointing up, up and up today with total views of 2, 410 as of this writing and when I took a look, they were mostly about Mama Mary. Oh, she’s doing a little magic with my blog 🙂 Amazing!

Nissa finally brought the DVD they have especially made for Nate.  I love it, what a lovely thirty-minute bonding with the family. My nine-year old niece was so caught with Nate’s movements and asked why  he  was always covering his face. And we all laughed when she said that he looks like her Ate Nissa, “mas matangos lang ang ilong”. Hahaha! I love the Biblical quotes they inserted in the video and the texts, wow, so touching!  I just could not wait to see him come into the world. Truly Amazing!

It was quite, quite an amazing Saturday, time spent with my daughter and son-in-law, my younger brother and his family and with Mom  who was so excited to go home to the province after almost four months of stay here.  I will miss her of course but I know she’ll be happy to visit her sisters and tend to her vegetable garden. I guess it’s time to catch up on my reading. I found three more books of Luanne Rice yesterday at Booksale.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA MARY! Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the inspiration. You are one amazing mother of all!

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