Amelia Ramirez, 49, sat in a wheelchair not bothering to get closer to the image of the Sto. Niño to touch it, but still believing that she would be healed.
Amelia can’t walk and has difficulty talking after she suffered a stroke last month.
Slowly, she told Cebu Daily News that she asked her daughter Kaye and her husband to bring her to the Shrine of St. Joseph in Mandaue City where icons of the Sto. Niño and Our Lady of Guadalupe were brought yesterday after the traslacion or ritual transfer for an overnight vigil.
“Mangayo ko nga maayo ko,” Amelia said teary eyed. (I’m asking that I will be healed.)
Kaye, 23, said the family has been praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Sr. Sto. Niño for her mother’s recovery.
“She has the will to live even with her health problems. She wanted to come here for a miracle,” she said.
Cecilia Colina, 55, also came to the Mandaue Shrine with her husband and grandson.
She’s been a devotee since since her son, now 33, was born. Colina said she wanted to thank the Sto. Niño for granting her prayers and for the success of her only son, who now works in a company in Taiwan.
Amelia and Cecilia were among the thousands of devotees who waited for the arrival of the images of the Holy Child and his mother Mary.
People prepared dances, flowers and balloons as thanksgiving.
The icons were brought in a motorcade from the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño for the traslacion or traditional transfer.
Along the route, owners of houses and establishments placed icons of the Sto. Niño and Virgin Mary on table altars outside.
When the motorcade reached the border of Cebu City and Mandaue City in barangay Subangdako, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, together with other devotees, got down and walked to the shrine in Mandaue.
At the shrine, Msgr. Adelito Abella, the parish priest, and parochial vicars of the shrine with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, Vice Mayor Glenn Bercede and other Mandaue City officials welcomed the images.
People waved their hands, brought balloons, threw confetti, waived flaglets and others even cried as the sacred images passed by.
Nickle Cabrera Shaw, a balikbayan who has been staying in the United States for 25 years, waited with relatives for the motorcade to pass by their ancestral house in barangay Guizo, Mandaue City.
She always comes home in January for the Sinulog, which is also time for a reunion of the Cabrera clan.
She said this year is their grandest gathering as it is also a thanksgiving for a successful surgery she recently underwent and also for her mother’s successful operation after she accidentally slipped.
The Cabrera clan all wore red T-shirts and danced to the Sinulog beat while waiting for the traslacion icons.
This year’s traslacion took a new and longer route, passing more streets in Cebu City.
The motorcade left the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño past 8 a.m. after the Misa de Traslacion officiated by Msgr. Cristobal Garcia.
Garcia urged families to practice self-denial and humility.
“Denying oneself is the secret of a (happy) family, There should also be meekness. This is what couples’ ‘I do’ means. I do deny myself for him/her. As a family, you have to deny yourselves for the world,” said Garcia in Cebuano.
“Take a look at the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. What would have happened if they only thought about themselves?” he added.
Garcia reminded people to revisit Christian values each family must possess.
“May we continue to protect our family values amid pending bills in Congress,” he said referring to the Reproductive Health bill.
Abella officiated the Mass in Mandaue City.
In his homily, Abella highlighted St. Joseph, whom he said should be the role model of fathers and husbands.
He said single mothers have been prevalent in families.
“Where are the fathers?” Abella said.
He said young people search for belongingness outside the family because they could not find a role model.
Abella said St. Joseph continued to serve his family although they were poor, and was happy in the midst of being humble and trusted God. /correspondent Fe Marie Dumaboc, Adorv Mayol and CORRESPONDENT NORMAN V. MENDOZA