Nazarene devotees share tales of lives saved, transformed

Devotees force their way through the crowd to touch the rope connected to the carriage bearing the Black Nazarene during Tuesday’s grand procession. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Jeffrey Garcia, 22, a former altar boy, almost died of dengue in 2014.

He was then 19 years old — and fighting for his life in the hospital — when he thought of seeking the intercession of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo, of which he knew little besides what he had learned from his grandmother.

She told him that the image of Jesus Christ carrying a cross was “miraculous” — and that was all Garcia needed to remember.

“Before she died, my grandmother always reminded me to turn to Him for help,” he recalled.

Unlike his grandmother, however, Garcia at the time considered himself more a Marian devotee. But in December 2014, after he was diagnosed with “Stage 4 dengue,” he started to heed lola’s spiritual advice and stormed heaven with prayers.

“I was praying the rosary at that time. I was asking God to heal me because I was receiving blood transfusion every week,” he said.

Receiving a discharge slip from the hospital days later, Garcia attributed his recovery to his silent conversations with the Black Nazarene.

Keeping lola’s vow

He has since “inherited” his grandmother’s vow and joins the millions of Nazarene devotees in the annual feast.

On Monday, he went to Quirino Grandstand for the traditional “Pahalik” — an opportunity for the faithful to approach and kiss the image.

He spent the night under the stars at Rizal Park and completed his “full-time service to God” by following the “Traslacion” or grand procession the following morning.

Jesus Racaza was about the same age as Garcia when he discovered the Black Nazarene.

Life used to be a mess

His life before the Nazarene devotion was a mess, he confessed. He often got into street fights as a teenager.

Joblessness weighed him down when he became a parent raising a growing family.

One day, heavily burdened, he decided to go to Quiapo Church to pray.

He asked the Black Nazarene for a job and promised to change. Days later, he said, a company hired him as a bill collector.

Having kicked his bad habits, Racaza now considers himself a dedicated family man with a five-decade-old “panata” to keep every Jan. 9.

And the 76-year-old Racaza is not allowing age to slow him down.

He was his wearing “20-year-old Nazarene shirt” when the Inquirer saw him hearing Mass on Tuesday morning at Quirino Grandstand before the traslacion.