By Deedee M. Siytangco A DREAM COME TRUE (From left) Lighting candles in Lourdes for petitions; The grotto in Lourdes; Three generations in Lourdes Sanctuary, Sandee, her daughter Amanda Julia, and the author. ANGEL THOUGHTS “Don’t look back unless its to see how far you’ve come” – Anonymous I begin this week’s column with a confession. I stopped going to pilgrimages abroad with friends and relatives after my beloved passed on in 2005. I didn’t doubt my faith because of my loss, but I feared travelling since I no longer had a loving companion to go with me. The only pilgrimage we both joined was Fr. Jerry Orbos’ journey to Naju, Korea, to see the visionary Kim, and the site of the reported Marina apparitions. It was a spiritually satisfying experience that brought together a group of friends from diverse backgrounds. A few were already friends, the rest were new acquaintances brought together by a love for Mama Mary. We later cemented our friendship by forming a group called The Mission Angels and asked the men, like Patricio L. Lim, Manolo Lopez, and my Sonny, to be the “officers” of the flock. My daughter Sandee Masigan and I undertook what were to be my first long-awaited pilgrimages to Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal. It was also meant to be an opportunity to bond with her daughter, my only granddaughter Amanda Julia, in Pamplona, in the province of Navarre in Spain. She would be on spring break from her studies at the University of Navarre Serendipia. Que bendiciones! She and her dormmate Julia Cruz, who just happened to be  the “apo” of my good friend Ruperto Cruz from Pampanga, joined Sandee and me on our pilgrimage. Thanks to our journey, I’ve realized how truly blessed I am and how Jesus’ Divine Mercy will forgive our countless sins if we just ask Him, which is why we should hate no one, not even our harshest critics and haters. Devoted as I’ve always been to Mother Mary, I think I love her even more now, after seeing how she brings everyone, all races and creeds, to her Son. Lourdes was our first stop after spending four days of bonding with Amanda’s friends, which included Filipinos Bianca Javier and Inaki Eizmendi, and Madeleine Lota. Sandee rented a car to Lourdes. It was a three-and-a-half hour scenic ride. Pamplona is a beautiful city with parks, and more parks, churches, chapels, schools, and low-rise buildings worthy of an architecture magazine. The University of Navarre, run by the Opus Dei, is a sprawling manicured mini city. Amanda showed us her classrooms, lecture halls, etc. I was just awed by the premises. Allow me to boast about the courage of my apo for choosing to study abroad. Her newfound confidence delighted her lola and she seemed genuinely inspired to finish her International Studies and proceed to law! Going to Lourdes was a dream come true. You see, my mother gave me the formal name Lourdes Maria, inspired by a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes outside her hospital room then. So this was doubly sentimental for me, a visit to the spot where the Blessed Mother appeared in a dry, rocky wasteland numerous times to a 14-year-old shepherdess named Bernadette Soubirous, whom she asked to dig for water! Bernadette did and came up with muddy water. She was then asked to drink this and out of faith, she did. The muddy water became the spring, which to this day gushes forth fresh, clean, cold water, and which the local church authorities have preserved behind a thick plastic glass. Pilgrims can drink and take water from faucets put in the base of the jagged rocks under the basilica of Our Lady. We did, washed our faces in the spring water, and went around the sanctuary. The grotto is up in the crevice of the rocky cliff and it is so inspiring to pray there. The “healing” waters of Lourdes have brought many miraculous cures to those seeking Mary’s help. Somehow the bathers emerged dry. We came in a “lean” season, the cold of winter still hanging over the mountain town and the pilgrims were not that many but the baths were so full we had to skip them. In February the apparition month, the sanctuary was jampacked we were told by a Filipina, Gina, who runs the only Asian restaurant in Lourdes, just steps away from the Sanctuary. In the morning we were able to hear confession at one of the chapels and Palm Sunday mass at the Basilica. My heart overflowed with gratitude. I lighted candles for all who asked for prayers from back home. My waterloo in Lourdes were the souvenir shops selling religious items, rosaries of different colors, and materials, bottles for the holy water, statues, etc. If I only had the euros and the baggage allowance! Walking in the nightly rosary procession was amazing. The rosary was recited in different languages and devotees just answered in their own tongues. It was such an overwhelming experience and I could only thank the Lord and Mama Mary for the love and care lavished on me by my daughter and apo. They made sure lola got to the places she wanted to see. After Lourdes we went back to Pamplona and then we were on the road again, this time to France with Fatima on the itinerary. The picturesque hillside town of Fatima is visited by at least five million tourists a year. Mary’s Sanctuary is the main attraction. Sandee got us rooms at The Fatima Hotel right across the Sanctuary side entrance. The wide expanse of the main esplanade is awesome from the site of the apparition with its holy water spring and the church of the Apparition where the original statue is kept under glass. It is brought out only in May for nightly candlelight processions. The original tree where our Lady appeared on is now in its own fenced garden. Pilgrims walked on their knees on the concrete pavement from the church built for the visit of Pope John Paul II, a very devout Fatima believer, to the church and site of the apparition a kilometer away. It was on May 13 that a beautiful lady surrounded by heavenly light appeared to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Francesco, and Jacinta several times on top of a bush that seemed to them to be on fire because of its brightness. She asked them to pray the rosary, repent, and build a church on the spot she appeared. That is how the beautiful basilica came about. They were not believed by the bishop and priests in the beginning but several miraculous events later and a dancing sun on the last day of the apparitions was proof enough that indeed the visions were authentic. She told the children that she was the Lady of the Rosary. She also entrusted three secrets to Lucia, which turned out to be prophecies of the two world wars and the chaos that the world would be plunged into. The third, released only recently, saw the assassination of a pope. This turned out to be the attempt on St. Pope John Paul II’s life but the bullet fired by the assassin was deflected by the Fatima rosary he always carried with him. The three children are now canonized and are in the Church’s roster of saints.   (Journey of Faith to be continued next week)