The 9PMers

The 9PMers on my birthday.

There's a new trend among the students at ICPS. No, uso na palagi yung mga gwapo at maganda eh, it's more of students gathering together to pray.

Pray? Yes.

We call ourselves the ICPS 9PMers. As the name implies, we stop at 9:00 PM to pray for each other and for our school and community in general. We take upon ourselves two powerful ladies as patronesses, Our Lady, Mary Mediatrix of All Grace and Saint Philomena.

The idea of praying at 9:00 PM started in 2005, during our retreat at Don Bosco Batulao. We have decided, as one batch, to pray every night, at 9:00 in the evening, for each other and for our batch in general. While all of us forgot about this commitment, it re-dawned on me after one of our Chapter meetings at the Dominican Laity just a few months ago.

Maybe, I said, this is Mama Mary's and St. Philomena's sign for me. This came after my battle with death, and I embraced this as a simple sign of gratitude from God and these two Patronesses, though they're new to my system, still their intercession to Our Lord is truly beyond compare.

After this meeting, I called upon my choir members and student-lectors, sharing with them my thoughts of setting up a group dedicated to praying for their needs, as well as the needs of their families and of the Church in general. I don't know what made these modern guys and gals say yes, as I expected with the cold trace in their faces that they would reject my offer.

But then, they said yes. And like a mother giving birth to her child, the 9PMers was born. 

We only started with a group of 15, but as days pass we had grown in number, students who were interested not only in the group, but also in knowing Our Lord more.

We sent this photo to the Universal Living Rosary
Association, who sent us this reply of
appreciation. Thanks, Ma'am Patty! :)

They are placed under the motherly protection of Our Lady, Mary Mediatrix of All Grace, they are given a Scapular and a Rosary, which they will pray every single day as a way of drawing closer to Our Mother. They also get to know this Marian title and how she visited our country in 1948 to bring a message of peace and love from God.

As a gift, they are also placed under the intercession of St. Philomena. Their names are enlisted at the Living Rosary Association, and so they receive the Cord of St. Philomena, which they wear everyday, either as a waist cord or a bracelet. The cord is a sign of purity and martyrdom in which the members promise to protect all their lives.

In a matter of days, miracles came in, like Heaven knocking on the door of our hearts. I will tell it on my later posts. 

As of now, there are more students coming, and I was able to fill-in more than 60 slots on my forms. This is a sure sign of things yet to come.

Please pray for these students. :)