Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters

Edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Orosa

Anvil, 2009, softcover, 158 pages, ISBN 9789712722899

Winner of the prestigious Gintong Aklat Award for 2010

Avail­able from PALH

PALH has a few rare out-of-ptint copies, $75 each, US ship­ping $10, email palhbooks@gmail.com

True Experiences of Encountering God

This col­lec­tion of 18 essays focus­es on true-to-life expe­ri­ences of encoun­ter­ing God. Con­trib­u­tors have writ­ten hon­est­ly about their spir­i­tu­al encounter after the death of a fam­i­ly mem­ber, or ill­ness of self or of fam­i­ly mem­bers, or infi­deli­ty of a spouse, or dif­fi­cul­ties with fam­i­ly mem­bers. Oth­ers write of expe­ri­enc­ing God’s pres­ence dur­ing child­birth, in school, dur­ing a zen-moment, and dur­ing pil­grim­ages to Lour­des and Med­ju­gor­je. The expe­ri­ences are var­ied; some writ­ers are Catholics, some are Born-Again Chris­tians. Eleven of the con­trib­u­tors are based in the Unit­ed States, while sev­en are based in the Philip­pines. The book thus pro­vides a Fil­ipino and Fil­ipino Amer­i­can points of view.

 

Con­trib­u­tors are: Mila D. Aguilar, Raquel Villav­i­cen­cio Bal­ag­tas, M.G. Bertul­fo, Susan Evan­ge­lista, M. Eveli­na Galang, Eve­lyn Reg­n­er Seno, Tony Rob­les, Edgar Poma, Aileen Ibardaloza, Pauli­no Lim, Jr., Bri­an Ascalon Roley, Mar­lin­da Angbet­ic Tan, Lisa B. Mar­tinez, Felice Pru­dente Sta. Maria, C. Sophia Ibardaloza, Reme A. Gre­fal­da. Cecil­ia and Mar­i­ly also have essays in the book.

 

Praise

“There is one thing I am sure of, and it is that God will nev­er do any­thing that is bad for us. Our puny minds often can­not under­stand how all our suf­fer­ings can be good for us, but if we look back at our lives, we see how every­thing even­tu­al­ly works out well in the end. This is the faith that under­lies the essays in this book. It is a sim­ple faith, but a pro­found one.” (Isagani R. Cruz for The Philip­pine Star)

“My father con­fes­sor once told me, that at times one would not be able to see God’s plan until one looks back or par­take in the expe­ri­ence of oth­ers. This book, a col­lec­tion of nar­ra­tives on find­ing God will sure­ly uplift our faith as we learn from the expe­ri­ence of oth­ers.” (Joce­lyn B. Ger­ra, Ph.D, OPL, (Lay Domini­can), Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Ramon Aboitiz Foun­da­tion, Inc.)

“Find­ing God on earth, next to enter­ing heav­en in eter­nal life is, to my mind, the great­est gift one can experience.I know that not every­one can be aware that he or she is find­ing God at

pre­cise­ly the moment this expe­ri­ence is hap­pen­ing, but all the con­trib­u­tors are to be envied, for find­ing God can be such an awe­some moment whether it hap­pens when one is in great phys­i­cal pain or in deep spir­i­tu­al anguish. I am priv­i­leged to write one of the blurbs of a book being ded­i­cat­ed to the mem­o­ry of my dear friend, Jose de San­tos Orosa, who taught me what for­give­ness is all about.” (Jose­fi­na T. Lichua­co, colum­nist, for­mer Sec­re­tary of the Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion and Communications)

Book Review

Allen Gabor­ro for Philip­pine News, Novem­ber 20, 2009