Finding In Her Fifties

by: Melina "Mely" De Leon

"A woman rediscovers her Catholic faith"

Although born into a Catholic family and baptized as a Catholic, Mely never grew up nor acted like a Catholic.  In particular, she never learned to pray, to talk to God.  She would often wonder, when she saw  people in prayer, what novenas and rosaries are all about, why people spend time for such acts, and why they encourage others to do the same.

Mely never understood prayer even as she jumped from one religion to the other.  She followed the protestant's religious beliefs and practices when she married her first husband.  After he died, she continued to practice his faith.

And yet, she had not learned prayer.  She married again, but her second husband died too.

The death of these two men took their toll on Mely.  A single parent to children from both marriages, she found life very difficult, as selling rice cakes her only means of livelihood - was apparently not enough to sustain her family.  All these led to her search for God, for the first time.

Mely never understood prayer even as she jumped from one religion to the other.

As both Catholicism and Protestantism failed, Mely broguth her search to a Christian group, where she stayed for three years.  But like her previous destinations, even this third stop failed to give her the relief she was looking for that personal connection with God.

Her journey brought her full circle in 2007.  A group of Divine Mercy devotees requested that the Divine Mercy image be enthroned at her house .  After having experienced three different kinds of faith already, Mely found no reason to refuse.  So, she welcomed the Divine Mercy image.

During its stay in her home, Mely learned how to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet and the novena.  This eventually opened other doors, other worlds of prayers.

Why, for the first time ever - at age 57 at that - she learned how to pray the Lord's Prayer the proper way!  Gradually, the questions from her childhood were answered.  Now she knows not only how to connect with the Lord, but more importantly, where to find Him.

"It has opened my eyes," she said.  "I am now aware that God is within us."

It took two deaths, three varied ways of worship, and all of her 57 years for Mely to find her connection with God.  The journey was long and arduous, painful at times.  But, in the end, she found what she was looking for,