Atheists are known for their skepticism and cynicism when it comes to prayer. They barf, puke and vomit at the notion of it, saying that “there is no such thing as God”. No wonder they only believe in themselves and worship their egos and pride. That’s why I am never convinced that Atheism is a philosophy or whatever they call it, because its more of a religion to me than a concept, worshiping and deifying themselves above all. Anyway, let’s go back to prayer. Two weeks ago, my mom and I went to the bank to withdraw some cash that needed to be transferred to my sister’s account. So when we arrived at the bank, she gave me two passbooks. One is where the money will be withdrawn and the other was where the money will deposited. In short there will be no encashment on that transaction because the transfer is only from one account to another on the same bank. Little did I know that my mom brought a cash in order to deposit it on the first account so that it would support the maintaining balance.

You know my mom hates it when we close our accounts. She says its so hard to open a new banking account so why not just maintain the balance to avoid account closure. Eh ako kasi practical, I wanted to close the account on the bank kasi nga nahihirapan ako mag withdraw dahil super tagal. It takes two hours before you finish your transaction with that bank. But my mom decided to fill in the balance coming from her own funds just to prevent the closure of the account. But when we arrived at the bank, she only handed me two passbooks and since I am the signatory of one of the accounts, I got the burden of doing the transaction.

I handed the passbook together with the withdrawal and deposit slip to the teller and I was so sure that I only have those documents with me when I approached her. In short we finished the transaction and I gave the passbooks to my mom and headed for home while she came went back to her office. Two weeks later and last night, my mom approached me via the back door of my room:

Tutoy, where is the money which I gave you when we deposited and withdraw the money from the bank?

I was stunned and surprised and explained to my mom that she did not gave me any cash, only the two passbooks and there were no encashment involved since the transaction is inter-account on the same bank.

My mother insisted that she gave it to me. But I refused to be swayed by the suggestion even if I was already beginning to wonder if she did or didn’t gave me the money haha. My mom is really forgetful because of her age and because of the demand of her work in the office which involves a lot of memory usage, parang CPU haha. Kaya pagdating sa mga ganyan later na sya nagrereact kasi saka lang nya naaalala.

At the end of our conversation she told me to let it go na lang. Let it go? sus me ang laki nung pera tapos let it go? We are not rich, pero actually money is not an object for us. Kaya when my mom said let it go, she doesn’t mean that we dont need that money, what she means by that is to “let it go rather than mourn for it or be affected by it” which can ruin the peace in the family. Pero I didn’t let go. Kasi nga ang laki nung pera. Di basta basta yung pera so I went to her and asked her if she remembered anything aside from giving it to me. Sabi nya wala na daw, pabayan na lang daw kasi ayaw na nya magisip.

Naawa ako sa nanay ko kasi Pera nila yun. They needed more money than me because anytime now they can retire.

Wala ako magawa kasi wala naman talaga sa akin yung pera at wala naman talaga sya binigay sa akin so I just prayed the rosary before I went to sleep and asked the Lord and Our Lady to let my mother remember where she put the money. If worse comes to worse na hindi na nya ma-aalala kung san nya nilagay yung pera, then I was ready to replace them na lang because I really pity my parents. Pinaghirapan nila yun tapos dahil lang kay kalimot mawawala na?

When I woke up early dawn today, I asked my mother immediately if she already remembered where she put the money but she said she looked everywhere and she’s been trying to recall where she put it for the past 2 weeks now but to no avail. Awang awa ako sa nanay ko, kaya when I was in the CR this morning I said again a solemn spontaneous prayer for that intention.

At 10 am this morning, the phone rang, it was my mom on the other line and lo and behold she already remembered where she put the money. She gave the money to my father as a petty cash for the construction payroll.

Atheists would argue that its coincidence or to some degree its just my imagination. But the strange thing is this: for the whole two weeks that my mom was trying to recall where she put the money, why did she not recall it during that period? Why today, after I said the rosary last night and today’s morning prayer for that intention? Coincidence?

There is a God who can be reached by Prayer, and everyday he manifests his presence even in the most ordinary of our daily life.

I still have so many stories that gives witness to the power of Prayer and the existence of God, just hold on lang, and watch out for it this coming months.