Today, my doctor went looking to check if I had a tumor or cancer in my bladder.

After the cystoscopy, which peeped into my bladder, the doctor then said, “you are clean. No tumor. No cancer.” This procedure came after my ultrasound and Catscan. Which had me anxious.

Several days prior I already had this sense from The Lord: “you will live.”

This was his message. Then in today’s gospel (Luke 6) “I heard” that people were touching the cloak of Jesus, and that they were healed.

So I related this to Dr Brown, my urologist, who had told me, “All is clean. No signs of tumor or cancer. All is good, ” and so we gave each other fist bumps (2x or 3x)

After my doctor’s visit, I went and prayed at the blessed Sacrament in our church that same afternoon, around 3 pm, right after my procedure,

As I was praying the organist in the church loft started to play two pieces of music. He must have been practicing these pieces because they were very short “bursts,” but I knew I’ve heard the tunes before.

I was familiar with the tunes but could not remember what the lyrics were, but I was able to recall them, after digging into my memory bank, when I stepped out of the church. These were the very same songs I learned during my BCBP days: And the first one went something like …” And you are mine.”

While the second music was: “ I received the Living God, and my heart is full of joy.”

But before that realization crept in , when I knelt to thank Jesus, I, from sheer gratitude and relief, simply pushed my face into the soft pillow kneeler top, and I said, “ Lord, I don’t know what to say.” So, I just buried my face there.

It didnt take long before the hairs on the back of my head raised up ever so slightly.

It was at this moment when the organ music started to play “ … And you are mine.”

Indeed Our Lord is always near, and it has to take a sickness, a tragedy or something significant like a joy, a pain, a sorrow or even love or tragedy that could make our senses so attuned and sensitive to His love.

Indeed no words are needed between persons who love each other, even tho the Other is divine and who, while present in our life and in our universe every single moment, is nevertheless invisible, but could or is actually so proximate and so near to us as to “in dwell” in our hearts and soul.

This brief “dialogue” on that bright, sunny September Ohio afternoon, in a huge church in Columbus, if such a brief ” back and forth” may or can qualify as a “dialogue”, hardly making it as such, making it indeed very real… to me this dialogue qualifies indeed as a “conversation” though mediated by organ music.

This “conversation,” was a first for me and something that will live with me all my life.

Though I did not have the words to say ( as I mentioned earlier) it was, for all intents and purposes this act of God, so personal and so real, that brought home to my heart, His love and His assurance that “ you are mine,”

And having stuck into my hearts these words of His, he then proceeded to give me the words that I needed to say back to Him. And the song’s lyrics that I had to speak back to Him were:

“ I received the Living God, and my heart is full of joy.”

God literally put the “words” in my mouth, the words that I needed to say back to Him.

God indeed used the music of the church organist, doing his afternoon practice, to articulate the words in this, our most precious dialogue.

This was the day that God “used music” to talk to me.

And it was on the 10th of September, 2019, at three o’clock in the afternoon, in the church of St Paul, in Westerville, Ohio, in the day of Our Lord, when the gospel that morning said:

” He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground and there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea, and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases.

People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him and cured them all.” (Luke 6}

Sept 11, 2019, Westerville, Ohio

Comments: #1

from Joey Avellana, former National President, BCBP Philippines

Good morning (4:00 am in Manila), Bro. Ed! Still struggling with jet lag and roused from my unsuccessful attempts to get back to deep sleep, I open my phone and see a post from you.

Thank you for such a bold and inspiring piece that succinctly captures the love and faithfulness of our God!

You are Mine!

What more reassurance do we need?

In these times of confusion and complexity, His Words ring clear and true, if only we listen…

I AM ENOUGH.

Amen.

My prayers and thanks to the Lord for your clean bill of health, Bro. Ed!

Walk confidently and enjoy the life that God has blessed you with!

Further comment from Joey:

Thank you, Bro. Ed. I was happy just to share your Joy with you… may others be touched and moved to affirm God’s tender and complete love for each and everyone of us!

That is the reason we are in the BCBP community… so we can celebrate, witness to and inspire other men and women of God’s Infinite Love for all!

Comment: #2

Polet Velez,

Former BCBP Chapter Head, Los Angeles, California

I feel you bro. Ed. Worship songs have ways of moving me to tears not because of osmosis or superb choir rendition but due to depth of personal meaning the words carry and burrow their way into my thirsty soul.

it’s Godspeak

Comment #3

From Alex Espiritu, BCBP New York Outreach

Hi Ed,

Testimonies like this invites us to

A deeper level of introspection of our lives and just how great God’s love for us truly is. The problem is that we often ignore this reality and not trusting him fully, thinking we are in control, so we do not experience the best of what He has in store for us.

Would you permit me to post your testimony in our website and share with all BCBP brothers and sisters?

God’s blessing is upon us all.