This is a beautiful prayer dedicated to the Kitchen Madonna, or Mary in the Kitchen. The Mahal na Ina ng Kusina prayer was made by my dear friend, Nina Daza Puyat. In this post, discover her journey to realizing this beautiful prayer.

Time and again, a devotion to Mama Mary emerges among the Filipino faithful whose lives have been changed for the better under her tender and adoring gaze. It is a loving response that cannot be helped by grateful hearts.

The "Mahal na Ina ng Kusina" devotional prayer calls on a Mother who accompanies us and inspires us to be like her.

As homemakers and nurturers of our own families, let us invite the Blessed Mother to accompany us in our journey as wives and mothers as it was she who first noticed and told her son that the married couple had ran out of wine. It was also she who instructed, “Do whatever He tells you.”

The Mahal na Ina ng Kusina Prayer cards are sold at P50 for the small (5x7) and P 200 for the big (8x13). To order, for pick-up in QC: call Margie or Minda at (02) 931-4446. For pick up in Makati: call Myrna at 810-8471 local 124

ALL THE NET PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF MAHAL NA INA NG KUSINA PRAYER CARDS WILL GO TOWARDS SUPPORTING THE VOCATION OF PRIESTS AND NUNS IN THE PHILIPPINES.

Just to give you a background: The prayer came about because I was in the thick of kitchen testing almost exactly a year ago and I was feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand. There were over 260 recipes to test, and some of them I was doing two, three or four times.

Sometime in April, my very kind neighbor Mrs. Luchie Roman Reyes sent me an apron. She said she bought two of these from the Padre Pio Chapel in Libis, one for her daughter Celina (my high school classmate) and one for me. It was a purple apron with the design “The Kitchen Madonna”.  I was pleasantly surprised to know that there was such an image and devotion.

A few days later, I attended the Easter Vigil mass at the Ateneo, and found myself praying to God for help with all the work I was doing. Then I remembered the Kitchen Madonna and called out to her too. It suddenly dawned on me: Why don’t we Filipinos have a tradition of the Kitchen Madonna? We should have one!

That night, I went home and researched the internet to check if there was any devotion to a Filipino Mama Mary in the Kitchen. There was none. I found that the Kitchen Madonna was more of an Irish tradition with a prayer that says: “Bless us with good food, the gift of gab, and hearty laughter. May the love and joy we share be with us for ever after. Amen.”

The prayer didn’t resonate with me. From there, I was inspired to write a Tagalog prayer to Mahal na Ina ng Kusina. Thankfully, the words just flowed and I was able to write from my heart.

A big aha moment was when I read that “Mary was an earthly mother”. I knew this of course, but I never pictured her as someone who had to take care of her home and someone who had to worry about everyday cooking!  An Assumption nun even pointed out, “Most probably, Mary was also thinking: “What should I cook for Jesus today?”  It was so comforting to know that she could understand what we home makers have to deal with every single day!

That’s what I hope the prayer will do for all Filipino women and men who have to cook every single day, whether in the Philippines or abroad. If we say a prayer before meals, why can’t we pray before we cook?

I submitted my prayer for review to the Archdiocese of Novaliches (because I live in QC) and fortunately, it was given an imprimatur by Archbishop Antonio R. Tobias.

My wish is to have this prayer devotion translated to other dialects in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Background and prayer by Nina Daza Puyat
Prayer card painting by Regine Paola Veilla
Faith to the Kitchen text by Aly Placino