As I've said this year is a year of discoveries, and as my blog title says it's my Eat, pray, love journey. So I thought I'd break the "Eat" part and share something on my "pray" segment. Lol. Last Holy week my best friend and I continued our traditional annual Visita Iglesia. This was started by the whole barkada more than 10 years ago but so far only the 2 of us has been able to continue without any absences so far. So I'm proud of the two of us, ahem, ahem...:) . Anyway since it has been a long time tradition, you kinda want to tweak the tradition a bit every once in a while, so about 2-3 years back we started to choose different locations from the usual route that we take. This year we decided to tweak it a bit further.
Since lately I have been thirsty for adventure and I'm always looking for my next adventure, I suggested a walking Visita Iglesia. Now for those who are familiar with this Catholic tradition you’d probably think...”Walking? Of course you walk when you do this! How is it any different? Duh?” well here’s the thing, over the years from when we started it was walk-ride a jeep-get off the church-then walk. Then a few more years when we learned to drive, it became ride the car-park-get off the church-walk back to the car -onto the next church- thing. So there I was trying to think of how we can make the experience more meaningful and adventurous at the same time. While searching the web I came across a blog where they described going around churches in the manila area, some within walking distance. So I went ahead and sent the link to my best friend and another friend planned our itinerary for us.
We usually do our visita on a Holy Thursday, the forecast for the week was rain showers should be expected. So I prayed that the day would just have the right weather for our walking tour and indeed prayers are powerful because the day started out gloomy but before we reached the first church Mr. Sun came out from his hiding. Unfortunately I failed to bring a camera so you would need to use your imagination while reading this blog to imagine the churches. Or you could search the web for pictures, hehehe.
The first was San Miguel Church. It was inside the Malacañang compound. At the front of the church you’d see a statue of St. Michael slaying a dragon or serpent. When you go inside you’d notice the old style altar. It also had tombstones inside (at the side) just like in old churches in the Laguna area. I think the church is dedicated mostly for the archangels because they had banners describing each archangel whom you can ask to intercede for you for specific petitions. So after we did our first 2 stations there, we sat for awhile for our personal prayers. We do have this tradition where when it’s our first time to go inside a church we can make a wish. I know it’s kinda childish and not really Christian-like but I would like to think that for me, at least, it was more of my personal tradition to have a certain petition for each church.:)
As I’ve mentioned it’s a”Walking Visita Iglesia”, so we left the car parked at the first church and walked to our second destination the church of St. Jude. Oh by the way, while walking towards St. Jude, I noticed a group of runners pass us by. As it was a bright and early morning I thought to myself, “wow it is indeed a nice day to go for a jog”. I was also amazed that a lot of people were walking with us. Also there were a lot of groups with different “styles” for their pilgrimage. I saw a group carrying their Sto. Niños. Another group were walking barefoot, take note this was male and females alike. I could really see the sacrifice they were doing. Even though it was just about the right temperature that day, I could say that walking barefoot would still entail a LOT of sacrifice and from the looks of it, really uncomfortable.
Anyhow I’ve heard a lot about this church, they say it’s where you go for petitions regarding lost causes, the impossible, and the most famous one, for board takers. It was my first time to go there. The church was a bit modern. I was a bit disappointed, sorry to say that, but I guess I was expecting an “old church look”. You see I really love old churches. I’m not an architect but I do have great appreciation for old and artistic facades. We entered the church itself, I thought it would be big since they said a lot of students really go there for Thursday masses (for the novena for the board exam), but discovered that It was just average in size. I imagined it would really probably be crowded during those masses. The altar was also modern in style and quite simple.
Earlier I mentioned I noticed a group of runners pass us by, right? To my amazement (sorry very little and ordinary things really seem to amaze me these days, hehehe) when we went for the third station, I saw them again in front of one of the stations just finishing up. It was amazing for me to see them kneel on one knee all at the same time apparently they’ve incorporated their health regimen to their Visita Iglesia! (seeing this, you could just imagine the wheels in my head turning, because Dora’s thinking of what our next year’s Visita Iglesia would be! :p) I nudged my friends and said “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” hahaha. That’s when we knew what we would be doing for next year........hopefully. :p
Onto our third church, we had to walk back a bit to the second gate of Malacañang, the one facing Mendiola. AGAIN, the explorer in ME was amazed! Lol! Just a little history, back when I was choosing which college to go to, I really said to myself that I did not want to study in Manila because of the traffic and air pollution. So when we got out of the gate I was surprised to see La consolacion college to my left and that I found myself in the Mendiola area where most historic rallies occur! J I even saw the barbed wires they use for barricades. To the right you’d notice a quite unimpressive building. Not being familiar I sort of just followed my friends’ lead to where we were going. I did, purposely, not do my homework to check out the churches because I wanted to be surprised. Lo and behold, this third church was a big surprise! The San Beda Church (Our Lady of Montserrat Abbey) from the outside looked modern, though there were spires (I think that is what they are called) on the roof indicating it’s a church. The entrance itself was just a small opening but wait till you get inside the church!!!
My best friend, Lai, told me that I’d really love this church. Indeed when we got in I understood what she was saying. I felt I was in Lipa cathedral. There were impressive paintings at the ceiling and I loved the angels holding the lamps. Also I do have a thing for long aisles. Because my dream church requirement for my dream wedding has to have a long aisle. In this church it was only short but as I sat there, I said to myself “Wow! I want to get married here”. hehehe. The church felt serene despite the presence of a lot of people. I felt I was transported back in time. I also noticed the balcony on both sides of the church. This is my new favourite church so far. (pix above was the only photo I could take with my cellphone)
Since we started out early we ate our breakfast at a nearby Mc Donald’s and freshened up because the temperature was already rising. Ca, our other friend, said that we would be walking quite a bit towards our 4th and 5th church. We passed by CEU and had to walk and cross a busy street, I think this is the Legarda street. I did mention that we were not the only ones doing this. So we joined the throng of people walking. Actually you can do this even without a map. All you have to do is follow the direction of the different groups and for sure it will lead you to a church. J I really felt that THIS is what a pilgrimage should be like! The sun was really up and we were all sweaty but I was really having fun!!!
So our 4th and 5th church were what they call the twin churches in Bustillos street (the Church of Our Lady of Loreto and the Church of St. Anthony Padua). Nearing the location of the churches I realized it looked familiar. That was because I’ve already heard mass about 2 years back, at one of these churches. I stayed in a house near these churches at one time when I took the board exam. I also realized that at that time if I had known I could have actually walked towards St. Jude during the boards. Sigh! Oh well, that is where the joy of discoveries lie. J The two churches were modern in style, but I liked the bigger church (Our Lady of Loreto). Back when I heard mass, I remember feeling very comfortable inside this church.
We then proceeded to our 6th church, San Sebastian church. Again I remembered that I used to pass this church when I stayed at my tita’s friends’ house. I was curious back then but since I was always in a hurry either on my way to the board or going back to the apartment after the exam, I did not take the time to explore the church. So I was surprised again that this is one of those famous churches to get married in! Lol! Oh my ignorance!!!hahaha! I liked the Inside of the church for me it gave me a gothic feel. Probably because (as I later found out) the church was made of steel and iron. It was dark inside but somehow it did not make me feel gloomy. It was in fact cool inside and also exudes serenity. I thought that I would also consider this church to get married in, hahaha! (Now why did marriage keep popping up at that time?LOL!!!). This came in a close second to my new favourite churches. I then decided that one of these days I would go back to those churches to take proper pictures and create a photo blog.
It was already nearing noon and the last church we were supposed to go to was Quiapo church. We were a bit tired and it was really, really already hot. Ca and Lai were saying maybe we should just go back to the car then just go into the first church we would pass by on our way home. Dora in me, told them that we should ask the vendors if there was another church nearer than Quiapo church, since we were already there and for me to really complete the experience. Hehehe! I was right! The vendor told us there was a small church along Hidalgo street. The Shrine of the Holy Face of Jesus. We proceeded to the church, now you’d have to be very cautious because you’d miss this church if you’re not familiar with it. This church was quite interesting. J The first thing you’d see when you go inside is the gift shop at your right and the underground Car parking LOT in front of you! Hahaha! I felt disoriented at that time because I was like “What the!!!where’s the church? Why are there cars?” lol. Apparently there is a staircase at your left that leads to the church on the second floor! J But the surprise does not stop there because in order to get to the stations of the cross you have to go up the balcony which overlooks the main area of the church. It was really interesting for me because it’s the first church I’ve seen so far with this unconventional set up, hehehe. This is where we concluded our stations of the cross. J
Having finished the Visita we were really all sweaty and tired so we decided to ask around where we can get a jeepney ride going back to where we parked our car. (Maybe it’s cheating since it was supposed to be a walking Visita all throughout, but hey it was REALLY HOT to walk back. We’d be toast before we got to the car!!!) We noticed a “padyak” and asked if he could get us at least to the second gate in mendiola or to the first church, he said He could. So for 40 pesos all three of us got to the padyak. We passed by some side streets and we were all just laughing and bantering and enjoying the ride. Before I knew it the padyak stopped at a dead end which had a gate and a lot of people were passing through it. When we got out from that gate it was such a nice surprise that we were back to the first church. I was so amazed by this discovery that we really went around in a full circle.hehehe. The “Dora” in me was ecstatic by this discovery. J
So that concludes our Visita Iglesia devotion/adventure this year. I am looking forward to our next year’s plan which would be “Jogging/walking Visita Iglesia”. I could really say that this year was the best by far because the experience was really different and I really felt the sacrifice that we did which made it more meaningful for me at least. I am really hoping that by next year we could encourage more of our friends to join us in this experience J
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