A Blessed Easter to Everyone!

 

VISITA IGLESIA 2022: New and Familiar Churches Around Quezon City

 We just completed our Visita Iglesia this year.  We weren't able to do this in the past two years due to the quarantine restrictions imposed by the government.  Compared to the last time we observed this tradition, the mood in most churches was more subdued, and people were seriously praying their rosaries and stations of the cross.

We decided to go to churches in Quezon City at sunset when the Lord's Supper Mass was about to begin.  The mass at the first church we visited had already started.  Along Cordillera St., the Our Lady of Fatima Parish is near our house.  

From this church, we went to Mayon Street.  We visited the Parish of Sta Teresita, which houses a Capuchin monastery.  The church has been on the land donated by the Araneta family since before the last world war.  I couldn't get a good angle of the exterior, but I managed to take a picture of the altar from where we were seated.  

We went a few blocks from the place and reached the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. I found out that the original shrine was in Intramuros until it got destroyed during the Second World War.  When missionaries found the image, they brought it to the Sta Teresita Church we earlier visited.  The icon stayed there until the Capuchins had the new shrine built and completed in 1977.

 Following the customs of the Catholic Church, the statues and images inside the church were draped in purple cloth.

 

The next church we visited was the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine along Broadway St. in New Manila.  The shrine is the center of devotion for the Brown Scapular.  As expected, the traffic was heavy in the church's vicinity, so we decided to walk the few meters going to the church.  

We visited the St. Joseph Convent of Perpetual Adoration for our fifth church.  The place is in the middle of Hemady St, a road dotted by old and modern mansions. The convent is home to the Pink Sisters, an order of cloistered nuns who spend their day praying.  You can even ask them to pray for your special intentions.  The exterior was not well lit, so sorry for the poor quality of the photo.

Our first choice for our sixth stop was Christ the King Seminary, but the traffic going inside was heavy. We decided to go to Sto. Domingo Church, instead.  While our goal was to visit churches we hadn't visited in our previous Visita Iglesia, we decided on the church since it was more accessible from where we were.

We were surprised that there were fewer people this year visiting the church.  Perhaps the devotees visited earlier in the afternoon and left after the mass.  There were still groups praying at the stations of the Cross when we arrived.

We ended this year's Visita Iglesia at our parish church, the Holy Trinity Parish Church in Manila, as part of the tradition.  This church is very memorable to me.  I went to hear mass every Sunday in this church during my elementary school days.  It went through a lot of renovation over the years, but the basic structure is still there.  Beside the church is the school where I finished elementary, and then I transferred to a different school.  

After saying our prayers, we headed home and plan to do this again next year with God's grace. Hopefully, we can visit churches we haven't gone to or even those farther from our location.