Holy Thursday - Part 3 - 2nd Visita Iglesia

Last part on my posts on Holy Thursday

After coming home from my Visita Iglesia with my dad, my relatives (from my mom's side) haven't started their Visita Iglesia yet and I decided that I'd come with them. We started at around 6 and we headed to more churches. I won't be posting much pictures here as in the others. I wont be going into details about what happened anymore and I'll just be posting pictures. Before we headed to St. Paul's Parish that night, we had dinner at North Park near Tomas Morato and we arrived at the last church (Christ the King, our parish) a few minutes past midnight. The first few minutes of Good Friday.

2nd Visita Iglesia 1st Church (9th church visited): National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes

National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, under the care of the Franciscan Capuchins. Originally in Intramuros.

Interior of Lourdes Shrine. The mass commemorating the Lord's Supper was still taking place when we came.

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Altar of Repose

2nd Visita Iglesia 2nd Church (10th church visited): National Shrine of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary - Sto. Domingo Church

Sto. Domingo Church, Home of Our Lady of La Naval (Taken last 2012, Feast of Our Lady of La Naval)
Personally, it's one of my favorite churches.

Sto. Domingo's altar of repose, one of the most beautiful ones I've seen

Sanctuary area.

2nd Visita Iglesia 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th churches (11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th churches visited for the day): Santuario de San Pedro Bautista (San Francisco del Monte), St. Paul the Apostle Parish (Timog), Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish (West Triangle), Sta. Rita de Cascia Parish (Philam Village) and Christ the King Parish (Veterans Village)

Santuario de San Pedro Bautista in San Francisco del Monte

Altar of Santuario de San Pedro Bautista, taken last Dec 15th

St. Paul the Apostle, Timog ave.

Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish. I was baptized at this church. Very beautiful altar of repose.

Sta. Rita de Cascia Church, Philam. It had the simplest altar of repose that night.

Our Parish, Christ the King in Veterans Village.

Holy Thursday - Part 2 - Visita Iglesia

A continuation of my Holy Thursday posts.

Visita Iglesia 3rd Church: Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Senora de Guia, Ermita

Nuestra Senora de Guia

After San Agustin, on our way here, we were thinking about which church would we visit and dad decided to go to Ermita Church, near Rizal Park and the U.S. Embassy. We didn't have a definite route for the Visita Iglesia. This church is home of the oldest Marian image in the country: The Nuestra Senora de Guia. Before heading to the church, we checked out this art shop near the church that sold nice paintings and after that, we headed here and prayed the 5th and 6th stations.

Visita Iglesia 4th Church: National Shrine of St. Michael and the Archangels, San Miguel, Near Malacanang

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle

After visiting Ermita church, we went back to that art shop and dad bought a painting. After that, we were wondering what church would we visit next. We decided the San Miguel church. En route, we passed by a few churches, such as Adamson and the Hospicio de San Jose (there's a chapel in it). FYI, this church was a former pro-Cathedral of Manila. It's not a big church, but it is quite nice, especially the high altar where images of the 7 Archangels are enthroned.

Visita Iglesia 5th Church: Archdiocesian Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto, Bustillos

Our Lady of Loreto, one of the two churches in Bustillos

After San Miguel, we had to find what could be our next stop. I thought of San Sebastian and we passed by the San Sebastian Church but didn't visit it (Maybe we should've >_<, then again, I know how to go there anyway :) ). My dad suggested the twin churches in Bustillos, the St. Anthony Church and the Loreto Church,so there we went. We did Loreto first since it was nearer where we parked.

Visita Iglesia 6th Church: St Anthony Shrine, Bustillos (Next to Our Lady of Loreto Shrine)

St. Anthony, the other church at Bustillos

After the Loreto church, we walked here since it was literally just next to the church. Both are nice churches and are interesting to go to if ever one goes to this part of Sampaloc, Manila. We had merienda after visiting the two churches.

Here are pictures of the two churches, standing next to each other.

Visita Iglesia 7th Church: Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, Kamuning, Quezon City

Sacred Heart Parish in Kamuning

After the churches at Bustillos, we finally had to come up with one last church to visit. Since we knew that ninang was going to have a Visita Iglesia at night, we had to visit a church that they're not likely going to. Not only that, it was also about 5 PM, which was a bit of a problem because some churches are starting to have the masses to commemorate the Lord's Last Supper. We decided finally to go to the Sacred Heart Church in Kamuning and when we came, their mass hasn't begun yet (I was told that it started at 6) so we concluded it here. Such a nice church, but then, the altar was covered, because of the tradition in which (some, if not most) churches cover their statues and images for Holy Week.

Their altar was covered for Holy Week.

After visiting this church, me and my dad went home and he left. I then joined my ninang for a 2nd Visita Iglesia at night. I didn't pray the stations of the cross (since I was finished) and I prayed before the blessed sacrament at each church and took pictures of them as well.

Holy Thursday - Part 1 - Chrism Mass and Visita Iglesia

What I can say about how I had my Holy Week was that it was great and blessed, though tiring since I've been going everywhere from Visita Iglesias to the procession in Marikina and spending Easter in Makati. It's been an exciting and blessed week and after a while of not posting anything, finally time to update my blog once again. :) Hopefully more adventures and posts from here on out. :)

Anyways, this post will focus on Holy Thursday. Last Holy Thursday, it's been a tradition in our family (and I'm sure many others too) to have our Visita Iglesia to other churches. The Visita Iglesia (Church Visit) is one of the most popular practices on Holy Week wherein the faithful visit 7 churches to pray the 14 stations of the cross (two in each church) and/or pray before the Blessed Sacrament if it's done on Holy Thursday night, after the time of the Last Supper. Other people though would visit 14 churches for the Visita Iglesia, I remember we did that before. But in my case though, I didn't do one Visita Iglesia, but two (yes, TWO) Visita Iglesias on Holy Thursday. Why? Because the first, I did with my dad whom I don't live with but still talk to and at times see and the other, with relatives of my mom's side, whom I live with now. This year's Holy Thursday, I went to 15 churches, and I'll tell why.

Chrism Mass: Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Cubao, Quezon City.

Cubao Cathedral, at the end of New York street in Cubao.

First, I woke up early morning to attend the Chrism Mass in our Diocese's cathedral in Cubao, which I've been going to since 2012. It was a bit stressful since I felt annoyed actually and a jeep I took to my first church kept stopping, a lot. Not a good way to start a day >_<. By the time I reached the cathedral around 6:40 AM, the prayer service began, but not the mass yet and it was already full of priests and religious. At about 7, the mass, presided by the bishop of Cubao, Most. Rev. Honesto Ongtioco, began and it was a very beautiful mass. During the mass, the hundreds of priests in attendance renewed their vows at ordination and the Chrism was blessed by Bishop Ongtioco. For those who don't know, what makes this mass special is that all the priests in a diocese attend to renew their vows and the Chrism, which are holy oils used is some of the ceremonies of the church, are blessed. After the mass, many people brought out tarpulins and signs showing support for their priests. This church was NOT part of the Visita Iglesia but it was great to go there to attend mass.

Cubao Cathedral is one of Metro Manila's prettiest churches.

After the mass, I went home and I had to wait for my dad to come. We said that we'd start at 10 AM but he came much later, sometime before 12 and when he came, we had lunch fist at Le Ching in Banawe and from there we headed to the 1st church for the Visita Iglesia.

Visita Iglesia 1st Church: Manila Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (Manila Cathedral)

Manila Cathedral, principal church of the Archdiocese of Manila

There was only one church that I wanted to go to for the Visita Iglesia this year, and that was none other than the Manila Cathedral. Last 2012, the cathedral was closed because of problems that were seen in the structure and last April 9, a week before, the cathedral was finally reopened after more than 2 years of renovation. When we came, there were a lot of people in the church and there, we started praying the Stations of the Cross. After that, I took pictures of the church. It took a while for me because the cathedral was so beautiful. Definitely worth seeing after those years it was closed.

Beautiful could be an understatement to describe this amazing structure.

The cathedral's lighting was dramatic. Really highlights the structure's elegance.

 Visita Iglesia 2nd Church: San Agustin Church

San Agustin Church, one of the oldest churches in the Philippines

Of course, since we were in Intramuros, we visited the San Agustin church, a short walk away from the Cathedral. Actually, we drove there because of the parking and to get closer. This is one of the oldest churches in the country and is the only church in Intramuros that survived World War II. For those who don't know, Intramuros alone had 7 churches within its confines and all of them (save San Agustin) didn't survive the war. The current Manila Cathedral was the only church that was rebuilt and on the same spot. If the war didn't happen or if those churches restored and had not been relocated, you could pretty much go to Intramuros to do the Visita Iglesia (unless of course you are visiting 14 churches :) ). Anyways, when we came, me and my dad prayed the 3rd and 4th stations (the stations were placed outside) and took more pictures of this church. I have to admit, probably because of the lighting, it wasn't easy to take pictures of the interior.

Like Manila Cathedral, beautiful is again an understatement here.

A building near San Agustin church. Really nice architecture.