La Naval de Manila 2014

Today is the feast day of La Gran Senora de Filipinas, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, La Naval de Manila. Today, we devotees remember the victories of 1646 where the Filipino-Spanish forces won over the vastly superior Dutch armada in what we believe was through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. It can be said, this day is an important day for our nation both in its history and the people's faith.

Earlier today, I went to Our Lady's shrine, Sto. Domingo Church and attended the 10 AM mass. Thousands of people attended the celebrations a while ago. While the masses were going on at the church, the carrozas for the grand procession are being readied and before and after the mass, I just went around the place.

Here's some pics from Sto. Domingo today:

The National Shrine of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Sto. Domingo Church

The saints in preparation for the grand procession.

Our Lady's altar is amazing!

Carroza truinfal of Our Lady of La Naval

I'll be uploading more pics here

Later on, the grand procession in honor of Our Lady will begin at 4 PM and I'm gonna return to Sto. Domingo to attend it. I have been attending these celebrations since my first one in 2007 and as it's always been every year, it's a blessing to attend this celebration and I intend to do this again in the years to come, when I can.

To all devotees, happy fiesta! VIVA LA VIRGEN!

That Weird Feeling...

You know, there's that weird feeling that comes after attending something big. In my case, yesterday, I attended Cosplay Mania with my brother (gonna post about that eventually) and really it was a fun event, probably one of the best events of it's kind that I have attended (can't say if it's the best so far...).

Now, that the event's over, I have this strange feeling. I dunno how to describe it but all I can say is that it's weird. Something like tired, happy but at the same time sad. This is always my feeling after attending something as euphoric as yesterday. Even until today, I feel a bit tired, but that's gonna change as time passes by...

For some reason, it also felt surreal. No doubt events like that are out of the ordinary, since as they say, minsan lang to mangyari. I mean, the feeling is like; did that really happen? Nandun ba ko? Things like that, it felt like you were in a dream or something but oddly, you know that you were there. Kaya nga, out of the ordinary, eh. Of course, souvenirs and photos all the more prove that it did happen and that I was there. Now that things are back to normal (for now that is...), it just feels weird... :/ But it's not necessarily something negative. :)

It goes to show that life must go on... There are more things out there other than parties, concerts, conventions and all... :)

Kahapon sa SMX...

Going to MOA on a Rainy Night

Wow... Really was not expecting this kind of scenario...

Kanina, after attending a novena at UST, I went off to SM Mall of Asia for Cosplay Mania and to buy tickets for the next day. However, I noticed that it was raining hard outside the church and after the mass, the main entrance was flooded, making us take the exit from the seminary. It's been like this in the last few days. Us here in Metro Manila know, flash floods happened, submerging the streets and causing heavy traffic. As much as we don't want these things to happen, we can't do anything about it since they're beyond our control. Unfortunately, much of what happened to me really went out of hand.

Anyways, I took the LRT from Bambang to EDSA and on the way, I noticed that some streets were flooded. After getting off the station, it was again raining hard and all the jeeps were full, so I had to walk pa near Heritage Hotel before I finally got a jeepney to MOA. When I came to SMX, it was cold. My toes went numb (I was wearing slippers since my shoes got really wet DX). Even though I was at a cosplay event, this is perhaps the first time I went to an event like that and I'm not happy, since, well, after getting wet in the rain and all... I was able to get two tickets for the next day, one for myself and for my brother (Yeah, I'm not going here alone, like at Toycon). After buying and getting out of SMX, it was raining real hard, harder than when I came plus it was windy. Seemed like my feet could not take it anymore, being wet and all. The traffic on the way back to the LRT was horrible. The first few meters, it didn't move for what seemed like a long time. When I came back to the LRT, as if everything wasn't bad enough, it closes since I came back there past 9, after closing hours, leaving me no choice but to take the MRT instead. I thought that I can't take more of it, since I'm far from home, I'm wet and could get sick, I'm hungry and etc... After riding the MRT, from there on out, things got better since nothing really bad happened for there on... I finally got home past 10.

It was a terrible ordeal yeah, but at least I got home, finally... after all that... It was a lot worse than I thought.. :(

Well, from all this, we could learn that we should make better decisions (now that I think about it, maybe what I did was bad... but no use regretting) and sometimes when we face difficulties, we do not know what to do anymore, especially when things go haywire and get more difficult. And of course, we don't have control over everything.

Sometimes, in life, we often face situations like these or worse. Again, there will be moments that we cannot control. Sometimes, we may get annoyed or even offended by others, plans can get ruined and everything seems bleak. In times like these, we (myself included) often react negatively and it's difficult to be positive. For sure, these are difficult moments, yet in all these, it's best thing to do is know how to respond right, find a way if possible and have faith. Sometimes, though, we have to let go of something, especially when it's unimportant. For sure, I could learn from tonight's mishaps the most since I'm the one who went through them.