Journeying With The Lord( Fr. Lovell’s Ordination to the Priesthood)

Kayo na gumabay sa aking paglalakbay.
Kayo ang kaagapay kapag ako’y nalulumbay.
Kayo ang patnubay kapag ako’y pasaway.
Kayo ang nagbigay ng saysay sa aking buhay.
Kaya naman ako ay nagpupugay dahil sa inyong walang humpay na pag-alalay.
Salamat sa Diyos. Salamat sa inyo.
Pari magpakailanman. – lovell, op

I received this message yesterday  morning from Lovell, who was just ordained the other day, Nov. 07  together with three other Dominican priests at Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City. It was another lovely and solemn celebration. A happy and blessed occasion to remember.  I love that last line “pari magpakailanman” (a priest forever).

Several years of perseverance.  A mother’s dream for a son. Answered prayers. Thank You Lord for all these blessings!

We were early at the venue so I took shots of the image of our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval.  Sto. Domingo Church was declared as National Cultural Treasure last month. It took all of eleven months from being deacons to priests. I always find  ordinations such solemn and blessed affairs. And I look forward  to  the Thanksgiving  Mass scheduled two weeks from now. Again I say, CONGRATULATIONS 🙂

“Without the priest, the passion and death of our Lord would be of no avail. It is the priest who continues the work of redemption here on earth…What use would be a house filled with gold, were there no one to open its door? The priest holds the key to the treasures of heaven: it is he who opens the door: he is the steward of the good Lord; the administrator of His goods…Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest and they will end by worshiping the beasts there..The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you.” – St. John Marie Vianney

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Goodbye July, Hello August

Time really flies fast don’t you think? It was another busy Sunday for us, at least for Nissa and me. Just after the 9am mass, we went to Cubao to get the shoes and bag she will use for the wedding. Wow, how nice to see the pair of shoes she ordered which I think will really go well with her wedding gown.  I don’t want to spoil the surprise but it will surely be here when the big day comes.  I had my pair of shoes custom-made too for my gown. It is easier to order than to roam around malls looking for a perfect pair of shoes. They are Marikina-made so aside from being elegant, I am sure they are sturdy as well.

Next stop was at National Bookstore in Ali Mall. Gosh, I was surprised when I went to look for a comfort room and what used to be a public CR turned out to have a lady on guard collecting P10.00 for every woman who enters it. I would not mind a paid comfort room for convenience but at least they should see to it that it is clean and complete with tissue paper and hand soap. Compared to other comfort room in big malls like Gateway and Ayala, this one could not even reach a low 10%. The floor was wet and the trash can was not even closed. It really fall short of what I perceive a paying customer would expect.  They had a public comfort room on the second floor and it was cleaner than the one with paying customers.  Gosh, aren’t all malls supposed to provide something that would  make the life of shoppers convenient at least? How could you patronize an establishment like this when the simple comfort of its customers could not even be met?

Back to our adventure at National Book Store. They have started with their annual book sale but again, I was disappointed that the books on display with  discounts are not even on the bestseller list. I was trying to look for the bargain bin which another branch at Galleria has but even their bargain books were still expensive. I was able to buy two copies of a children’s fairy tale, fare enough at half the price, and a copy of The Shack  by William Young which I have long wanted to buy but  the price is too high for my meager allowance on books. Anyway, the trade paperback copy was P5.oo cheaper than the mass-market  produced one. I bought the trade paperback of course, still costly  at P247.00. Would really love to visit more branches, I might find a bigger surprise in one of them.

Next stop was at St. Paul’s. I love visiting this place just looking at the lovely rosaries on display and the books which they have on their shelves.  It’s my dream to own one of those books about saints. I bought  center medals ( an image of Pope Benedict)  and some connecting medals for the rosaries I intend to make once I am no longer busy with other things.  Hopefully, I will be able to go on another trip to Quiapo to buy some materials.

I slept late at 12am, finishing my blog and uploading pictures I downloaded from the albums of the AFCC members who attended our first gathering at Bahay Dominiko, Sto. Domingo Church in QC.

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Visita Iglesia 2011

“Look at His adorable face.
Look at His glazed and sunken eyes.
Look at His wounds.
Look Jesus in the Face.
There, you will see how He loves us.”

~ St. Therese of Lisieux

Yesterday, we did the rounds of seven  churches in Quezon City and San Juan areas to do our traditional  Lenten Visita Iglesia. Last year, we visited several towns in Laguna for our Visita Iglesia 2010. We earlier planned of going to Bulacan but my son had work so we decided to confine our visits at the nearly churches in Quezon City. Hopefully next year, we’ll be able to go there. I took some shots of the churches we went to  and I think this is the first time I’ll be doing this on WordPress since most of my Visita Iglesia albums are posted at another site. I am just excited to share these places which are as lovely as the old churches we’ve been to before. First stop was Christ the King Church in Greenmeadows. It’s a modern structure with a lovely garden in front.

They have a lovely altar, don’t they? We were surprised  that a van of a health drink  called Pocari Sweat was giving out  several bottles for free. What a lovely gesture promoting their product that way. Hubby said, it was a nice start because the church, Christ the King have a lovely ring to it. Next stop was Mary the Queen Parish in Madison St., San Juan City. There was on ongoing retreat so we didn’t stay long and parking was a little hard. We have to walk a few meters to reach the church.

The church was open on all sides so it was a bit airy. Third stop was St. John the Baptist  Parish in San Juan City. Obviously their patron saint is St. John the Baptist. I knew it simply as Pinaglabanan Church.

Notice the covered images at the altar. Even the 14 Stations were all covered. In some parishes, they only cover the images with purple cloth after the mass of the Last Supper.

It was a short distance from Pinaglabanan to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel  in New Manila, Quezon City. There were lots of vendors lining up the side of the church selling sweets, fruits, even cooked food like inihaw na bangus, sinaing na isda  (haven’t tasted this yet), dried fish and other seafood. Parking was not easy, we have to wait for a vacant slot before we entered the church.

I simply love those stained glass windows that reflect the light in different directions. This place is so familiar to me since  hubby and I used to pray the rosary here after every laboratory visits when I was having my chemotherapy almost two years ago.  Next stop was Sto. Domingo Church, the  National Shrine of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary located in Quezon Avenue, QC.  We stayed for an hour or two here since we met up with Fr. Louie, a Dominican priest friend. He toured us at Bahay Dominiko, prayed over my healing and blessed the family too.  I love everything about Bahay Dominiko (will have to put it in another blog). Thank you for the lovely rosary Fr. Louie.

Aren’t you envious of their lush garden? I am. Every time we visit here,  I always feel the urge to take pictures of the lovely image of Our Lady and this corner.  It’s so soothing to see lovely greens all around.

This is the lovely interior of the church. I always tell myself that I could not do justice taking shots of this place, the lovely interior, the ceiling, the stained glass windows – everything is just beautiful.

Of the seven churches we visited, four of them are shrines, beautiful churches around Metro Manila. Our 6th stop is the National Shrine of our Lady of Lourdes  in Amoranto St. Quezon City. Hubby and I were here last month. Like the Sto. Domingo Church, this should be a must-visit for you.

Our last and final stop was the Shrine of the Divine Word. I spent a lot of Sundays here when we were still living in Kamuning, I used to visit their seminary store.  It’s the old Christ the King I knew from way back.

This cross was laid right in front of the church’s steps. It’s very symbolic, isn’t it?

It was a meaningful Way of the Cross for the family.  Attending the Last Supper mass capped our observance of Maundy Thursday, a solemn and lovely celebration which made me cry.

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