Easter Triduum

Today begins the Easter Triduum (Latin word that refers to the three days from sundown Holy Thursday to sundown Easter) and many devout Catholics will be spending the final three days of Lent immersed in recollections and meditating on the Lord’s Passion.

One of the traditional and beautiful practices is the Visita Iglesia which happens at dusk today after the mass of the Last Supper.

The visit to seven  different churches to meditate on the Passion of Jesus Christ and accompany Him on the way of sorrows is a valuable Christian custom that is best accompanied with some penance and mortification like observing silence and fasting, not just on food but also on idle talk and, because of its pervasiveness, the use of electronic gadgets.

We are always distracted because of problems at work and the home, but the biggest distraction is provided by information technology and the unmitigated use of mobile phones. If you can’t put off your phone for the next two days, at least put it on mute when you go to church so as to give people the much needed time and quiet.

My friend Louie Narcorda, a noted religious art collector and iconographer, wrote an article, “Journey to Cebu Churches” (CDN/March 27) in which he listed his preferred churches south of Cebu, if one happens to live in that part of the city. For those living in the north, Louie has also mapped a nice route. The churches in both lists are mostly built during the Spanish colonial period and retell the history of our Christianization as a country and people.

I have gone to all of the churches in both the southern and northern trails, some during the Holy Week while others off-Lent. My visits to the churches are not only pleasant but also learning experiences, especially when there’s a good guide around to explain the interior and exterior designs of a particular church.

Speaking of religious tours, my good friend and eco-tourism advocate Jenny Franco will be accompanying foreign and local visitors to Cebu’s old and new churches today in an organized tour also billed as Visita Iglesia. However, there’s a different twist to the Travelvision (Jenny’s travel agency) concept that she started in 2000.

The religious-cultural tour will have for its first stop the Schoenstatt Shrine, the chapel nestled in the hills of Lawaan in Talisay City. From there it will proceed to the magnificent churches of St. Catherine of Alexandria in Carcar, San Miguel Archangel church in Argao, San Guillermo de Aquitania Church in Dalaguete, Nuestra Señora de Patrocinio Church in Boljoon, and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Oslob.

The mobile Way of the Cross winds up with a Eucharistic celebration in the beautiful and modern chapel built in honor of the first Visayan saint, San Pedro Calungsod in the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu City.

I wish Jenny and her visitors a wonderful and blessed time as they discover the gifts of faith in their journey to the south.

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Whatever one’s choice of Holy Week activity is, I always think that there is a subconscious effort in every man to earnestly seek God in some particular place.

As we recall His Passion, death and resurrection, that Holy Dwelling can be in a mountain top where the wind blows gently – where, when one looks up, the sky seems almost at arms-length, or when one looks down the trees and flowers appear like a vast, soft carpet, perhaps in a mountain barangay of Carmen town, where Benedictine monks tend the shrine of our Lady of Manaoag.

Some feel a certain closeness with the Creator when they walk by the seashore at daybreak, when the first light proclaims a new day or at dusk when the fading light of the sun can be seen settled in the sea, perhaps in the coastal town of Oslob where the panorama of the sea is incomparable.Whatever or wherever it is, I recall the words of the late Bishop Vicente Manuel, who used to serve as apostolic vicar emeritus of San Jose, Mindoro.

Holy Week activities, he said, are called ethics of the faith and require the proactive participation of the people. As such, we need to be reminded that it is a time for reflection, to make it sacred because it is the foundation of our faith.