A family’s prayer for Black Nazarene feast: Less hardship, peace in Marawi

Member of the Dela Vega family join the feast of the Black Nazarene in Manila. INQUIRER.net / Pathricia Ann V. Roxas

While most Black Nazarene devotees whisper their own personal prayers at the Quirino Grandstand at dawn of Tuesday, 53-year-old Lucracia dela Vega prayed that her fellow-Mindanaoans from Marawi City would finally experience genuine and lasting peace.

Slumped beside a small statue of a Black Nazarene and a Sto. Niño, Dela Vega, together with her entire family, trooped to the traditional “Pahalik” site and patiently waited for almost 11 hours, as of this posting.

But this year, their family’s seven-year-old devotion has reached a different meaning, and that is to pray for the war-torn Marawi City.

“Sana ‘di tayo sobrang hirap at magkaroon ng kapayapaan sa buong bansa (I hope we’ll not experience a lot of hardships and we’ll attain that lasting peace in our country),” Dela Vega told INQUIRER.net.

“Malapit lang sa amin ang Marawi. Kasama rin sila sa panalangin ko. Kahit iba kami ng relihiyon, ang karamihan dun Muslim, kami Kristiyano, iisa lang ang Diyos natin,” she added.

(Marawi is just near our place. I include them in my prayers. Even though our religions are different because most of them are Muslims and we are Christians, our God is one and the same.)

Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of the liberation of Marawi City from Islamic State-inspired Maute terrorist groups in October last year, the total rehabilitation of the southern region is still on its way.

The war in the city erupted on May 23, 2017, and led to the declaration of martial rule in the entire region of Mindanao. It was recently extended until Dec. 31, 2018.

‘Answered prayers’

Dela Vega hailed from Misamis Occidental but she’s now living in Alabang with her five children and a lot of grandchildren.

Even though they barely get by each day with their measly income out of selling fruits in front of a mall in Alabang, Dela Vega has always made sure that her family would make it to the annual “Pahalik” and Traslacion.

Traslacion is the culmination of the week-long religious rites that started last Dec. 31, 2017. It commemorates the transfer on Jan. 9, 1787 of a replica of the image of the Black Nazarene from its original site at the San Nicolas Tolentino church in Intramuros to the Quiapo church.

“Kahit yung mga anak ko may trabaho pina-absent ko talaga sila. Pati mga apo ko umabsent sa school… Yung asawa ko kasama ngayon sa prusisyon (Even my children who have work, I asked them not to go to work. My grandchildren who have school were also absent. My husband is with me now but he’s joining the procession),” she said, referring to her 53-year-old husband Alfredo Casera.

Dela Vega even attested that their family’s prayers had been answered by the Nazarene.

“Yung nagkasakit mga anak ko, tapos yung anak kong isa matagal syang nagkaroon ng anak, hinihiling namin yun. Mga anak ko na nag-aapply ng trabaho, idinasal din namin… Yung asawa ko panata rin nya ito, muntik na kasi sya ma-comatose dati,” she said.

(When my children were getting sick, one of them it took a while before having a child of her own, we all prayed for that. My children are also applying for jobs, we prayed for that also. My husband has his own vow because he almost slipped into a comatose before.)

Beyond the answered prayers, Dela Vega said she and her family would continue their vow to the Lord, because this has brought her inner peace.

“Magaan talaga pag magpunta kami dito kahit dito lang kami sa Grandstand… attend lang kami ng misa dito ok na,” she said.

(It really feels lights when we go here even when we are just here at the Grandstand… we’ll just attend mass and it’s ok for us.)

“Tuturuan ko rin yung mga apo ko pag nasa tamang edad na sila, na kahit wala na kami ipagpatuloy pa rin nila,” she added.

(I will also teach my grandchildren to do the same when they reach the right age, that even when we are no longer here, they will continue the vow.)

Traslacion 2018, regarded as the single biggest religious gathering in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, is currently heading to its predetermined route until it arrives at the Quiapo Church. /jpv

RELATED STORY

Start of Traslacion 2018 ‘unusual, different’ – priest