Visita Iglesia brings back fond memories

( Second of two parts )

Most devout Catholics must have their schedules full today completing all seven churches as part of the Maundy Thursday visita iglesia tradition.

The visita iglesia – although I don’t get to do it every year – always brings back memories of the churches in Metro Manila where my family and I would hear Mass on Sundays when I was a kid. (The place where we stayed didn’t have a parish church – only a small chapel that was even far from our house.)

And now, allow me to go down memory lane as I recall seven churches that my family and I used to frequent for Sunday worship. I wrote about two last Tuesday – the San Miguel Pro-Cathedral and the Sta. Mesa Church. Below are the five others:

San Sebastian Church – For many years, my family and I would often hear New Year’s Day Mass in this gothic all-steel church at the far end of R. Hidalgo. Although it is called San Sebastian Church, I believe that the church is really dedicated to La Virgen del Carmen.

My family liked hearing Mass there on New Year’s Day or even on a regular Sunday because parking was not a problem there (when you have children with you, this is always a consideration). But I do remember it was always dark in there and I kept myself from getting bored (I was a kid and was restless) by admiring the colorful stained glass windows on both sides of the church.

Today, the San Sebastian Church is a favorite not only for society weddings, but also for movie weddings because of its lovely interiors.

The Manila Cathedral – After years of hearing the Misa de Aguinaldo at the San Miguel Pro-Cathedral, I initiated a move to hear Mass at the Manila Cathedral, My siblings already had their own lives and I was the only little one whom my parents were still able to drag to church with them. But this Christmas Eve tradition of hearing Mass at the Cathedral didn’t last very long because even I grew up soon after and didn’t want to be seen still hanging around with my parents (it’s a phase in a teenager’s life).

Years before we moved the Christmas Eve tradition to the Manila Cathedral, however, we had been hearing mass there some Sundays. From what I recall, there was always endless renovation going on at the Cathedral. (It was destroyed at the end of the war and had to be rebuilt, but it had already been decades since then.)

If the Manila Cathedral was filled with churchgoers – and this was often – my family and I moved to nearby San Agustin church just a block away.

Loreto/VOT Churches – I still recall my surprise and amazement when my Dad first drove us to the Sampaloc district (along a street called Bustillos) to hear Mass and I saw twin churches. To the left was this bluish structure which I found out was the church dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto (who is supposed to protect us from fires) and to the right was another church painted in yellow which had San Antonio de Padua (you pray to him for lost things) as patron saint.

The Loreto Church is the real parish church of Sampaloc. The Franciscan church of San Antonio de Padua, on the other hand, was erected there – I understand – only after the war and is officially called VOT Church (short for Venerable Orden Tercera). On Tuesdays, you see female devotees there sporting the brown habito of San Antonio.

The one nice thing about going to church there is that, if VOT is full, you move to Loreto and vice versa. And yes, you don’t have to change parking.

Mt. Carmel Church – This church always looked so huge to me – especially when I was small – and we often heard Mass there on Sundays and sometimes condoled with the bereaved on departed family friends there because of the mortuary chapels below.

It is still one of my favorite churches (although I think something is wrong with its sound system) because after the Mass, you can pray to your favorite saints since one side of this structure has a gallery of icons of the various holy men and women canonized by the Vatican.

Quiapo Church – We didn’t hear Mass here on Sundays, but I frequented it just the same because both my parents were Black Nazarene devotees and they would bring me with them on novena days every Friday. In fact, my Mom always had her knees scorched from walking along the aisle on her knees from the last pew at the back all the way to the front altar. I don’t know why she did that or why she had to do that, but she did – and I believe it was for the Lord (although most born-again Christians would frown on that).

Even my Dad had his own Good Friday penitence. He would walk from our house (then in an area practically at the border of Manila and Mandaluyong) all the way to Quiapo Church. Initially, it was my eldest brother who accompanied him. Then, came the turn of another older brother. Well, lucky me. When it was my time to walk with him, we had moved to La Vista in Loyola Heights and that was quite a distance and therefore the penitence stopped. For the longest time, incidentally, people had this mistaken notion that the patron saint of Quiapo Church was the Black Nazarene. Actually, the church was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, whose image is enshrined in one of the side altars. Today, however, I think the Black Nazarene has been officially declared as the church’s official patron saint.

For a while, I also had a special devotion to the Black Nazarene, but I would only drop by the Quiapo church every time I was in the area. In fact, on the eve of every Urian Awards presentation, I would always see to it that I dropped by the Quiapo Church to ask this favor from the Señor Nazareno to make the awards ceremony successful and orderly.

Although I don’t get to go there anymore, this church has special meaning for me because my parents (and myself) had received so many special heavenly favors from there. I’m also quite sure that with my parents every visit there, they would pray for us kids. Looking back, maybe that’s what my Mom got her knees scorched for.