It’s Christmas – the festive Shrine Avenue of Greenhills beckons (Part I)

Wind lashed and rain fell early Monday morning as typhoon Monang crossed Southern Luzon in December 1993. DECS Director Nilo Rosas declared classes suspended in all levels. Amidst the bad weather and empty streets sprang color and life, as seven holy monuments and murals filled the OB Montessori building complex at the corner of Annapolis and Eisenhower Streets of the Greenhills shopping area.

In the first week of December 1993, the new 18-foot high royal monument of our Lord of Love, riding high on a white stallion was surrounded with all kinds of orchids, wisteria blossoms, pink and yellow roses, etc. After a night of gusty winds and stinging rains, not a flower was disturbed.
All in all, a total of 32 dozen life-like orchids and spring flowers I purchased from the inventory sale of Monette Guevarra. Everything still looked fresh and ready after the Sunday preparations. “Welcome to the Blessing of Our Lord of Love, December 6,” the streamer stated.

The Lord’s ‘calling card,’ the gusty wind

The wind continuously stirred up the gold-embroidered jusi altar cloth, while Father Ramon Ofredo, a liturgy specialist, celebrated Mass at the lobby of the O.B. Montessori School. It blew the hair and clothing of about 50 guests, including those of the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine Foundation head Fil Salonga, Bob and Emmy Garon, the school faculty and staff members.

After the mass, the wind died down, after I explained that the gusty wind was the typical “calling card” of our Lord of Love, while the monument was being done for almost a year. It became noticeably peaceful. (International flights that were earlier cancelled were on again.) We followed the priest outside for the blessing of the most beautiful monument in the country then.

For almost a year the creation of this monument has been going on quietly in a white tent in front of the O.B. Montessori School. Executed by the team of the late artist Punay Kabayao Fernandez and psychic-sculptor Pempe Floriano. It is the 10th mystical work of art done within the school premises.

The youthful Lord of Love

This masterpiece, done without any picture of Our Lord except the inter-locution messages given to Punay Fernandez, was meant again to give cheer and hope to a nation in crisis. Thus it is strategically placed outside the school to be viewed by the public. (The other nine monuments inside the school may be visited as well, so long as the O.B. Montessori office is notified.)

Our young Lord’s emerald green eyes (which took so long to create) gaze at times with serene joy, at times piercing, intensely thoughtful. Golden curls frame His soft face. His forehead chakra bursts in golden lines matching the silver streaks of his powerful golden sacred heart covering His full chest.

He rides his mighty white stallion Tempo, “time,” which means that Tempo lives in two dimensions: the physical and the spiritual worlds. A huge crown of various gems rests on the head of Our Lord, while He carries a torch above His head and a red, blue and silver scepter with her left hand.

He holds Tempo’s silver-studded leather reins as well. The rein craftsman, the only one living in Divisoria, had to add a silver studded crown for Tempo at the last minute. The heavenly maestro who helps us guide the work of art is a perfectionist.

As Tempo paws the air with his silver horseshoes, His emerald green eyes shine alive, while his pink lips and nostrils flare. His mane was painted yellow-gold in the last minute instructions.

Why Greenhills?

Why Greenhills? Strategically, business here, they say, is more active than in Makati being the crossroads of the Metro Manila traffic. The addition of the Robinson’s Galleria, SM Megamall and EDSA Shangri-La Plaza concentrates the activities even more.

It is Christmas. The crowd of shoppers mill around in these various “parks of materialism,” forgetting the real significance of Our Lord’s birth in a simple manger. God, the Almighty Father, allowed His Son to step down on earth as a Holy Baby to redeem mankind from sin.

This time, He steps down as a grown-up teenager, about 16 years old. The princely Lord wears a velvety fuschia and purple robe and breeches with a handsome pair of maroon leather boots. These look like real leather that one can almost smell.

It is a monument so alive that His 14K gold cape flies in the wind as he rides His mighty white stallion, whose front hooves, lifted eight feet off the ground, paw the air and his white bushy tail splits into 10 parts. Made of cement shaped around massive steel rods and wire, the monument has been tested by computer engineers to be perfectly balanced and stable.

The Lord’s pedestal – The symbolical treasure vault

Both the youthful Lord and His stallion stand on a meter and a half pedestal. This was “requested” to be painted beige. Like an open treasure vault, the pedestal is covered with significant and very colorful symbols.

Over the pedestal, is a “golden pail with a silver dove” perched on its lid symbolizing the Lord’s pail. When Mrs. Fernandez was a young lady, she had a vision of the Lord carrying a similar pail. The message is that He uses it to wash away the spiritual litter strewn in the world. The pail always gets replenished. The dove symbolizes peace.

The front side shows a “golden bell” symbolizing Our Lord’s divine call to all of us. Three mystical roses, white for purification, pink for universal love, and light blue for healing, are next to the bell. Below the bell is the “wheel of justice,” whose principal message is “What you sow you will reap.”

Several symbols refer to learning and knowledge. One of these is the “spiritual ball of learning” which signifies that life worth living is a continuous absorption of spiritual lessons.

Along one of the longer sides of the pedestal are the symbols of the “golden chalice” or Holy Grail. Signifying the Filipinos’ quest for justice, honor and country, the symbol has been used at Hacienda Tamsi Shrine in Cadiz, Negros Occidental, the O.B. Montessori Prayer Room and the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine.

The “Arc of the Covenant,” which was mystically designed last summer at the O.B. Montessori Sta. Ana, Manila branch Santacruzan is again repeated here with the purple and gold “divine book of knowledge.”

Next, the two “Doves of Peace” kissing each other in flight are beside the pink and blue “Music Angels” blowing their gold trumpets. Over them is the stern-looking “Guardian,” a golden eagle with his wings spread wide, representing the national defense system of the country.

Six-inch power crystals alternate with all these symbols. Seven of these crystals manifested themselves mystically in the vision of our clairvoyant illustrator Annie Mcdowell, powering the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine, Mt. Bagang across it, and the whole Subic Bay.

The other side of the pedestal shows a beautiful verdant green mystical tree beside Mother Earth, who holds the world with one hand, and a plant with the other. Next to her is a golden key, “the key to mystery teachings.”

The bottom layer shows a gray elephant symbolizing “strength and persistence.” The texture is so real just like the white fleece of “the lamb of God.”

The “well of spiritual quenching” is pictured as a brown stone will with a pail rolled up on a raised horizontal beam. Next to it is a huge jar with two handles symbolizing “spiritual treasures.”

The gold “sun disc” is the only design on the back panel. It signifies God’s energy filling up the earth. Punay Fernandez was requested by the holy ones to convert the plant box behind the monument into a little garden.

A fountain for Mary’s garden

The instructions were so delightful as if the “heavenly landscaper” designed the new garden. Although Pempe has never done landscaping ornaments, he was well guided by Punay that he could construct a cement fountain with “silvery streaks of blue ocean water” spouting and another layer of pure blue water beneath it caught by two gold scalloped vermillion red basins.

Perched on the side of the basins are seven little birds in different postures of flight. A pair is in parakeet green, another in red, black and silver, while the others are in yellow, black and silver. The fountain is sandwiched by two gold and white Doric columns.

A week before, “Mary’s Love Garden” was ordered. I made four trips to buy 32 dozens spring flowers from Monette Guevarra. All fitted perfectly. Even our third floor window was instructed to be looped by the white garland we used in our Sta. Ana Santacruzan.

Gifts for the holy season

Our Lord of Love gifts Himself to us this Christmas in this way so that we can quench our spiritual quest, especially this holy season. “Dear Lord, amidst the changing things of this world, may our hearts be set where true joys are to be found.”

(Part II – Temple Shrine of the Holy Family in Greenhills)

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