IN a few days, the weekend of Holy Week is coming up. For Christians, it is a time to remember the Passion of Christ. In the Philippines, religious rituals and sacrifices to commemorate Christ’s passion and death concretize this. One will see multitudes performing Visita Iglesia.
According to the article written by Arnulfo Valderama Fortunado and Maricel Eballo for Catholicsandcultures.org on April 7, 2017, Visita Iglesia is the practice of “visiting at least seven different churches on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.” The article further elaborates the other local practices during Holy Week.
“Some devotees walk barefoot from church to church. In a few cases they even carry a cross as a way to share [in the] sufferings of Christ on the way to His crucifixion. Most do so by car, traveling with families and friends to visit churches further apart, even combining it, less penitentially, with sightseeing on the side, so long as that does not undermine the real intention of the trip.” I have seen barebacked men with red markings whipping themselves while walking through a path as a form of sacrifice and prayer.
The article explains that the “choice of seven or 14 as the number of churches to visit was described by many devotees as a reference to the Seven Last Words of Jesus, or the Seven Holy Wounds of Jesus. Some choose to visit 14 churches to match the 14 Station of the Cross, and a few try to cover even more churches. Many believe that their prayers will be granted after the stations are complete.”
My husband and I perform Visita Iglesia every year with our kids. Most of the time, we do this in Manila. We enjoy the ritual even more when we get to spend it with my in-laws in Bicol. We do this as a way to pass our devotion to our kids. It also becomes a trip down memory lane when my husband and I share our own childhood Holy Week experiences to our kids.
When I was growing up, our religious rituals were our family’s “binder.” Regardless of our parents’ regular squabbles, Sunday mass, observing the feast days of saints and Visita Iglesia were times of peace.
Since we used to live around the scout area in Quezon City, our Visita Iglesia always included Sacred Heart Parish in Kamuning, Saint Paul the Apostle Church on Scout Magbanua, Santo Domingo Church on Quezon Avenue, Mt. Carmel and Pink Sisters Convent both in New Manila.
I grew up witnessing my parents’ devotion to the rosary and religious rituals. I gauged one’s strength of faith on these. However, deep inside I recognized the irony on how one can pray this much, but still go back to all the squabbles and inauthenticity the minute the rituals stopped. Thus, as a child, I never developed the devotion. I loved to visit the Church everyday before school, but I felt no compulsion to pray the rosary or participate in rituals on my own. When I was in my early teen years, I started to question attending the annual processions of my parents’ patron saints. Although I still went, I knew I did them out of obligation. As I shared last January in multiple articles on faith, I had to define my faith in more reasonable and acceptable terms.
Today, I believe my life is my lifelong prayer. I see faith as the cumulative moments of offering the life we live to our chosen Higher Being. Rituals take a sidestep as enablers. They are there to bring us closer to our faith but they do not represent the depth of our faith. Going to church becomes moments for reflection. We teach our kids that rituals are times to show gratitude and humility to what life has provided us.
During Holy Week, it is good to reflect with honesty on how we have “accumulated” our life moments. Below are some of my own questions of reflection for the Holy Week.
1. Have we appreciated our highs, whether small or big? I always start with gratitude. For many years now, I have an entry in my phone’s notepad labeled 3gt. This means 3 good things. When I get the chance, I would type up three good things that happened the day before. From the small things—like I was able to have time for breakfast, which I normally skip—to the joyful occasions like celebrating our kids’ achievements.
During Holy Week, I would read the whole list. I would add to it and find time to write a journal entry on why I am grateful for the life I have today.
2. Have we accepted the “losses” in our lives? We all know that life has both wins and losses. The question is: Have we let these losses go? Or, even better, have we gotten to the point where we actually understand why the losses had to happen? For example, if we have failed in marriage, are we still mad at that partner who never gave us our happy ending? Are we still mad at life for not granting us a better partner?
Having experienced separation in our family, I believe the focus is to accept the reality in front of us, then make more time for the future that lies ahead. The fact is that things ended. But the more important fact is, life goes on. The decision to make things better lies only in us.
Next week, I will share more reflective questions for the Holy Week.