Glimpses Along the Way to the North

Heaven gives its glimpses only to those
Not in position to look too close.
- Robert Frost, A Passing Glimpse

March has begun, and summer has officially opened. Hot days are here to come. Alongside summer’s return is the first Sunday of Lent. Although the long-held tradition of Visita Iglesia is done on Holy Thursday, our Singles for Christ chapter decided to do a Visita Iglesia long before the Holy Week.

I coined the activity as our “Northern Churchcapade”. “Northern” because we have done the same activity some years ago in the south. We started our churchcapade in St. Joseph Church in Mandaue City. The farthest we have reached up north is Bogo City.



Since it was a Sunday, the churches are mostly filled-up. It was inappropriate to open that shutter inside the churches disregarding the holy celebrations. And so, here are the glimpses I was able to have along the way in between Masses and meditations.

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 Two angels guard the entrance of St. Augustine Parish Church in the municipality of Carmen.  These two angels have broken arms and wings. The blurred figure at the end of the railing is the other angel.

Behind the cracked, flaking paints and scaffolds a majestic church dome is emerging. The St. Augustine Church is slowly rising out the damage of old age.

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The Santo Tomas de Villanueva Church of Danao City is one of the oldest churches in the province having been constructed in 1755.



While inside the church, I noticed one of the stained glass windows. Being reminded of Brother Utoy's affinity to these works of art, I decided to take a shot. I had to stand tiptoe on top of one of the church's benches to avoid the vanishing points of perspective due to my lower position. The result is the cropped image of my namesake: St. Mark.

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We had our lunch in the front lawn of the San Guillermo Church in Sogod. I was not able to get inside this church and take pictures. They were preparing the church for a funeral mass that afternoon.

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The farthest church we have reached up north is the Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Vincent Ferrer in Bogo City. It was about mid-afternoon when we got there and there was a mass going on inside the church.



In my travels to Malapascua Island, I was intrigued by the visible giant statue of the Virgin Mary on top of a hill along the highways of Bogo. I did not know that it was part of our itinerary, so I was delighted when I knew right there and then that we would visit this shrine.

To reach the site, one could pass through the road that winds in the back of the hill or one could decide to tackle this 100+ steps stairway from the highway. We decided for the long and winding road.



The site is the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal.



This is a close-up of the statue of the Virgin Mary.



Our activity did not end in Bogo. We also passed by the Benedictine Monastery in the mountains of the Municipality of Carmen. This monastery is also popular for its giant Sto. Niño statue. It was already dark when we arrived there. A kind priest invited and ushered us in the ground floor of the monks' chambers. He showed us the paintings that adorned its walls. While the rest of the priests and brothers were singing and having Vespers, we were busy shuffling through the beautiful paintings taking pictures. They will be featured in my upcoming posts... :)