Firsts in my davao trip for the SFC ICON 2010

It's 1:19AM here in Davao. So before I go to sleep tonight (errr, it's already morning), let me share some of my 'firsts' for this trip:

1. Seeing macadamia trees. Yes, the source of the nuts. Seen them first in Eden Park in Davao.
2. Eating yellow durian. I have only tried those with white flesh.
3. Seeing a durian tree. We passed them along the "ways". There were times when their fruits' notorious scent seems to fully fill the air along the roads.
4. "Dinuguan" as sauce for barbecued pork. It turned out okay. :)
5. Basking in the "Indiana Jones" rides. Still in Eden Park. I find it hard to describe this ride. Please wait for the pics. :)
6. The Philippine Eagle. With friends, I have been inside the Philippine Eagle Foundation area. And yes, I have seen and taken pictures of Pag-asa and her mother.
6. Touching and holding a fully grown python. Yep, I finally conquered this fear.
7. Late for my inbound flight. I was late for 10 minutes. I have to buy the ticket for the next day (Cebu-Pacific maintains a dubious 'no refund' policy). And so, my planned 4-day stay was cut short by a day. (Well, charged it experience (read: credit card).

Those are just a few of the many firsts... Will update more in the coming days after I have the pics developed... :)

among other things...

I am now itching for new adventures. I am crossing my fingers for the weather to be cooperative in the following days so as not to spoil my peripatetic plans.

But before that new adventure post, these are just some things that I want to share with you...

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  IGO, SIPYAT, TAPSING.  My friends and I have decided that the time has come to share the joys of photography to other people. As such, we are now finalizing the details and materials for a 2-day basic photography workshop here in Cebu (this will keep me busy for a month or so). It is designed for those who have a camera whether P&S or SLR. And since the concept and the rationale is to share, the workshop fees will just be enough to cover the logistics.  And we mean, break-even!!! [Read: it's affordable, below PhP800.00, and where in the photography world will you find this price for a workshop? :) ]

So if you are in Cebu, and you are interested, you may email this address for a reservation: coolwaterworks[at]gmail[dot]com.  There will be three instructors (myself included) and there are only 20 slots available. We will be publising more details soon...

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  MAREEYAH DOT COM. This site is worth a visit. It is an archive of knowledge, fun, and adventure. Plenty of ideas are in store to spark your everyday life: from the sensible how-to articles, fantastic wedding planning, entertaining fiction, and many more. Well, what would you expect from a person whose mind is like a cornucopia of knowledge. I know, because Mareeyah is a friend, and she took everyone by surprise when she once represented our school in THE prestigious Academic Excellence contest in our province. Like me, she is a staple of many academic contests, and definitely a mind to beat.

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  A DASH OF DEJAVU. Another blog I frequently visit. Although, I still try to find the connection of dejavus in the posts, the blog gives a mixture of book reviews, random thoughts, delicious recipes and travels. This is owned by another friend whose mind and opinion I greatly respect - I should because he is one of the best minds I ever met.

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  SFC-MEPZ Chapter Site. I have recently published a new site, this time for my Singles for Christ chapter. All achievements would not be of use and of meaning if not brought back to the service in the Lord's vineyard. And this is one aspect I am also passionate. Together with my brothers and sisters in the community, we will prove to you that being in a Christian community is more fun than you think it is.

So that's it for now. Bear with me... :)

The Page of Mysteries

Friends, I have added a new page in this site. This is to promote to bring back the Holy Rosary in Catholic homes and in response to the testimony of Fr. Thomas Thekkumthottam, OSB.

Please take time to visit the Page of Mysteries. May the images help you reflect and rediscover the love for the Holy Rosary.

St. Benedict's Monastery

Painting is the grandchild of nature. It is related to God.
- Rembrandt

 

In my previous post (Glimpses Along the Way to the North) I have indicated that our last destination was a monastery in the mountains of the municipality of Carmen, Cebu. I was not able to post pics from that site in my previous post because I only made 8 shots out of my last roll of 36. So I made a decision to go back on the next Sunday to add more pictures.

As I have previously stated, it was already dark when we arrived at the monastery. The sun was already below the horizon and the sky displayed great colors of pink and violet. I decided to do some long exposure shots. Below is a cropped picture of one of the two shots I was able to make.



After finishing the long exposures, an Indian priest approached me and he told me that he can give us a tour of the ground floor of their main monastery building, provided that we keep quiet as the other monks were already praying. I was excited to take this opportunity since their monastery is normally off-limits to visitors.

Paintings Inside the Main Monastery Building

While the rest of the priests and brothers were singing and having Vespers, we were busy shuffling through the beautiful paintings taking pictures. I was always the last one to take the pics: I do not like to include other views aside from the paintings themselves and I don't want any shot ruined by unnecessary flash.

Note: All paintings below were cropped to removed portions of the paintings' frames.

First stop: Madonna and Child flanked by other saints and angels. This is somehow inclined to the Orthodox themes.



 

Second stop: Madonna and Child with saints. Filipino themed (look closely on the Madonna and Child).



 

Third stop: St. Sylvester Guzzolini and his vision of the Madonna and Child with the angels. The building in the painting is modelled after the monastery's main building.



 

Fourth stop:  Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. This is actually my favorite painting in the monastery's interior. The kind priest told us that this painting is perhaps the most beautiful within the Philippines.



I could almost hear the pride in the priest's voice in saying that the paintings here in their monastery were mostly made by Cebuano painters.

The Return

A blogger friend (Dfish) read my previous post and scoured the web regarding the Sylvestrine Congregation here in Carmen. An interesting story has turned up.

His discovery made strong my resolve to return to this monastery the following Sunday (8 March 2009). This time I was joined by two friends.

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The gates of the monastery.

 

The giant statue of the Santo Niño. The Our Lady of Manaoag Rosary Center can be found adjacent to these steps before going up to the Santo Niño.





 

This is the main monastery building during the day.

 

The Kind Priest

We attended Mass together with the local parishioners. The kind priest who ushered us in their "off-limits" monastery the previous Sunday celebrated Mass in Cebuano and delivered his homily in English.

The priest's name is Fr. Thomas Thekkumthottam, OSB. He is one of the Founding Fathers of St. Benedict's Monastery and its current Prior. The interesting find that Dfish was able to unearth was Father Thomas' personal story regarding the power of the Holy Rosary. DFish made a post in his blog about this. The story that Dfish had found introduces an unknown face. I am giving the face to that story. Below is the portrait of Father Thomas, taken right after he removed his other priestly vestments.



Fr. Thomas was actually very busy after Mass as many people both young and old approached him and asked for his blessing and prayers. He was very accommodating and he was smiling all the time. I didn't have to ask him to smile for this portrait.

I approached him and told him that I was one of his late visitors the other Sunday and that he has ushered us into the ground floor of their main monastery building. I also told him that a friend in the web has actually found his personal account on the power of the rosary. I saw his eyes twinkle and his response was "Mao ba?" which loosely translates to "Really?". I also told him about a friend who wants to be an Oblate. He told me that it is necessary that the Oblate should be in Cebu for him to be physically present during their meetings every third Sunday of the month.

I told him further that I am going to make a post in my site about the monastery and I would like to ask his permission to take his portrait to give his story a face. He smiled and said yes. After the shot, I thanked him and I let him be. He once again became very busy entertaining guests and friends.

Paintings Inside the Chapel

When the monastery's chapel was nearly empty, I took pictures of the paintings inside it.

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A priest celebrating Mass.

 

St. Sylvester receiving Holy Communion at the hands of the Virgin Mary.

 

St. Juan Diego presenting roses to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga when the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe miraculously appeared imprinted on the cloth of his tilma.

 

The face of Jesus. This can be found in the prayer room at the back of the chapel's main altar.

Contemplative Arts

In the slow shoeless strolls that I have done (yes, you have to remove your shoes when entering the 3 buildings: the chapel, the main building and the Rosary Center), I realized that the many paintings in the monastery are a great aid in contemplative prayer.

The bulk of the paintings can be found in the Our Lady of Manaog Rosary Center. Every mystery of the Holy Rosary, from Luminous to Glorious, has a corresponding painting. The faithful is invited to approach,  examine and contemplate the mysteries through the large paintings before them.

So as not to saturate this post with the paintings of the mysteries,they will be shown in the succeeding posts.

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... :)

SFC ICON 2009

The CFC-Singles for Christ held its annual International Conference (ICON, formerly known as ILC) in Cebu City on Feb 20-22, 2009.

As an active SFC member for about 6 years now, I attended the conference with my brothers and sisters from our chapter - MEPZ (Mactan Export Processing Zone).

Below is a collection of snapshots during the conference. Snapshots because I didn't bother myself with apertures, focal length and composition during the entire event. I just point the camera and shoot. (I'll be very busy in the coming days so I did my best in doing this as fast as I can. By reviewing after my upload, I found out I had misspelt a word or maybe even more... There seems to be a text slide missing too after the pictures on the Feb22 Mass. My apologies for these, I have no more time to go back to the old drawing board and do the corrections. Maybe next week... But by then, this would be stale. :) )

Nevertheless, I hope you will enjoy...