Hacienda Dolores Chapel

June 11, 2017; Curious with the small chapel in Hacienda Dolores, we drove along the mega dike road in Porac, Pampanga.  Built in 1856 by the Dolores family within their Hacienda, the chapel was dedicated to the Our Lady of Sorrows. Although we visited the chapel on a Sunday afternoon, we found no parishioners in the area to ask for details or a brief history of the chapel.  Very little information is available on the internet regarding the history of this chapel.  Although we felt that all eyes were on us and was not welcome to the place, we thank the Lord for the safe trip and the blessing of being in this place.

Bacolor Church

May 21, 2017: We dropped by the Bacolor Church in Pampanga.  Named after the town's patron saint, San Guillermo, the church is witness to one of natures wrath in the 20th century,  the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.  After the eruption, lahar flows or debris from the eruption of the volcano, came down the slopes of the volcano burying the whole town of Bacolor.  In 1995, the church, all of its 12 meter high baroque and neoclassical design, was left half buried in lahar.  20 years after the devastation, the church still stands witness to the devotion of its town folks and their faith.  To date, they were able to get back on their feet and lived a normal life as if nothing happened.  Most of the religious icons were dug-up and cleaned and reinstalled in the same church.  Regular masses are still heard in the church everyday.

Truly, our Lord works in mysterious ways.

Lourdes Grotto

May 7, 2017;  We had a quick visit at the Lourdes Grotto in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.  I was surprised that the facade of the church was almost finished.  The last time I was here was years back and only the church ramp was finished.  The church was a replica of the Our Lady of Lourdes church in France.

Faced with a lot of controversies, the place used to have thousands of devotees.  But none the less, it is still our belief that what matters most.

We prayed and thank the Lord for guidance and blessings at the grotto located at the back of the church.

Our Lady of Piat

May 7, 2017: We made a visit to the Our Lady of Piat located in the town of Doña Remedios Trinidad in Bulacan.  A replica of the original image was made and is now known as Mama Piat.  Now based in Bulancan, the original image of Mama Piat was a 16th-century paper mache image that originated from the St. Dominique Church in Macau and was initially enshrined in the Dominican sanctuary of Sto. Domingo Church.  Since the image had no markings, it was initially called the Our Lady of the Rosary.  There were series of transfers as to where the imaged would finally be enshrined mainly due to its color and was not made of ivory.  Finally, it was transferred to Nueva Segovia in Piat, Cagayan Valley and is referred to as Mother of Cagayan.

A shrine of the Our Lady of Piat also known as the Our Lady of Visitation, will rise at highest peak of DRT overlooking the whole town. Church construction started in 2009 and is at least 50% complete.  Sunday masses are already held in the area and attracts devotees from all over.

Truly blessed to have visited this place on a fine sunny day.

Traditional Seven Chruch Visitation

April 13, 2017: We had our traditional Visita Iglesia at the Antipolo-Tanay area.  Visita iglesia also known as the seven churches visitation is a Roman Catholic tradition to visit seven churches at the evening of Maundy Thursday after the Mass of the Lord's Supper.  However, we usually do our seven church visitation during the day.  For this year, we wanted to avoid the vehicular traffic at the normal Rizal-Laguna route so we searched for churches not often visited by pilgrims.

We started our visit at the Transfiguration of Christ Parish Church.  This is the parish where our village belongs.  The church started as a chapel in Aba Homes subdivision.  As years passed, it transferred to its current location and is now one of the most visited churches in the upper Antipolo.

Our next stop was at San Antonio de Padua Parish Church which is also within our barangay, barangay Dalig.  Since it was a few meters away from the main highway, the place is very quiet and very conducive to prayer and meditation.  This church was even included as one of the wedding chruches in Antipolo.

Then we went to the Parish of The Immaculate Heart of Mary along Taktak road.  This church is known as the glass church of Antipolo.  Also started as a small chapel, in the middle of what seemed to be a forest, the church community grew and through countless donations from its parishioners and visitors a bigger church was constructed.  John won't leave the church without buying the statue of the Our Lady of Good Voyage of Antipolo.  We asked him to take go care of her and true enough, John hold on to her throughout the duration of our Visita Iglesia.

Next stop was at the Alagad ni Maria Seminary.  The seminary is located along Bayugo Road and is home to several seminarians who are in study for priesthood.  The place was too quiet that not a single pilgrim except for us was their visitor.  After our prayers, we ate our lunch and enjoyed the fresh air under the mango tree.

St. Anthony of Padua Parish Church was next.  Located in barangay Inarawan, Antipolo City along Marcos Highway. In this church, a famous couple news anchors tied the knot and said their "I Do".

Driving east, our next stop was at the Boso-Boso ruins church.  Also known as Nuestra Senora de la Annunciata Parish Church, it was the first Catholic church built in Antipolo.  The church was burned down during last world war.  Everything inside the church was burned down to ashes and what was left was its walls and facade.  In the 80's and 90's, the church was known as the church within the church as they built a church within the walls of the ruins.  In 1995, with the help of the parishioners, the church was slowly rebuilt using the same walls of the original church.

We also dropped by to visit a small chapel of the Black Nazarene along the Marilaque highway. We gave our respect due to Nuesto Padre Jesus Nazareno.

On our way down to Tanay Proper, we stopped by at the Padre Pio Chapel in barangay Balimbing, Tanay Rizal. The chapel was along the Tanay-Sampaloc road and is overlooking the town of Tanay and Laguna bay.

For several years now, I had been wanting to visit the Chapel of the Black Madonna, also in Tanay, but the chapel gates were always closed.  They probably open their gates only during scheduled masses.  When we entered the compound, there was only one family of pilgrim inside.  It was a very solemn place with a mix of old and new images of saints.

We dropped by the Divine Mercy Chapel in barangay Sambal, Tanay which is along the Daranak road.  Within the compound, they a have a close to life size replicas of the Stations of the Cross.

To have a closer overlooking view of the Tanay town proper we drove up to the Our Lady of Peace Grotto also in Sampaloc road.

Last on our list of churches was the Holy Cross Church in Sitio Bukal Tanay.  When I was in grade school we used to visit this chapel to get healing water from the foot of the cross.  Water is flowing under the foot of the Cross thus the name of the sitio.  "Bukal" in english is spring.  The Cross was believed to be miraculous.  In June of 2016, the chapel was officially declared a parish under the Diocese of Antipolo.

We thank our Lord for all the blessings He had showered the family for the last year.  We also prayed for more blessings this year and years to come.

A-MAZE-ing Sunflower

February 25, 2017; While everybody was busy celebrating the 31st anniversary of the EDSA People Power both in EDSA and Luneta, we drove all the way to Pangasinan to visit the first ever sunflower maze in the country.  This February, Allied Botanical Corporation opened their farm to the public.  They featured different kinds of flowers, plants and vegetables.

Aside from picking your own fruits and vegetables to buy, the farm also opened a 2,100-square-meter Sunflower Maze using about 8,000 sunflower plants.  The maze has several secret gardens perfect for selfies and resting place.

The sunflowers will only be in bloom until the end of February.  It was a stress relieving road trip for the family.