Holy Week journey

Last week was they celebrated Holy Week here on the island and on last Thursday my uncle had invited me to go on a “spiritual journey”. Despite my usual religious fervor I was kind of reluctant to say yes immediately but after realizing I had nothing else at all to do in my dorm I decided to go along.

The first stop on this spiritual journey was Kamay ni Hesus (Hand of Jesus) in Lubac, Quezon where they have among other things a healing priest by the name of Rev. Joey Faller, a 50 foot statue of Jesus sitting on top of a 20 story hill, and ex-beauty queen. At a glance it looks like an amusement park for Christians with a 20 story hill decorated with statues of the 14 Stations of the Cross. However, as you watch the hundreds of people both young and old make their way up the 200+ steps of the hill bearing the heat and humidity you see that everyone here is seriously devoted to their faith. We'll most of them...



The 4th station, Jesus is adorn with a crown of thorns.



The 7th station, Simon helps carry the cross.



The 8th station.


Where Jesus plays pat-a-cake for the last time.

One of the buckets of coins they pulled out from a pond on the hill.


Religion pays in this coutntry!

Hundreds of candles are burnt for personal wishes.



I was told if you want to bestow ill will on some one you turn this guy upside down and then make your wish.


Alright praying to God to hurt some one. That's a new one to me, but maybe one I'll try.



I believe this is Guadalupe Sanchez. She's a former Miss Philippines who now runs a restaurant in Manila.


Well, you know beauty doesn't last forever.

Though it was already dark and most of us were sweating from climbing to the top of the hill I came to discover our spiritual journey wasn’t over yet. It just began. One of the traditions here in the Philippines is Visita Iglesia which means church visit. It’s a modern day pilgrimage where people go from one church to the next in a physical representation of the Stations of the Cross, minus having to carry an actual cross and adorning a crown of thorns. Although there are some places where they do that. Most people visit 7 churches but others do the whole 14. We sort of got going kind of late so we weren’t able to complete the Visita Iglesia but at least we did give it a go.

One of the places we managed to visit was Tayabas Basilica in Quezon province. Built in 1585 by Franciscan Friars it is one of the oldest churches in the Philippines.



Though it needs a little restoring it is a really nice church.








Oh snap! Jesus is black!

Another church we got to visit before the night was over was Lucena Cathedral, which was completed in 1884.



This was a nice church as well with a lot of decorative wall paintings.


Looks like Cain is about to serve Able a can of whoopass.

We were able to hit up another two churches before everthing started to close down. However, they where just your typical modern churches. So with that our little spiritual journey came to an end.