(#7) Visita Iglesia For Her

(By Cento Ron)

In as many instances that I attend Church services for what others call “Sunday obligation,” I always notice women outnumber men in attendance. In our predominantly Catholic populace, it made me ask myself if women are more pious and religious than men, or conversely, if men are less fulfilling of their “obligation” than women.

Of course, one’s commitment or sense of obligation cannot be measured according to Church attendance. This is not even a gender issue. But, aren’t complex things guaranteed by the fulfillment of simple ones?

Elders oftentimes quip this advice to younger women: "choose men, for your lifetime partner, who possess the fear of the Lord, may takot sa Diyos.”

This Holy Week provides an opportunity for women to see, feel, test or check their kind of guy. Likewise, it is a chance for single women to hunt for guys their hearts might fall for.

Why not make the most of the Visita Iglesia moments to nourish not only the spiritual transcendental relationship but also to spice up the emotional more personal tangible one? Should the holy really need to be mutually exclusive from that of the romantic? Can’t there be holy romance or romantic holiness?

The first challenge, if it is a challenge at all, is to invite your guy to attend the mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. The second challenge is to invite him further to join you for Visita Iglesia.

You can hit three birds in doing Visita Iglesia with your guy: (1.) you fulfil your religious obligation, (2.) you get to influence your guy to fulfil his religious obligation (if he’s not really into it just yet), and (3.) you can have that chance to know him more in between church trips.

The challenge of Visita Iglesia is to visit 14 churches and pray the station of the cross, one station for every church.

Does the challenge sound tough? No, not really, because this act of sacrifice becomes more bearable when shared with someone, especially with the one you intend to share your whole life with. This can happen if your guy presumes to be the right one for you. Otherwise, you might end up bearing a heavier cross. (You can thank in advance Visita Iglesia for that.)

Visita Iglesia can all be done on Holy Thursday until midnight when the Altar of Repose and the churches shall then be closed. However, this activity can spill over to Good Friday. Think two days - two days of sacrifice and mortification, or two days of fun, holy romance, and revelation.

Visita Iglesia can be more meaningful by hiking to the churches. The short and long hike can be telling if your guy can make your visita worthwhile – if his stories can make you switch to sleepwalking mode or can energize you to further proceed; if he makes any sense or he simply concerns himself with non-sense; if he is gentleman enough to take the danger side of the road or is oblivious of any care and concern to those around him; if he has concrete and achievable ambitions and plans or if what he only has is that he has no plans at all; and, the list can go on...

Visita Iglesia can bring you a lot of possibilities. However, one possibility is undeniably clear: for you to determine if your guy is strong and courageous enough, if he is man enough to be your kind of man. As many say, really strong and courageous men know how to bow their heads and bend their knees… to pray.

After everything, look at yourself in front of the mirror.

(#6) The Restless Soles' Visita Iglesia For The Young

By J. Rakista

The Catolico Cerado among us will swear by their forefathers’ knee caps that the celebration of the Holy Week is not complete without the traditional Visita Iglesia which, they will explain, is an extended version of the Stations of the Cross due to the fact that one has to travel from one church to another with each church representing one Station.

But nobody does the Visita Iglesia alone. You will go with your parents, or brothers and sisters, or relatives, or friends. Or if you feel romantic about it, you can ask your girlfriend’s parents to allow you to bring her with you so that you can savor that once-a-year chance to be able to recall the Passion and Death of the Lord with your life’s most beautiful girl by your side. It can be a metaphysical experience, mind you, to meditate together on the most brutal and violent murder that led to the birth of the Church where, in the future, you sure are going to marry her.

And since churches are usually located very far away in between, you will have all the time in the world to exchange with each other those sweet nothings you’ve always exchanged before – this time in between Stations of the Cross – in between fourteen Stations of the Cross. Fourteen. That's fourteen chances to show her that you can be fun to be with and that there's no one else who can make her smile, laugh and giggle on the eve of the most beautiful Good Friday of her life.

Traditionally, the First Station of the Cross is where you will attend the commemoration of the Lord’s Last Supper. It’s just like your usual Sunday Mass except for the presence of twelve men dressed in bathrobes with multi-colored sashes and large belts. They will wear sandals showing their newly pedicured toes prepared for the one and perhaps only chance in their life that a priest shall wash their feet. You will recognize some of your jobless neighbors among them and feel proud about it; and I mean it in an ironic way.

The Scriptural Readings shall be longer and the priest’s homily shall expectedly be more boring than last year’s, but you will not be able to sleep through it because the church shall be warmer and there shall be more attendees than the usual Mass.

You will wait until the end of the Mass. You will wait until the altar has been laid bare, and the images of the angels and saints have been covered with purple cloths, and the consecrated hosts in an Olympic-sized cup shall have been solemnly transferred to another altar bedecked with flowers and candles and lights and what-have-you. It is called the Altar of Repose.

You will approach the Altar of Repose by making the double genuflect, but, of course, you already know why you should do that. Invite your girlfriend to kneel beside you – always choose the shortest available kneeler. And as your elbow is but barely touching hers, you will begin to offer the longest possible silent prayer in your life. You will know when to stop by your knees’ reaction to this new experience called “kneeling.”

Then you will stand and begin to offer the First Station of the Cross.

After reciting together the First Station from your prayer booklet entitled "STATIONS OF THE CROSS: The New Way of the Cross", you will do the double genuflect again and then off you go to the next church in your itinerary. Don’t forget the sweet nothings.

Once you arrive at the next church, you will look for the Altar of Repose and finding it, don’t forget to do the double genuflect again. Don’t forget too to find a kneeler and to offer the very important silent prayer while your elbow is barely touching hers.

After the silent prayer, you will stand and begin to offer the Second Station of the Cross.

Twelve more churches and you will have completed the sweetest Visita Iglesia of your life. It will be sweeter yet when, along the way to one of those churches, she will allow you to hold her hand.

And for a while there, those exchanges of sweet nothings will stop to give way to a secret prayer asking the Lord not to let that moment end.