Holy Week 2011: A Well Spent Lent

I can say na it was spiritually successful.  The family participated in all the lent traditions we are accustomed to since husband's family are devoted Catholics.  Holy Week is another time that their big family gets the chance to be together again, so it’s also like a reunion every year.

We started Wednesday midnight with the reading of the "pasyon" with my in-laws. From Wikipedia, the Pasyon (Spanish: Pasión) is a narrative of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ  woven into an epic poetry standard elements colorful dramatic theme with stanzas of five lines with each line having eight syllables.

After 1 and a half hour, I have to stop because I need to send Robin to bed. My husband' siblings continued until around 3 in the morning then stopped.

Other siblings went back to reading at 6 am, while I went back to my turn before 11 am, families from Antipolo and Cavite has arrived and joined too until almost every one in each family has participated and we finished off at past three in the afternoon.

We had sumptuous meals with the whole family on Maundy Thursday.

At night, husband and friends are gone for Bisita Iglesia while my son and I went to my parents’ house since all my siblings and the kids are also on vacation.

Late night when husband fetched us and we decided to check out the area in Rosario & Ortigas Extension.  We saw like a hundred or thousands of pilgrims participating in the "Alay Lakad" or the traditional penitential walk from different places all the way to Antipolo church. 

Photo credit

I once experienced it with Jun when we were still friends and somehow seeing people who participates in the tradition reminds me of the good old days. That was really one of the most treasured memories of my friendship with my beloved husband.

However, that was also the first and last time I walked that far and since then I never really wanted to try again. I had a whole day of swelled muscles that I hardly walk for like two days.

An "Alay Lakad" is really good especially if you try to do it in penance without taking anything like water, but there are actually group of people offering free water along the streets.

Came Good Friday, husband took a half-day off from work to fulfill his “panata” every year for the patron of “San Pedro”.  A group of mostly men participates in the yearly procession en route to different streets of Pasig City. 

 

My other sister-in-law has her own “panata” as she takes the role of one of the “paso” in the procession since she was 12 years old. According to story, she was very sickly when she was young when their mother decided to join her in the procession during holy week. Since then, she has become physically better and I can see that God has seen her sacrifices and penance as her life now is really blessed.

The other family members also joined the procession and said the rosary prayer.  

 

Kids were amazed of the life-size saints included in the procession and would asks for their names, I actually don’t  know the names, I thought all represents for Mother Mary since they all look like Mary.

 

It was indeed a blessed holy week, hope you also had the same.