Faith Hope Love (Act Three)

Bisita Iglesia

The late afternoon sun illuminates the stretch of Ortigas Avenue in front of us. M quietly drives his Lancer towards Pinaglabanan Church in San Juan for our Bisita Iglesia. This activity has been set up a week before. Seated beside him is H, listening to the acoustic alternative music played on M's car stereo. His distant gaze outside the car reveals a relaxed person. Without his constant text reminder and updates for our second meet-up, the Bisita Iglesia would not come into fruition. T, who is seated besides me, was looking at the photos on his digicam. His recent shots of the churches we visited had probably amazed him too. As we discussed about the churches we will visit a couple of hours earlier, he revealed that he wasn't a church-goer person at all. It must be the true spirit of camaraderie among the four of us that convinced him to join, despite his unfamiliarity with this religious tradition.

Our journey began at past 3 PM. The first church we visited was UP Diliman Chapel. M lead the prayers since he is the one who is familiar with the tradition. Eventually he assigned it over, giving the three of us our turn to lead the prayers. Compared to the Bisita Iglesias I joined many years ago, this one is different because for the first time, I am in the company of PLUs. Who would have thought that despite our naughtier encounters written in our respective blogs, we came up with a noble idea like a religious activity during the Holy Week.

From UP Chapel to La Strada Chuch; to Santa Clara and Christ the King Parish in White Plains, we saw how the affluent people practiced their faith. Their well-mannered and orchestrated supplication tells us that they came from the high society. At San Beda, Saint Jude, San Miguel, and San Sebastian; we felt how to be one with the masa. Their joyous, loud practice of faith interrupted only by the occassional prayers at the station of the cross reminds us of how universal the tradition of Bisita Iglesia is. Even if we had the Lancer to our advantage, we decided to walk in order to reach these churches along University Belt. It may have drained us our energy, but the walking part was the only chance we really got to bond with one another. All in all, we managed to complete all the 14 stations of the cross - 14 churches across the city, that many of us had not yet visited before.

We ended our journey at the Christ The King Seminary in E. Rodriguez. Despite the exhaustion from our day-long activity, I guess all of us can agree that we had a great time doing the Bisita Iglesia together. I for one had the chance to do my own reflection and prayers, without the usual hesitation when I'm with family members or other people. Perhaps, it was the compatibility of attitudes that made us stick together, despite our relative unfamiliarity with one another.

Observing their habits individually, there is indeed much more to M's mysterious appeal to H's boyish charms. T's wisdom, warmth and compassion can be compared to those of a sage. They may never reveal these traits, especially in their respective blog pages, but for a moment there, I felt a sense of brotherhood among the four of us.

The is no certainty as to when we shall see each other again. Some of them are scheduled to leave for other countries to pursue their training for their career improvement in their respective jobs. I for one, is set to take two extra-curricular for summer. It might take months before one of us calls again for another meet-up, which, we are not really sure if the four of us could show up or not. Nevertheless, the Bisita Iglesia was a good beginning to our budding friendship. Someday, when we reminisce at how the four of us began, we would just look back to this day and say "we've been divinely sanctioned from the very start." Such rare and meaningful first time deserves to be written and preserved, because we all know, it might never happen again.