29 Mar 2013

Every time I’d spend Holy week back in the Philippines, my whole family would usually go to my dad’s hometown, Vinzons, Camarines Norte. This tradition has been with us even before I was born.

The whole clan would go there to celebrate the week. We have a life-sized statue of Christ carrying the cross while being helped by Simon of Cyrene. Other families are also ‘taking care’ of statues.

These images depict the Stations of the Cross. All, placed in well-decorated carriages, are paraded within the vicinity of Vinzons while the crowd is reciting the rosary.

This year. I am here in Singapore, hence, to celebrate Good Friday, which is a holiday here, we went out to do something different, Visita Iglesia (Visiting at least 7 churches in a day) around the Central Area.

With Rachel once again . Meet up time was at Novena Church, 6:30am.

1.       Church of St Alphonsus or popularly known as Novena Church, my home church. 6:30’s too early because I came on time and the gates were still closed. They opened at about 7am. We decided to go and do the Stations of the Cross (2 stations per church).

Nearest MRT: Novena MRT.

*From Novena Square, we took bus 851 to our next stop.

Website: http://www.catholic.org.sg/parish_detail.php?OrganisationID=11

2.       Our Lady of Lourdes, we came there past 7am, but still the church’s gates were closed, hence we just prayed outside.

*from the nearest bus stop, we took bus 960 to go our next destination.

Website: http://www.lourdes.sg/

3.       St. Joseph Church. Church was open. We were able to pray as soon as we arrived.

Website: http://www.catholic.org.sg/sjc/

4.       Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. Walking distance from St. Joseph’s.  It’s a very old church, but I am always fascinated with older structures. =)

Website: http://www.veritas.org.sg/parish_detail.php?OrganisationID=1

From here, we took MRT to go to Harborfrount-exit D-take bus 61 to our next church.

5.       St Teresa’s Church. We attended the church’s Passion of the Cross and Holy Mass there because when we arrived, they were almost starting, therefore, we just decided to stay put and wait. The entire service took 2.5Hrs.

Website: http://www.stteresa.org.sg/

*After the service, we went to have lunch in Orchard, Dean and Deluca @ Orchard Central. We took bus 124.

6.       Church of the Sacred Heart. Near Dhoby Ghaut MRT

Website: http://www.catholic.org.sg/parish_detail.php?OrganisationID=10

7.       Church of St. Bernadette. (not so)near Orchard MRT. Take bus 16 from opposite exit B.

Website: http://www.stbernadette.org.sg/

That was it for our 7 churches in one day. Rachel decided to go home but I was not yet finished. My next stop was not a church, it’s a museum, Malay Heritage Center (4sgd). I’ve always been fascinated with Malay culture and language that’s why as soon as I found this museum; I already planned to check it out.

Their culture’s very interesting because, except for religion, it’s almost close to Filipino’s. (Malay-Islam; Filipino-Christian) My favourite part of the museum was the movie exhibit, wherein visitors are able to watch parts of old movies while comfortably seated. Also, I quite like the music exhibit, and writers and publishing exhibit. I found the old photos exhibit interesting as well.

After that, I walked around the Sultan Mosque then went home.