Fire!

I was at Ateneo yesterday at the Tech Tanod training when my long time Kuya pinged me on Facebook. He said there was a huge fire in our village and that the Parish Convento was partially affected. Good thing no one was affected.

I was shocked.

It was the first time in my entire life that I heard about a fire in our village (I've lived here since birth). I have heard of incidents within our barangay but not inside our village. It made me antsy since we were far away from home when I was told about it and I really have this crazy fear of fire (yes even matches and candles). I think that phobia started when I watched Firestarter when I was a kid.

Anyway, my friend said that the fire spread quickly and since it was windy it immediately affected the Parish Convento. Good thing there were quite a number of people in Church attending a BEC meeting and they helped save the house and Convento and prevented the fire from spreading. Tulungan talaga my friend said (he is also btw a barangay kagawad). He also said that the priests were okay and that their vehicles were saved, except for Fr. Lito's car because the roof was singed.

The location of the house and Parish Convento is our regular route. We passed by it last night on the way home. The house was totally damaged. The only thing saved was the tarpaulin that hung on the gate. It was hard to see the damage on the Parish Convento. Will probably see it when we hear mass later.

Thank God only material things were damaged and everyone's safe.

I'm pretty sure that the priests and family needs help. If you are interested to send help (hey Sun Valley neighbors!), please direct them to:

Fr. Ramon Ramos, C.P.
Parish Priest
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish
4068 Bougainville St.
Sun Valley Subdivision, Paranaque City
Or call +632-8231210

Bisita Iglesia

Bisita Iglesia literally means "visiting churches", a tradition followed by Catholics during Holy Week. You'd normally see people flocking from one church to another during Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. I normally go with my friends, but wasn't able to join them this year. Last year though I managed to visit at least 7 churches in Pampanga with some blogger friends.

After work yesterday I thought I'd do some cleaning up. Something I do when I want to have some quiet time alone (Miguel stays out of my way when I'm on clean-up mode). I also wanted to think about my personal mission.

Here are some churches I've visited in the past year (I need help in naming them, I couldn't find my book of Philippine Churches):

Baclayon Church, Bohol. I learned that this church was made in 1727 and is made of corals.

St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral, Cagayan de Oro (my patron saint!). I heard mass in this church back in 2005 not knowing what its name was. I only found out when Honey mentioned it in my last visit to CDO and insisted on showing me around.

Sta. Monica Church, Pan-ay, Capiz. This is where the biggest bell in Southeast Asia could be found. I didn't have the time to go up the bellfry though and the intense heat made me run back to the car immediately.

Basilica del Minore Sto. Nino, Cebu. Heard mass here with my best friend who lives in Cebu.

St. Michael the Archangel (also known as Orion Church), Orion, Pampanga. (thanks AJ for helping me name the church!).

St. Paul's Metropolitan Cathedral, Vigan.

San Sebastian Cathedral, Bacolod City. (I hope I got the name right).

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Paranaque, Metro Manila. Now this church holds all of my history (so far).

Photos by: Aileen Apolo