Do you believe in unknown forces that seem to intervene with your will, plan, and desire in a given situation? Have you found yourself at one point repeatedly uttering the “what has brought me here” and “someone wanted me to be here or to be somewhere” phrases? I’m not just pertaining to force majeure or act of God or greater force which we denote to nature’s wrath and exceptional occurrence alike. More than that, by unknown forces I mean premonition, inner conscience, and heeded voices that haunt and push us to alter our desires to something they (external forces) want. These forces are the things we can’t explain and even comprehend but we end up following them because we think it is the right thing to do and it feels right to do so.
Most of us, especially Christians, believe that sometimes God and our departed loved ones intrude in our lives to lead us to a path we didn’t foresee we would take or perhaps would influence us in making decision. I am not a believer of outside forces or whoever-you-are-in-the-world in spirit or in flesh commanding me over something because I live in a world where, for me, “free will” is superior. But just last month, I believe that I was hauled by a certain force to accomplish things beyond my plans. And I was sure that the force came from Him.
Having a travel plot months before the Holy Week was something I joyfully looked forward when I started marking my calendar before the final day. However, as I counted the days, things weren’t going the way I intended it. I had to cancel my Vigan and Pagudpud trips because my friends blew off our original plan. This had prompted me to travel alone. Also, I haven’t tried traveling solo, so it was a good opportunity for me to do such.
Reading blogs about Pangasinan enticed me to beach-hop in the province. Drawing fervor from it, I started to arrange new travel itinerary. I bought map and prepared stuff that I would need while I joined vacationers taking time of the long weekend to be with their families.
Holy Week has always been the time for our family to get together. My relatives from Manila and other parts of Luzon usually go to Zambales during this season. The moment my mom knew about my plans to travel to Pangasinan just by myself, she immediately asked me to go home first before embarking on my journey. At first, I was tenacious in saying NO. But when my mom begged and when I heard my dog barked over the phone (which I knew one of mom’s ways to convince me) I retracted my first answer. Besides, it’s easy to cross Pangasinan from Zambales.
New plan: 1 day in Zambales, 2 days in Pangasinan. Three days will be spent for beach and island hopping.
When I was packing my things a day before Maundy Thursday, I felt that there was an inner voice bugging me. I didn’t know who and why. To put it simply, I wasn’t at ease. I thought it was just one of the apprehensions of a sole traveler. I took a second look at my itinerary and everything seemed okay. I’ve been traveling few months before Holy Week but I haven’t been that disturbed. And what was more troubling was the growing uneasiness inside. It was really different. (I know some point in your life you also experience that there’s wrong about something but you cannot decipher what and why).
I was beginning to ask myself: should I continue? The thought ignited more discomfort since I didn’t want to ruin my whole plan. I immediately scrapped the idea, left packing and opened Facebook and Twitter. Upon reading Facebook statuses and Twitter updates about Visita Iglesia and the mere thought of including the same activity in my itinerary pacified the apprehension I had moments ago. After checking my travel plan again, I realized that I didn’t include a church visit on Season of Lent. It was supposed to be His time but I was there very ecstatic fulfilling my personal quests without even giving time for Him. Right then and there I recognized who it was tapping me—it was Him. And it signaled a more rewarding vacation with Visita Iglesia as my priority on Maundy Thursday.
Visita Iglesia is another term for Church Visit. This tradition started in Rome during ancient times. Early Christians visit 7 churches which they believe an act of repentance. But in the Philippines, Filipinos do not only visit 7 churches, some visit as much as 14 churches, in consonance with the 14 Stations of the Cross.
I visited all the Parish Churches of each town of Zambales. Coincidentally, Zambales has 14 towns. So I completed the 14 Stations of the Cross without any intention of following the tradition of devout Catholic believers.
Pictures below are the churches of each town
St. Joseph reminds me of my brother because my brother was named after him.
St. Nicholas church is the closest to my heart not only because it’s situated in my hometown but more than that, it also honed my character as a Christian through words and actions. I studied at St. Nicholas Academy for three years during my secondary years. Apart from sharpening my knowledge, the institution also taught me to be morally upright and live with the value of Christianity.
The situation of this church saddened me. Some of the locals have built flea market just in front of it making the church unnoticeable. Some even attached ropes of their stores to the fence of the church. I hope next time people would clear the area to show respect to His home.
This is my favorite among the 14 churches I visited. Its remoteness coupled with its (small) size makes the place very solemn.
DIALOGUE WITH A WANDERER 