Laguna - Quezon Visita Iglesia
Every year, I'm looking forward to bonding with my family during our Holy Week tradition of visiting old Spanish-era churches. This religious tradition is popularly known throughout the country as Visita Iglesia.
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| 2015 Laguna - Quezon Visita Iglesia Adventure |
Last 2015, our destination is the Spanish-colonial era churches in the provinces of Laguna and Quezon. I originally proposed and planned for us to go on a pilgrimage to the province of Pampanga however, two weeks before the trip other members of the family decided to join our Visita Iglesia trip. This meant that our group tripled in number and looking for a resort would become a major problem. Because of this reason, the plan was changed and we went with the Laguna - Quezon Visita Iglesia.
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| The pool of Felioni Spring Family Fun Resort |
On our first day, our two-car convoy moved from our home to link up with the third vehicle of the family at a gas station in the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX). From there, we proceeded to Felioni Spring Family Fun Resort at Pansol in Calamba City, Laguna. We spent our whole day bonding, swimming, singing, etc. After checking out of the resort early the next day, we proceeded with our planned Visita Iglesia.
Our first stop is at the St. Augustine Parish Church which is also called Church of Bay. It is located in the town of Bay in Laguna. Since we don't want to get caught up in traffic later, we decided to have only three of the fourteen Stations of the Cross in the church.
Our second stop is at the San Antonio de Padua Parish Church which is also called Pila Church. It is located in the historic town of Pila. It stands proud among the heritage houses in the Poblacion. We did four more Stations of the Cross here before leaving for our next destination.
Our next stop is the church in Santa Cruz which is the capital of Laguna -the Immaculate Conception Parish Church which is commonly known as Sta. Cruz Church. Compared to the first two churches, the facade of this church looks more modern perhaps due to recent renovations. We got to finish three more Stations of the Cross here, leaving us with only four more.
We then drove to Pagsanjan for our fourth church which is the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Church or Pagsanjan Church. It was in this church that we decided to finish our Stations of the Cross. Before we left, my wife got a chance to buy "kesong puti" from one of the very persistent peddlers outside the church.
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| Luisiana Church - Luisiana, Laguna |
Our next destination was supposed to be the town of Cavinti but we decided to bypass it and visit the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church in Luisiana instead because its church is very accessible since it is found near the main road. By this time most of our family members were asleep and were not in the mood to board down the car and only a few (including me) decided to board down and go inside the church to offer their personal prayers.
For our sixth church, we drove out of the province of Laguna and into the province of Quezon. We found ourselves in the town of Lucban. We were about to visit San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Parish Church or simply Lucban Church however due to the lack of parking space we decided to move on to Via Dolorosa Grotto which is more popularly known as Kamay ni Hesus Shrine which is also located in Lucban, Quezon. There was a church there and despite it not being an old one, we decided to count it as the sixth church in our Visita Iglesia. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to walk up to the shrine on top of the hill due to the huge number of pilgrims that are in a long line going up to it.
We then drove to our 7th church which is the Minor Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel which is commonly known as the Tayabas Basilica in the town of Tayabas. However, like the church in Lucban, we failed to visit it due to the lack of parking space. By this time, we were all hungry because we skipped lunch so we headed to the famous Palaisdaan Restaurant which is also in Tayabas.
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| The drive back home |
After the hearty meal, we then drove back home. Lucky for us the traffic was not too heavy that day and we got home after a little more than 3 hours of driving from Tayabas to Cavite. Overall, despite only visiting six of the supposedly seven churches, I could still safely say that our trip was a success because it brought us closer as a family and also in some sense closer to God.
Nice trip you got there. I also like to go to Kamayan sa Palaisdaan Restaurant. Anyway, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my site. =) Have a great day Mark!
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