Holy Week 2008

Mom went home to Aklan for the Easter Triduum so it was just me, Dad, Pat and Anne spending it here in Manila.

Maundy Thursday=-
We went to Duty Free to buy chocolates (talk about abstinence!), my moisturizer and some groceries. We went home and waited until after dinner to visit 7 churches around Manila for Visita Iglesia. We first went to our parish at St. Martin de Porres, then St. Michael in Fort Bonifacio, San Antonio in Forbes, San Agustin Church, Manila Cathedral, St. Vincent de Paul in Adamson and Magallanes Church.

We decided to skip our yearly Starbucks visit after the last church as we decided to go on a roadtrip the next day.


Good Friday=-
Dad suggested that we go to Subic for lunch and then go home. Yes, he wanted to burn gas and rubber that day. ^_^ We used SCTEX that just recently opened. SCTEX means Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway. It was a 60B peso project that came from ODA. In fairness, it's a very well-made structure that made the destination to those mentioned places a lot faster.

Uncle Nonoy's gang (aka family) was also there and we decided to meet up for a bit. They went to Subic earlier and they were having dessert by the time we were waiting for lunch at Yellow Cab. We drove around for a bit before going to Angeles City to check out Pat's flying school. He went down and stayed there around 15 minutes to 'inquire'.


Black Saturday=-
My fellow lectors came over for brunch to practice the 7 readings for that night's Easter Vigil celebration. We were discussing not only our cues, blockings and partners for dialogicals but we were also trying to explain the meaning of Easter Vigil and the message of the gospel. They were also delighted by mom's banana bread and even had some packed home!

That evening, everything flowed smoothly. I was just glad my vision did not fail me as I read from the Book of Ezekiel (the longest reading that mass). During Easter Vigil, the lights were at a very minimum and we relied on the desk lamp on the lectern. I even remembered last year that we only used pen lights to read those font 11 letters.


Easter Sunday=-
I woke up at 4am to join the Salubong Procession. It was very early so I decided to just walk towards the women's rendezvous at Mater Dolorosa. I was sweating and slightly panting as I arrived. Clearly, I wasn't physically fit (anymore) for long, fast-paced walks.

It was my 2nd salubong as I rarely get up early.. except when we have a flight or a road trip.. my first time was with mom and I think I was still in grade school. All I remember was that it was so early, it was so dark and the weather used to be cool at this time.

I attended mass with Aileen, Dino and Rea, my fellow lectors who were roughly in the same age bracket as me. During communion, my stomach was turning itself inside out. I realized my last meal was dinner before Easter Vigil. When it ended, Rea and I walked back to phase 2 and invited her over for breakfast.

In the afternoon, I had a well-deserved and overdue footspa and manicure. I also went to Market!Market! to buy medicine for dad and do some window-shopping (it's a great stress reliever, anyway).

~~~

Tomorrow will be another day of work... I can just see my inbox pile up with mail. I decided not to open all of them... save some work for the office diba? hehehe