Of Pilgrimages and Prayers

During a chance visit to a high school last year, I came upon a bulletin board displaying some favourite pilgrimage sites for the Virgin Mary in the country. Among these were Our Lady of Manaoag in Pangasinan, Our Lady of Piat in Cagayan Valley, Our Lady of Penafrancia in Naga City, Our Lady of Namacpacan in La Union, and Our Lady of Antipolo in Rizal.

The Lady in Manaoag is one of the most famous and thus, most visited among them. Second only to it is Our Lady of Penafrancia which has its own share of crowds every September. Their popularity is based on their supposed tradition of miracles and the power to grant petitions. And their counterparts are no less than miraculous. Our Lady of Antipolo is actually also known as the Lady of Good Voyages, and travellers, especially overseas contract workers, visit her for safe journeys. Our Lady of Piat is originally from Lallo, Cagayan and her image was said to have saved the people from a great flood when the Cagayan River overflowed. It is also one of those rare “black” virgins because there is a dark-skinned version of her in honor of the ethnic Itawis tribe that populate the region along with Ibanags and Ilocanos. Our Lady of Namacpacan, on the other hand, is exactly what her namesake means in the Ilocano dialect – her miracle was having “fed” the people during a time of famine and drought. To this day, her chapel has a deep well where people draw miraculous water which is said to heal ailments.

I realized I was fortunate to have been able to visit all of them, some them more than once. It has always been my practice to visit pilgrimage sites whenever I travel. Besides sampling the local cuisine and learning about the folklores of the place, I usually make it a point to include religious sites part of my tourist itinerary. Maybe I owe it to my religious mother or my Catholic upbringing, but somehow this makes my trips special. It is part honouring the place, part marvelling at the church architecture if it happens to be an old structure as well, and part “self-interest”. Self interest because if it’s my first time in a church, I know I’m supposed to get three wishes. This becomes all the more significant if I have my own petition or special intentions for something really important to me.

To be honest, my belief in these was strengthened when I was a Bar reviewee and like the rest of aspiring lawyers, I was one of those who trekked to Manaoag, Antipolo, St. Jude near Malacanang, Sta. Clara along Aurora Blvd., Quiapo church and Baclaran. Looking back now, I think part of these rituals is “conditioning“ one’s body and soul. It’s when you discover that not all things are within your control, especially when you’ve done everything humanly possible already. It’s when you finally accept that there are greater powers at work besides your “genius brain and egotistical nature”. It’s when you ultimately succumb to prayers because hey, saying a few could never hurt your chances.