Box Office Hit!

people jostled each other to get a good vantage point, patiently lining up so they can get a good seat. the crowd is so big that it actually spilled over the road. perhaps expecting a standing room situation, some people even brought their own chairs. when the music started people settled down and quietly paid homage to the biggest box office hit this christmas season: the simbang gabi (midnight mass).

i spent my christmas in naga city, south of cebu. for some reason, the celebration is more solemn and heartfelt - never mind that i can not fully understand the mass as it was celebrated using cebuano, i felt the same feeling of hope as i bowed my head and prayed for peace for myself, my family, my loved ones and for all mankind.

merry christmas to everyone.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Men and Makeup

nope, this is not another entry about metrosexuals and how the lines have been blurred when it comes to men wearing makeup. i am referring to the local and national election campaign posters plastered all over the country. someone has go to tell these candidates and their stylists that blemish free skin, pouting rouged lips, blushing red cheeks belong to cheeky graduation pictures, or a starlet posing in uno. not the local posters. on second thought, the more senior candidates probably used their graduation pictures, high school pictures mind you. i don't understand why they are afraid to show character with a few elegant lines on their faces. the way botox cleared the expressions, or how photoshop removed all pores from the skin, or how subcutaneous fat seem to have been sucked off from their chins left a very puppet-like look. yup, character, character assassination. combined with exaggerated, toothy grins, some pictures reminded me of joker. not arroyo (one of the few ch
Read more

a most unusual saint

Image
the title Black Magic Mary is enough to conjur images of a witch draped in black robes similar to that of the Virgin Mary albeit with a more sinister aura. in Sta. Maria Church in Siquijor, a saint wearing a black habit holds a skull in one hand and an "inverted cross" in another is fast gaining a reputation that is probably influenced by the mystic history of the island itself. locals have speculated that the skull is actually her husband's and that she murdered her husband for reasons that seems to have been lost in history. a bit of research show that the locals refer to the saint as Santa Rita de Siquijor, probably a Filipino convention where we name the Virgin Mary with annexes related to places (e.g. Our Lady of Guadalupe). my own research led me to discover this particular "myth" in an effort to know more about Santa Rita de Cascia who is the patron saint of a church and town named after her in Pampanga. The first thing that caught my attenti
Read more

the sign

"Lord, give me a sign..." no, i haven't fallen victim to overly melodramatic movie lines. on the other hand, i actually did use these words while attending mass last sunday (Redemptorist, Cebu City). you see, i have been increasingly dissatisfied with matters regarding the church but not necessarily my faith. to a point that i am debating whether i should even attend mass. i was asking myself if i wanted to attend mass given the fact that the church is getting more political. sure, i understand liberation theology and standing up for what is morally right. but that is exactly the same thing that has been bothering me, the moral thingy. the local church is proclaiming that the current administration has no moral leadership. i am not refuting that claim, on the other hand, the church could have said the same thing about itself. except that they rather not comment on anything when it comes to issues facing the institutional church. and there are tons of dirt, make that hun
Read more