Sancta Maria, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus: Procession of Our Lady of Victory

That is the line in the prayer Ave Maria or Hail Mary that speaks of absolute desperation, begging the Mother of God for an intercession. 

Ave Maria, gratia plena

The Latin words "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis peccatoribus" translate to "Holy Mary, pray for us sinners...", and these are the words that hold the main intention of the prayer - the same words recited throughout one solemn procession held on April 26, 2020.

On that day, the Our Lady of Victory Parish  celebrated the Feast of the Nuestra Señora de Las Victorias in Victorias City, Diocese of Bacolod, Philippines, with a somber procession throughout the small city.

 Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus

At the break of the dawn of her Feast that fittingly fell on a Sunday, the image of the Virgin was carried on a carroza pulled by the parish lay ministers and accompanied only by Rev. Fr. Rafael Baja, parish priest, and Rev. Fr. Vince Camarines, parochial vicar, in compliance with the government's policies on enhanced community quarantine and social distancing.

Throughout the procession, the 'Ave Maria', appropriately sung by a woman, was played as a prayer for Our Lady's intercession in this very difficult time of the corona virus pandemic.

     Et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus

Days before the procession, the parishioners were advised that no one was allowed to join the procession. Instead, they were asked to light candles by their windows, doorsteps, and gates where the procession would pass.

And on that cloudy morning, early in the procession, sprinkles of rain came down from the heavens as if to mirror the tears that fell from the eyes of those who witnessed the procession and realized that the the Mother of God has always been there for them, not only in times of prosperity and joy, but especially in their hour of pain and suffering.

             Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, 
ora pro nobis peccatoribus

My mother, who watched the procession from a balcony and accompanied by a lighted, red candle, could not hold back tears at the sight of the Virgin passing, ushered with Ave Maria, a song she knew very well.

The procession followed the traditional path of the 14 Stations of the Cross for the Good Friday passage, and when it reached the highly residential side of the town, the atmosphere became more somber as more sad faces greeted the Virgin's image with tears. Even the elderly, who were supposed to be on quarantine, were on the streets, defying manmade commands just to see and seek the divine.

             Nunc, et in hora mortis nostrea

As the procession passed the gates of the prison compound, it paused for a while to enable the inmates, who could be seen from behind the locked gates craning their necks and grasping the cold steel bars that held them back, to get a glimpse of the Virgin and to be able to hear a few words of the Ave Maria from where they were. 

They, too, needed to see and feel Her presence because, no matter what misdeeds they have done and no matter how low society has judged them, they are also God's children and are the ones who needed Her help the most.

And even though the solemn procession has ended and Her feast day has passed, praying for our Mother's intercession should continue..."now and at the hour of death". 

                                   Amen.🙏

                                    * * *

ORATIO IMPERATA (Hiligaynon)

Oratio Imperata Batok sa N-Corona Virus

O Dios nga amon Amay,

kami nagapalapit sa Imo sa amon kinahanglanon

sa pagpangayo sang Imo panabang

batok sa 2019 N-Corona Virus,

nga nag-utas sang amon kabuhi

kag nagtublag sa kadamuan.

Kami nagapangayo sang Imo grasya

para sa mga tawo nga gintugyanan sa pagtuon

sang kinaiya kag ginhalinan sang sini nga virus

kag sang balatian nga iya gindala

kag sa pagtapna sang iya paglaton sini.

Ihatag ang Imo pag-ubay sa mga kamot kag ihibalo

sang mga dalubhasa sa medisina

agod ila maalagaran ang masakiton

sing may kasangkol kag kaluoy,

subong man ang mga ahensiya sang gobyerno kag pribado

agod sila makakita sang bulong kag kasolbaran

sang sini nga balatian.

Kami nagapangamuyo sa mga nagamasakit,

kabay nga ang ila maayo nga lawas

magapanumbalik sa gilayon.

Ihatag sa amon ang grasyo sa pagpangabudlay

para sa kaayuhan sang tanan

kag sa pagbulig sa mga nagakinahanglan.

Ginapangayo namon ini sa Imo,

paagi kay Jesu Kristo, Imo Anak kag amon Ginoo,

nga nagakabuhi kag nagahari upod sa Imo,

sa kaisahan sang Espiritu Santo,

Dios sa tanan nga mga tuig sang mga katuigan.

Amen.

Santa Maria, Mananabang sang mga Kristiano, ig-ampo mo             kami!

San Rafael Arkanghel, ig-ampo mo kami!

San Roque, ig-ampo mo kami!

San Lorenzo Ruiz, ig-ampo mo kami!

San Pedro Calungsod, ig-ampo mo kami!

Recuerdos de Tronos de Semana Santa: Thinking of The Good Friday Procession

By this time last year, the local Catholic parishes were busy preparing for the annual lenten procession of the carrozas de la Semana Santa - the story of Christ's Passion and the saints who were part of it.

A few days before that, hundreds of intricately designed palm fronds held by the parishioners were blessed at the Palm Sunday mass and days after, our parish priest washed the feet of the 12 Apostles.

The preparation of the carrozas starts weeks before but this time, in 2020, it's a different kind of Lent.

All Lenten activities this year have all been cancelled.

This Holy Week, no carrozas would be decorated, no 'santos' will be clothed, no flowers would be arranged, and no religious procession would journey through the streets of sin and sinners.

The salawikain (proverb), "Kahaba-haba man ng prusisyon, sa simbahan din ang tuloy", will not be literally proven again. At least, not this year. It means 'no matter how long is the procession, it would still end up at the church'.

And since there will be no procession of the pasos, I am sharing these images from last year's Good Friday when no one expected that, just 12 months after, He would bring upon the world, not fire and brimstones that would kill from without, but a punishment that would kill from within.

In the past, most houses would light candles by their front doors to illuminate the path of the thousands of  people joining the procession. And without those lighted candles, we all seem lost and can not find our way in the dark.

The streets are quiet, the paths dark, and the churches empty.

But our faith remains strong.🙏

                                                             * * * * * * * * * * * *

La Cuaresma De Cuarentena: A Quarantined Lent

The corona virus picked the perfect time of the year to punish us all: Lent. 

These days, Lent really feels like how it was during the Holy Week of the past when no one blared their radios and music players, television shows were all about biblical stories, most fasted and abstained from eating meat, and everyone stayed home.

Before, it was bad luck when people went to the beach or traveled during the Holy Week. Drowning incidents about revelers who went to rivers or beaches to frolic were attributed to the 'mari-it' atmosphere. 

'Mari-it' is a Hiligaynon word that means haunted because it is believed that engkantos are out and about during the Holy Week, and those who didn't care about staying put had it coming, so to speak. 

But this time, as the government ordered an enhanced community quarantine, no one freely roams the streets except to get food, no one travels to other places in the island except to deliver food, and sadly for most, no one can party due to social distance rules. Worse, no one can get married at the church and no requiem mass can be said for the dead. This virus literally can hold off a couple's public display of affection as well as postpone a departed's trip to heaven.

Fisherfolk though can still go out to the sea to fish but probably have to sell them at cheaper prices since they could not freely bring them to the public markets. But their kids, I'm sure, are having a good time swimming close by. I envy them. 😄

And also the farmers - they are still able to cultivate their backyard farms and harvest any fruit or vegetable they need. And their kids can play in the gardens under the sun. I envy them, too. 😜

But for us here in the urban settlements, we need to stay home. It's for the best. 

We restrict our movements; we restrict the virus from moving around.  Nobody knows if one is a carrier because he or she looks healthy, until he or she gets sick or gets tested. 

We all stay home but still share extra food with those who we think need it more. 

But let's not forget: we don't let politicians exploit the situation.

Call them out for passing the donated goods as their own. 

Call them out for not being transparent, for overpricing goods for donation, for keeping the choice donations for their own use, for using the crisis as a publicity to further their political agenda, and most important, for not making sure the rice and perishable goods paid for by taxpayers' money and distributed to the people are actually fit for human consumption.

In short, call them out for being dishonest and inconsiderate human beings in this time of crisis and especially in this time of Lent - the only time during the year when we re all reminded that...

Someone shared His life, bread and wine with others.

Someone preferred to wash the dusty, dirty feet of his followers than they washed His.

Someone preferred to be sold like a piece of commodity for 30 pieces of silver and even forgave such betrayal.

And Someone was crucified so that others would be redeemed. 😭

Quarantined or not, it is still Lent. 🙏

                                    * * *

Now, help this little boy find his mother and tell him to stay home.😍

ORATIO IMPERATA, The Prayer of These Difficult Times

Oratio Imperata

God our Father,
We come to you in our need
To ask your protection against the 2019 Corona Virus
That has claimed lives
And has affected many.

We pray for your grace
For the people tasked with studying the nature and cause
Of this virus and its disease
And of stemming the tide of its transmission.

Guide the hands and minds of medical experts
That they may minister to the sick
With competence and compassion,
And of those governments and private agencies
That must find cure and solution to this epidemic.

We pray for those afflicted
May they be restored to health soon.

Grant us the grace
To work for the good of all
And to help those in need.

Grand this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever. Amen.

Mary, Help of all Christians, pray for us.
Saint Ralphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Roch, pray for us.
Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us.
Saint Pedro Calungsod, pray for us.

My Simple D-I-Y Disinfectant For Corona Virus and Other Germs

With supermarket racks empty of rubbing alcohol and sanitizers, we're all forced to be creative.

So, what I did was google on how to make your own disinfectant, and it was very easy.😀

And what I needed were available at home: bleach and water, and a spray bottle!😷

1. Get a one-liter bottle and add two (2) tablespoons of bleach; I used Zonrox since we have them at home.

Measurement: 2 tablespoons of Zonrox bleach + 1 liter of water

2. Get a clean spray bottle and fill it up. Then spray on surfaces, chairs, tables, doorknobs, smart phones, laptops, light switches, TV remote, and other appliances that have handles, while wiping them with a clean cloth.

The disinfectant will kill the pathogens. And it's the sodium hypochlorite ingredient in the bleach that does the job.😎

Charity begins as home, they say. So does cleanliness. 😄

(The sign at our door made by the kids at home!)

And we wash our hands upon getting home, and clean the things we bring inside!🙏

Philippine History: Chapter 25 - Former Governor Melecio Severino's Contribution To Victorias

Chapter 25 - Former Governor Melecio Severino's contribution to Victorias

In Chapter 6 of this Victorias History blog, I wrote how, in 1902,  the former provincial governor Melecio Severino helped the people of Daan Banwa (Old Victorias in the Philippines) retain the status of their village as a town.

That time, the American Governor-General running the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands issued an order that poor towns, including Victorias, should be relegated to a barrio of its neighboring towns as they were too poor to be considered as towns. (Read the old names of Victorias here).

Using the Magnanud River as the boundary, Daan Banwa would have been divided between Manapla and Saravia; the northern section was Manapla and its southern section was Saravia. (The earliest record I found that Daan Banwa became a barrio of Saravia was around 1848; it then became a town in 1898 - read blog here).

But things would have turned out differently for the people of Daan Banwa had Señor Melecio Severino heeded the lamentation of his wife, Señora Felicitas Villanueva.

September 29, 1902, a Monday and the day when the town leader, Sr. Eliodoro Tongoy, and town secretary, Sr. Esteban Jalandoni, left for Bacolod to salvage the town's status, started with all things going wrong for the two offiicals, although this day later held a moment of one man's benevolence and sympathy for the people of Daan Banwa.

Earlier that day, at around four in the morning, as the two officials were making their way along the Malihaw River on a boat that would bring them to Bacolod, a sudden gust of wind threw them off the boat (more details of the mishap on Chapter 6). And in Bacolod, during their visits to the governor's and a lawyer's offices, their mission became impossible as the day went on.

Daan Banwa seemed doomed to be just another barrio in the island. 

That was until they bumped into Señor Melecio Severino.

In the sala of the house of Don Basiliso Villanueva and seated at the chairs made of hardwood and done in colonial designs, Sr. Tongoy and Sr. Jalandoni discussed the problem of the people of Daan Banwa.

And although we now know that the two accomplished what they initially set out to do, the rampaging cholera epidemic at that time almost caused Sr. Severino to delay his trip, or maybe had it canceled altogether.

According to the report of Dr. Victor G. Heiser, the Chief Quarantine Officer of the Philippine Islands and its Director of Health during the US occupation, a cholera epidemic swept the Philippines in the early 1900s. The disease surfaced in March 20, 1902 and lasted for two years. When cholera cases disappeared by March 8, 1904, there were 109,461 deaths from the disease. And that time, Bacolod was not spared.

So, when Sr. Felicitas, the wife of Sr. Severino, heard that her husband was planning to leave Bacolod for Manila, she expressed her fears.

The couple's dialogue went like this:

Sr. Melecio: "Señora, isa ca labing dacû, himpit cag mataas nga catungdanan sang tawo, maga pilit caron sa acon sa pagbiyâ sa imo sing mga pila lamang ca adlaw".

Sra. Felicitas: "¿Nga-a diin ca macadto?"

Sr. Melecio: "Sa Manila. Cay ang banua co nga pinalanggâ, ang banua nga nag tib-ong sa acon sa cahitaasan sang cagamhanan sa pagka-governador sa sini nga provincia nga amo ang banua sang Victorias, yara caron sa dacú nga calilisdan, cay paga pihacon sang mga banua sang Saravia cag Manapla sono sang orden sang General..."

Sra. Felicitas: "¿Baya-an mo aco sa tungâ sining maca siligni caron nga camatay diri sa Bacolod?"

Sr. Melecio: "Señora, saligui cag la-umi nga ang Dios dili nga mas-a mag tugut nga may calalat-an nga mahanabô sa isa ca tawo nga naga ampin sing tusuc sa iya taguipuso-on, sang casaquit nga pala-abuton sang isa ca banua nga naga cabuhî bisan imol lamang sa iya caugalingon nga pangitan-an."

Sra. Felicitas then left the room as she wiped her tears. Even though she feared for her husband and her family as the cholera epidemic was sweeping Bacolod and the country, she was proud of her husband and the honorable deed he was about to do for the people of the Old Victorias. In other words, not even a pandemic could stop one man's compassion for his people.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Weeks after Sr. Severino left for Manila, the people of Daan Banwa rejoiced when the town leader received that telegram bearing the best news they heard since November 1898 when Daan Banwa became a town as ordered by the governor of the Republica Cantonal de Negros.

Señor Melecio Yorac Severino, a resident of Silay, was born on December 4, 1866. He was an important member of the revolutionary movement, using his fine writing skills to create propaganda against the Spanish colonizers and their abuses. The movement is now being celebrated as Cinco de Noviembre in Negros Occidental.

In 1912, he was elected as Representative to the National Assembly. As a solon, he opposed the adoption of English as medium of instruction in Philippine schools.

It was said that, sadly, Sr. Severino died of a heart attack on May 16, 1915. He was just 48.😢

As he is part of the history of Victorias, the people of the Daan Banwa, as well as the Victoriahanons of today, owe Sr. Melecio Severino and to Sra. Felicitas Severino y Villanueva a debt of gratitude for their contribution to this town. 🙏 

Note: Words written in neon green are links. Do click them.

Chapter 26:  Why April 26, instead of October 7, is the Feast of Our Lady of Victory in Victorias City

Complete history blog: "Ang Kasaysayan sang                                                Victorias"