A must-visit in Antipolo

ANTIPOLO is now anticipating – and preparing for – the arrival of thousands of pilgrims this coming Holy Week. As it has been in the past several decades, the peak of pilgrim arrival is expected to be on the evening of Holy Thursday till the morning of Good Friday.

During this period, thousands of our Catholic brethren will be doing the traditional “Alay Lakad” – a pilgrimage on foot to the National Shrine of our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage. Most will be doing the walk in small and large groups. There will be a number who will be doing it by themselves, prayerfully and meditatively.

The pilgrims-on-foot will be coming from various parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces. There are stories of pilgrims coming from Central Luzon and Northern Luzon who join the nowfamous walk, but they are yet to be confirmed.

The pilgrims will be walking from as far as Tondo in Manila, San Jose del Monte in Bulacan and San Pedro south of the Metropolis. They will be using the two main routes to the Shrine: via Tikling in Ortigas Avenue Extension, and Masinag along Marcos Highway.

We are not certain as to how this recent practice started. What we know is that the Holy Thursday evening walk attracts a growing number of pilgrims every year. We surmise that this is the way many of our countrymen would like to commemorate and meditate on the walk that our Lord Jesus Christ did to Calvary as He carried His cross. The practice may have also been inspired by the presence of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo – she, who protects and blesses our “walk” through life.

There are many reasons to visit Antipolo this Holy Week. For one, the climate in the city is always cooler than that of the lowlands. There are also many retreat centers and houses of prayer where one can find solace and the tranquility one needs to commune with God.

There is one more reason to come to the Pilgrimage City this Holy Week. Just a few days ago, the Archdiocese of Antipolo reopened the Museum of the National Shrine. This is a must-visit place tourists, pilgrims and enthusiasts of religious and social history.

The Museum is located at the upper floor of the Shrine. There is a back entrance in the Cathedral leading to this interesting home of valuable historical and religious artifacts.

The Museum displays wooden sculptures of religious images retrieved from the old Antipolo church. It houses religious paintings and round-wall sculptures depicting the historical events in the very “pilgrimage” that the image of the Lady of Peace and Good Voyage took from her original home in Mexico to Antipolo.

It also showcases the many garments that were used over the years to clothe her image, many of them done in hand-painted designs in gold threads.

I was told that the reopening of the Museum is part of a nine-year Novena in preparation for the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Our Lady’s image in our shores.

We invite everyone to come to Antipolo to mark the Holy Week with us and to pay a visit to the Museum of the National Shrine.

There are many reasons to see the exhibit housed here, other than just the historical.

The exhibit helps the devotee reflect on and appreciate the idea of a “pilgrimage”. It is an idea demonstrated by the Blessed Virgin herself.

The Blessed Virgin is perhaps the most popular “dayo” of Antipolo. A “dayo” is a person who deliberately – and, by choice – comes to a place other than his or her birthplace, and adopts that place as his or her home.

Antipolo was not the original home of the Blessed Mother’s image. It was Mexico. As if by divine design, her image took that perilous journey from the shores of Acapulco, Mexico; braved the many storms along the way; and, eventually made this hilltop city her home.

She reminds us that we are all just “dayo sa mundong ito”. We are all just pilgrims in this world.

And we are all in a pilgrimage that is full of turmoil and peril – just as her journey across the ocean on a fragile Mexican galleon had been.

The Lady of Peace and Good Voyage inspires us to take courage and embark on that pilgrimage through life.

She also reminds us of God’s assurance that – by faith and through His Grace – we will make it safely to shore.

“Though I walk through the valley of darkness, no evil will I fear,” the Psalmist tells us.

“Lo, I shall always be with you,” the Redeemer on the Cross reminds us.

Devotees of the Blessed Mother would remember these verses from novena song titled “Mother of Christ” sang in her honor.

“When the voyage is o’er, O, stand on the shore, and show Him at last to me.”

That is one good reason to come to Antipolo, visit the Shrine and see the Museum.

We get to be reminded that ours is a faithful God who, at the end of our pilgrimage in this life, will be standing on the shore of our final destination to welcome us to our True Home.