being wholly AND holy (part 1 of 2)

Since going to Marinduque (or anywhere far, for that matter) for Holy Week was not possible, we made the most of what we can here in Manila.  Maybe a stay-cation won’t be too bad.

The Visita Iglesia we planned with our friends pushed through, only, 3 hours later ;).  I knew 8am wasn’t going to happen.  Kami pa! On a non-working day!  To make it very-TTF (TTF: the name we call our friendship), we started with food .

hotdogs, pancakes and a list of churches under the Diocese of Parañaque

We had to do some changes to the route since we were running late.  We also wanted to avoid the very unfriendly Alabang-Zapote road (READ: Maynilad construction!  dadaloy din ang ginhawa).  We visited 14 churches in Las Piñas, Alabang and Parañaque.

in Crissie's car, Adel driving and Dennis as the photographer, ay navigator pala ;)

Our 7^th station was at San Beda College in Alabang Hills.  Mind you, all of us in this Maundy Thursday activity were Benedictine children, except that I was from St. Scholastica’s College, and they, from then Benedictine Abbey.  It was no surprise for me to hear recollections of their childhood.

will always be Benedictine Abbey to them

Just as we parked, Crissie said “Why does it look smaller?”  Lumaki lang kayo Crissie! Haha!  Everyone started to identify with old classrooms, playgrounds, a dried up creek/river, footbridge, and oh, the basketball court!  Adel walked up to the basketball court alone.  It was so hot no one wanted to walk further.  Even from afar, I saw how wide his smile was.  I had to give off that smile too.  I told our friends, “Umiiyak na yata yun!”  In high school, he was a player of the basketball varsity team, hence has very fond memories in that court.

Adel, Crissie, Alvin, Ingrid and Dennis in the school chapel 

Very late lunch was at Gloria Maris at The Pergola in BF Parañaque.  It has been quite a while since we last dined in Gloria Maris.  The last one was, I think, at the branch in Starmall Las Piñas.  That one is closed now.  I don’t think anything has changed; food was average.  We had century eggs and jelly fish, hainanese chicken, sweet and sour chicken and beef with broccoli.

It’s very comforting to know that you can pray and be wicked with the same people.  We capped the day with coffee and chips at the nearest Starbucks, before going to our 15^th station: our house ☺.