Little Taste of Heaven

In that cloudy day last Sunday, I found myself in the middle of the crowd on the busy streets of Sta. Rosa as me and my family were heading to the National Shrine of Divine Mercy to attend mass. People are power walking everywhere. Traffic is making it worst. So we decided to get off the ride and walk to the church. As we walk through the sidewalks, I saw something that triggered my rumbling stomach. Holy cow! There’s a lot of food everywhere. Outside the church, there are a lot of stores selling different things.  A lot of them have pastries and delicacies. There are dainties such as suman, kutsinta and tikoy. Some are sweet delicacies like yema ,pastillas and candies. Others are putopaos, barquillos and many others which are usually bought for pasalubong :D

Interior of the Shrine from the Main Door

Divine Mercy church is huge for it’s about 5 hectares large. It has many religious images and overwhelming faith expressions all over. They have three areas to held masses, one on the upper portion of the church which was covered, another is the uncovered area at the middle and the third one is at the back and lower portion of the church which was recently covered due to the help and donations of devotees. An area may accommodate 200-250 seats per mass, but the crowd covers the whole area every time.  Every part of the church shows its simplicity yet enticing work of arts which are rich in religious expressions.

For tourists and other people visiting the shrine, they have souvenir shops. If ever you’ve been tired wandering around, there are places where you can put your feet up and satisfy your hungry stomach. Organo Gold, a coffee shop inside, intends to help the scholars of Divine Mercy church by its proceeds. It’s not crowded there and also it’s a Wi-Fi zone useful for people who want to rest and surf online. Beside the coffee shop was the food court, a lot of people eat there because of the different variety of foods to choose from in much cheaper price. There are also vending machines everywhere if ever someone needs a drink. These food and drink stalls help the ongoing beautification of the entire shrine.

We attended the 10:30 to 12 noon mass. It is held at the lower and back portion of the shrine. Around it was the life-sized statues displayed for the Stations of the Cross which is very popular every Holy week. There were a lot of people that day, ignoring the extreme heat of the sun. After hearing the words of God, we passed by the backside where the parking lot was located. Its lunch time then and my tummy’s screaming already then while walking I was like, LOL! WTF? In the narrow pathway laid plenty of food stalls with mouth-watering foodstuffs. There are different dishes, hotdogs, French fries, and what we call tusok-tusok commonly seen on sidewalks. Not only foods are there but also different items like religious necklace and bracelets, dresses for Sto. Ninos, and different wood carvings.

At the end of the day, we all came home with our stomachs filled and so as our spiritual needs. 

Sevillano,Sarah Jane R.

BCR 3-1D