Saturday, August 6, 2011

Pilgrim Image of Our Lady of Fatima Visits Parish


August 6, began just as any normal Saturday, in the parish with the 6AM mass. Supposedly, the regular monthly first Saturday Dawn Procession would have been done before the mass. But this day, the parish had a most welcome visitor in the pilgrim image of Our Lady of Fatima. She stayed in the parish for two weeks.

After a hearty repast of pandesal and coffee, everybody present, and there were more than your usual dawn procession habitues, began preparing for the welcome ceremonies. The altar was setup with beautiful and fresh flowers for Our Lady, the welcome banner was positioned at the church entrance, beautiful little blue and white flaglets were distributed to the parishioners, the pickup truck was checked prior to its trip to the nearby Our Lady of Consolation Parish to fetch Our Lady, and blue and white balloons adorned the cars that were going to join the motorcade.
By 7:30AM everything was ready and the motorcade left for OLCP.

Prior to the image's departure, the crown and rosary adorning the virgin were temprarily removed from the image and turned over to the SLRP representatives, headed by Fr. Luke. After the ceremonies, Fr. Madz, the parish priest of OLCP formally turned over the image to Fr. Luke for its short journey to SLRP. The image arrived at the parish at 8:30AM warmly welcomed by the congregation. There followed the arrival ceremonies where the crown and the rosary were fitted back into the image for her two-week stay.

For the rest of Our Lady's visit, daily devotional prayers and recitation of the Rosary were offered, with the Block Rosary Crusade and Legion of Mary devotees leading the congregation. The highpoint of her visit was the 2000 Hail Marys offered by the parish on August 13.

On August 19, after the evening mass, the pilgrim image left the parish for San Isidro Labrador Parish, its home for the next two weeks. Led by representatives from SILP who fetched, a candlelight procession of parishioners from both SILP and SLRP, accompanied the image.

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