St. Clement's Church is like an oasis in the desert of the city. Its serene spirituality and simple elegance are welcome respites in the surrounding chaos. It is one of the three places of meditation near Iloilo that I like to visit. The other two are the quaint chapel atop Balaan Bukid, and the simple and quiet Trappist Monastery chapel with a bare rock as an altar. In these three places, I can really feel the spiritual and celestial ambience a church is supposed to offer. In other churches, I am usually awed by the trimmings - the ornate altar, the hodgepodge of images, the unending parade of worshipers, the mendicants and mentally ill who are supposed to be taken cared of by the government - all make a church visit an ambivalent experience.
St. Clement's is famous for its Perpetual Help novena every Wednesday. Many profess that their prayers are answered because of the novena. My mother would not argue.
Mother used to bring me to St. Clement's when I was a kid. She put on her veil (those days women still covered their heads with a veil when they attend a church service) and we had to kneel on the grass outside the church as we could no longer enter because the church was packed with devotees. Mother was pregnant and she prayed that this time she be given a girl. Already with 3 naughty boys borne in a span of five years, mother prayed for a girl in order not to add more chaos to our house. Every Wednesday she attended the novena masses. After a few months, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. In gratitude, Mother appended Perpetua (in honor of the Perpetual Help) to her new baby's name. Today, my sister loves to hate her long and unusual name.
The Redemptorist Fathers private quarters form the left extension of the church.
Behind the private quarters is the building which was once the St. Clement's College, an exclusive boys' school. After the college folded up, the building was up for rent. It now houses the offices of the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Saviour International College (School of Nursing).
To the right of the church is the entrance to the St. Clement's Retreat House.
When I was a college student, the Sunday evening mass in St. Clement's was the occassion to be seen especially for students who have just arrived from their hometowns. Their clothes were freshly pressed with the fold marks still perceptible. They looked refreshed and healthy after eating homecooked foods as opposed to instant noodles and carinderia fares. Above all the students looked confident because their one-week allowances were still intact with nary a deduction.
Best time to visit St. Clement's Church is from 8:00 am to 9:00 am when only a handful of people are around. If you need to light a candle, there are candle stands to the right and to the left of the front entrance. Candles are available near the stands. No payment are exacted. Only drop a donation, if you feel like it, at the designated boxes.
There are morning and afternoon masses in English and in Ilonggo. @
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
ST. CLEMENT'S CHURCH
Friday, February 13, 2009
There's a turtle outside my window
I like watching the NatGeo channel especially the wildlife documentaries. One docu I liked was about the Pacific island of Galapagos where time had seemed to stand still. I especially like the giant turtles crawling over the rocks.
My place is no Galapagos. But there are also turtles, exactly 3, crawling over rocks outside my dining room window. They are native fresh water turtles called bao. I built them rock enclosures so they can not stray away, and a small pond where they can swim and catch guppies when I forget to feed them with bread, fruits, or left over meat.
I started with one turtle, courtesy of my 7yo nephew. His teacher asked him and his classmates to bring a small animal each so they can show everybody the different ways the animals move or walk. I was planning to ask my farmhand to catch some fleas from our resident askal. Or dig for some earthworms, or look for maggots or cockroaches because I know that the teacher would squirm and would just ran away from the class in fright. (I like my nephew to standout in his class. Normal kids don't bring earthworms and maggots to class for show-and-tell. And normal parents don't allow their kids to bring earthworms and maggots to their teachers. Or I have to rephrase that. Parents don't normally allow their kids to bring earthworms and maggots to their teachers. There. It sounds less of a mental retardation.) However, a turtle was given to my nephew as his pet. After the show-and-tell, I adopted the turtle so it can live a happy normal life in our garden.
Later, Tita Au gave me baoB so that baoA will have company. But they just ignored each other. So my farmhand gave me baoC, but still they ignored each other. I was hoping that they will turn our garden into their version of little paradise as they fall in love and produce little baos. But no. They just ignored each other. The little fights which I presumed as courtship dances were actually real fights. They fought over food and space and continued to ignore each other. I asked my kids to research via internet on how to tell the sexes of the turtles. So far, no result.
One time my sister shouted that there were snakes in the garden. She knew there were turtles. But seeing a turtle from the neck up, without seeing the body, it really looked like a snake. Or a specie of reptilia that is about to sow terror in your yard. So I cleared the garden of pots and big stones that may impede the view of the turtle's body.
Meantime, the turtles crawled over rocks outside my window. And I remembered Galapagos.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
From my Grade 2 textbook
Yari kita karon / mga malipayon / pakadto sa uma / mapahalab kita. / Si Lati pahalbon. / Si Tinday man dayon. / Sila ang tatapon / kay mabinuligon.
These lines were from my Grade 2 textbook. I still memorize these up to today. And many more passages and books from my childhood days.
Many times, out of the blue, the lines would just pop up in my mind. And scenes of those happy days cloud my memory. And I smile. I am a child again.@
Monday, December 1, 2008
DIRTY ICE CREAM
This one you will surely miss when you are abroad - the dirty ice cream.
When you hear the familiar sound of the bell, it's the dirty ice cream man! And children just can't resist the temptation to buy some.
I don't know why it is called dirty ice cream. For sure it is not because of the quality of the ice cream because from the time I was a kid up to now, I can't remember any instance when I had a problem with my stomach after eating it. Of late, I have read children and adults being hospitalized, and a few even died, because of other foods. But not the dirty ice cream.
Possibly dirty because the vendor just handles the cones directly with his bare hand. The cones are not wrapped with tissue. And, horrors, what he has handled minutes ago. But, then, sometimes we need some bad bacteria to enter our system, right? Our immune system needs to practice fighting so that we will be stong and healthy.
But, anyway, the ice cream is just so delicious. And only 5 pesos a scoop. If indeed, you'll experience stomach trouble later, what the heck. At least you have satisfied your craving.
Ti may dirty ice cream man sa abroad? Waay gid haay. @
Ga-patad ka sa LOTTO? I-memorize ang numero nga ini....
