Pintakasi

La Inmaculada Concepcion of Manila Cathedral A trip to Intramuros is not complete without visiting or seeing one of it's famous and prominent landmarks - The Manila Metropolitan Cathedral, the First Cathedral and the Mother Church of the Philippines. Every pilgrim, tourist, or local Manileño would always make it a point to enter the Cathedral to pray, meditate, gaze on the artworks and architecture among others.  Aside from architecture, one of the most prominent feature of the Cathedral is the beautiful and imposing statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Immaculate Conception, the Principal Patroness of the Philippines. The image of the Virgin grabs the attention of the all who visit the Cathedral and be amazed on her other worldly beauty which gives a beholder a sense of heaven here on earth.  The image The altar image of La Inmaculada Concepcion of Manila Cathedral There were two images of Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception that is venerated at the historic Cathedral - t...

The icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help that was set to return to her altar in 2019 A talk from Rev. Fr. Tim Ofrasio, SJ for "Visitacion III: Halina sa Marikina" of Esculturas Religiosas en las Filipinas  Transcribed by Mr. Sherwyn Aban Blogger's photo of +Rev. Fr. Tim Ofrasio, SJ during the said event Blogger's note: The night of December 1, 2020 was rocked with a sad news of the passing of Rev. Fr. Timoteo "Tim" Ofrasio, SJ due to COVID-19. Fr. Tim is known as  one of the pillars on Philippine Liturgical Music, a scholar and advocate of celebration of Ad Orientem worship for the Mass (The priest facing the altar at the direction of the east) and Traditional Latin Mass, The Filipino Catholic faithful from different sectors mourned on his passing. I then remembered the talk that he gave to one of the events I attended years ago which it's message is still important and relevant today, especially in the social media age where some non-Catholic extremists...

Apart from the Rosary, the Brown Scapular of the Carmelite Order, the Black Cincture of Our Lady of Consolation and the White Scapular of Our Lady of Mercy, one of the most popular Marian sacramental in the Catholic Church is the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, more popularly known as the "Miraculous Medal". The devotion to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal played a significant role in the the history of the Church that helped shaped the current landscape of Marian devotion in the world.  Now as we celebrate the 190th anniversary of the revelation of the Miraculous Medal to St. Catherine Laboure, a sister of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, let us now have a look back on the history and the development of the devotion to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and how it influenced the history of the Church and also in our country's culture. A tribulation in France The understand the context of the apparitions of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, we should loo...

The mural at the main altar of Bambino Gesu of Arenzano in his Minor Basilica in Italy For most of our readers and the faithful, images of the Blessed Virgin Mary are usually the recipients of the honor of Canonical or Episcopal Coronations over the centuries and the consciousness on this pious act have a tremendous resurgence in the recent years, especially in our country, most specifically during the Pontificate of Pope Francis. Now with more access to information and further researches shows that some images of the Child Jesus and St. Joseph were also recipients of the honor of being crowned upon the approval of the Church hierarchy from the petitions of their devotees. For this special blog post, we are going to feature the four (yes, you read it right) Canonically Crowned images of the Child Jesus all over the world and its corresponding devotions here in our country (yes we do have them). The beginnings of the devotion The devotion to the Child Jesus is the devotion to the real...

San Jose de Las Piñas In the busy and historic city of Las Piñas, located at the Southern part of Metro Manila, the city took pride of its historic Parish and Diocesan Shrine of St. Joseph where the famous Bamboo Organ can still be seen and heard. Apart from the historic Church and the Bamboo Organ, the people of Las Piñas took pride on their devotion to San Jose de Las Piñas - the Titular patron saint of the parish - that became part of the fabric of life and culture of the city for centuries. San Jose de Las Piñas at his own chapel The Image The unique venerated image of San Jose de Las Piñas, more popularly known to his devotees as "Tata Hosep" is a de tallado image of St. Joseph with the Child Jesus that is venerated in his own chapel in the Parish and Diocesan Shrine of St. Joseph in Las Piñas City.  The carving of this image shows that this might have come from the early years of santo carving with elongated faces for both Father and Son which is one of the common featu...

Nuestra Señora de la Salud It's been years since the centuries old image of Nuestra Señora de la Salud made a comeback after decades of obscurity from the confines of the Recollect Museum in Mira Nila Homes, Quezon City  throughout 2016 and 2017. This generation was fortunate enough to see this day coming as one of the celebrated miraculous images of Old Intramuros returns to once again shower graces of healing to the present generation of Marian devotees in the country and other parts of the world. Nuestra Señora de la Salud How it all happened? I've already discussed in one of my early blog entries the history of Nuestra Señora de la Salud  based from the surviving accounts from numerous books and resources in the archives of the Order of the Augustinian Recollects and in the available books and articles found in other libraries and public domain. The story of the image began in 1634 when the seventh group of the Augustinian Recollect friars arrived in our country and have ...