My Visita Iglesia.

I can still remember when I was a kid and I was 7 or 8 years old that my family used to visit different churches every Maundy Thursday. During those time, we used our Toyota Ricni Jeep type to visit churches and Nuestra Señora de Aranzazu Parish Church in San Mateo, Rizal will be our first stop for the Station of the Cross.

We usually left our house after dinner and that would be around 8pm. As a kid, you were curious on many things and you keep asking questions to your parents on the things you can see in the streets. I usually ask my parents why groups of people are walking and where they are heading because you can see a lot of groups every Maundy Thursday. My parents will answer me back that they are going to a grotto. All the while, I thought there is just one grotto because from doing a church hopping, I can see more and more groups that are walking. So my parents told me that there are lots of grotto where people could visit and one of them is located in Montalban, Rizal; the other one is San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan and the other is located in Antipolo City.

We tried to visit as many churches as we can to complete the station of the cross. Before, we have tried to complete 14 churches and I forgot what churches were those. Hehe. As a kid, you were so playful. I was so playful. I was a naughty kid. One of the church has a sloping road where you can drop off your family if you have a car but there's still stairs beside the road and this church is the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Claret, QC. I used to walk going to church and run downwards in the sloping road. As usual, my parents will scold at me because we were inside the church vicinity and I need to pay attention and respect. See, I was a naughty kid. Hehe.

I know it was already late and I was sleepy yet I keep fighting for it and wants to see the colorful streets. By the time we arrived in some churches, those churches were already closed because we know it in ourselves it was already late because it was already eleven in the evening. But we still continue to visit the next nearest church from the last church we had visited. Mostly, we tried to visit the churches in Quezon City, Marikina City and San Mateo, Rizal. This was our route every year.

After several years of not doing the Visita Iglesia, it happened again last April 9 and I insisted my parents that we need to do this. But this time, my elder sister couldn't join us because she has her own family already. Maybe in the next few years, my sister and her family could join us again.