Visita Iglesia: A Catholic Tradition

April 06, 2012

Visita Iglesia: A Catholic Tradition

Lenten season is a busy week for most of the Catholic believers. It is the time when Jesus Christ- Son of the Father, was crucified on the cross and had resurrected after 3 days. During Maundy Thursday where the last super was being done, people - group of friends, family, group of relatives or cousins, would do the Visita Iglesia.

Visita Iglesia is a Spanish word that means "church visits." Back when i was a little girl, i would only visit the Church in our community. Traditionally speaking, visita iglesia is done with 14 churches in honor of the 14 station of the cross. Since i don't know this, growing-up, my family would just visit the church in our community and we will do the station of the cross there.

The first time i did the visit iglesia was back during my college days when i had a very bad experience that i don't wanna mention here. From there i got this feeling of not doing it again. Or should i say i'm just making an excuse not to do it at all.

But last night, me and some childhood friends went to do the Visita Iglesia. Yes! It is more fun doing it with friends than of course with family, thus, it should be done with family. Instead of doing the 14 churches we had the 7 churches and said a prayer that is continually repeated for three times. The prayer before the Holy Eucharist was made and given by the late Pope John Paul II to those of Catholic believers.

On the 7th church, which was also the last church, we did say the rosary. Too bad I wasn't able to bring one so what I did was the usual rosary using my 10 fingers [which i know is exactly right for the 10 hail marys] =)

The cold breezy night was never a hindrance for us not to pursue doing the visits for the 7 churches. I know it is worth it, and i know will be doing this every year. . . starting this year.