Visita Iglesia is a Holy Week practice where you visit different Churches while praying the way of the cross. It is a time to reflect on Jesus’ journey, and journey with Him in the process. I have always been in awe with Churches and their beautiful architecture. Each one different from the next, yet somehow still connected by little details. As beautiful as the Churches may be on the outside, the interior design of Churches have always topped their appearance on the outside. Each detail brimming with culture. I have a special place in my heart for the ceilings of Churches, they are usually so underrated and so beautiful. So if you see someone in a Church that’s looking up at the ceiling and just smiling, after she’s praying, that could be me.

A new and intriguing idea I happened upon this Holy Week was the Pilgrim’s Passport. It’s a pilgrimage that you have to finish within the given time frame of December 8, 2015 until November 20, 2016. Five churches were chosen to be Jubilee churches by the Pope and the passport encourages us to go to these churches. These churches are the Manila Cathedral Basilica, the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Makati, the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Mandaluyong, the Santuario de Santo Cristo in San Juan, and the Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Pasay. At these churches you can fulfill a list of activities found in the passport, then afterwards have your passport stamped! Once you’ve gone to all five Jubilee churches, a Certificate of Pilgrimage will be given to you.

You can get a Pilgrim’s Passport from any of the offices of the Jubilee churches. The passport also contains notes from the Pope, a brief history of the churches, and the times for the masses, confessions, and office hours.

I’ve been to one church already, hopefully I can finish the Pilgrimage by November 20.