Monsignor Bobby Canlas said the blessing of palm fronds and olive branches is to remind devotees the need to have a "fresh" renewal of their faith. Photos and video by Bullit Marquez for VERA Files
An exhibit featuring Lenten images by Filipino artists is on display at the Manila Cathedral.
Around this time each year, hundreds of devotees flock to Barangay Sta. Lucia in Dolores, Quezon on the slopes of Mount Banahaw to celebrate Holy Week. Here, mysticism meets Catholicism, as members of various sects engage in what a local priest calls traditional spiritual practices at the height of the town’s Lenten rituals.
Text and photos by JANE DASAL NASUGBU, Batangas—At the break of dawn on Good Friday, Celilia Zafra donned a black dress and shrouded her face with a black cloth. Then she walked to a place called “putol na ilog” along the seashore of Wawa where devotees who
