IF YOU can’t go to Holy Land, then let Holy Land go to you.
In keeping with the spirit of the Lenten Season, the city government created its own version of the spiritual trail of the 15 Stations of the Cross or Via Crucis Exercitium at the Dominican Hill and Retreat House for the Catholic faithful to visit for their Holy Week reflection and retreat.
The facility will be opened to the public free-of-charge on an experimental basis from March 7-27.
City Environment and Parks Management officer Cordelia Lacsamana said the installation aims to afford devotees who have no means to visit the Holy Land, the Lourdes Grotto in Bulacan or a similar fixture in Mt. Sto. Tomas in Cabuyao their own holy place right within the city “for purposes of gaining indulgence by piously meditating on the passion and death of Jesus Christ.”
The project is one of the innovations introduced to the place which Lacsamana said falls within the ambit of the “adaptive re-use” concept of development being adopted for the heritage site which once served as a retreat house.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan approved the project and commissioned the senior citizens of barangay Dominican-Mirador as the city’s partners and link for the project by helping maintain peace and order and serving as guides and informants of the visitors at the place during weekends or during off-times of city government workers.
They were allowed to sell religious prayer books and other Lenten season items and water during the period of experiment.
“The senior citizens’ physical presence in the heritage site will assist the city for regulatory and proper information during the Season and allowing them to sell items in exchange for the time used in this worthwhile activity will enable them to be more productive,” Lacsamana said. (Aileen Refuerzo)