CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH REGINA RICA

When a batchmate invited me to be with them to visit ‘RICA’ as her term, right away I said yes and upon saying what is ‘RICA’ was, I felt jubilant because the last time I went to pilgrimage site was in my college days almost 15 yrs ago.

Then night of September 8 came, I slept but I couldn’t sleep. Me and my son prepared that morning with hardly no sleep at all.  We went to my friend house to regroup. We left our converging point at around 8:30AM and went straight ahead to our destination: The True Sacred Place in Tanay, Rizal, i.e REGINA RICA.

The gate was closed yet but I had a peep of what was inside. “Lo and Behold my beautiful ascendant came into my sweet”, I whispered. We came and she was very beautiful. As I hold the arm of my son I never took out my glimpse over Regina Rica even as we go inside.

When we started to go up on mountain to take a closer look at this 71feet statue, I was stirred by a call of a gardener restraining me because of wearing sleeveless shirt which I thought was not prohibited. I suddenly put up my jacket and proceeded climbing.

As we were going up, I had my ‘tingling-effect’. There was a part of me that wanted to see what it is felt-like to take pictures inside the very same sacred spaces. (In Tagalog term ‘Masubukan nga’). When we got to the foot of the image, there was a little seminar in us on how the whole pilgrim was all about.

I now went inside with jitter and passed through a narrow stair toward a medium-built cubicle called ‘ADORATION’. There you can see the devotees kneel in front of what we call a representation of ‘Holy Life’. I kneel and had a little pray. After praying I brought out my camera which was in my pocket and slowly centered the lens unto the portrayal. In my mind maybe I can get apparition somehow out of my photos or I can share the photos to other wishful believers. These are the photos never before seen in any form of media outlets.

After the mass ended we finally decided to go home. Upon spelled going home we had the opportunity to shared thoughts and feeling, exchanged jokes and experiences. And as I looked back and meditated, I realized what this day brought to me. Not the pictures, not this article, not the place, not the friends but my interactions, my contact, my mingled, my apparition not in my pictures but apparition that came within my heart to my DIVINE CREATOR.