PENTECOST PROCESSION: A JOURNEY WITH CHRIST

WE CATHOLICS do a lot of processions. And we used to do even more. How can we forget the May Flower processions and all the beautiful sagalas with their handsome escorts?. We also have special procession on Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday. Here in the diocese, the procession everyone will never forget is the Pentecost precession held on the eve of the Pentecost before all the activities begin.

More or less four thousand delegates joined in an approximately four-kilometer long procession around the town of Catarman. This is one of the longest if not the longest procession ever recorded in the Diocese of Catarman. Servers led the procession carrying the beautifully engraved and cleverly designed symbol of this diocesan gathering—the Pentecost Cross. First used in Palapag three years ago, the cross was designed by a well-renowned artist, Msgr. Gaspar D. Balerite, HP, SThD, and was magnificently carved and engraved by a wood artist at Allen N. Samar. The cross has been the symbol of the gathering for several years already and will hopefully continue to be the emblem of this one of a kind gathering.

Altering its usual processional route, the host parish guided the pilgrims into a much longer processional way just to accommodate all the faithful in this lengthy procession.


Perhaps people may be surprised about this well attended procession. Others, especially non Church goers, may be stunned that this kind of procession is a lot more different from the procession coming up the isle with servers carrying candles followed by the reader and the priest. However, what most of the delegates of this gathering may be unaware of is that procession is really only the continuation of a much greater procession. The real entrance procession begins in their homes, in their respective parishes as they get ready to come to the Pentecost celebration and attend and participate in the activities especially in the Holy Mass.

All processions are reminders that life is a journey. Processions are reminders that we Christians have chosen to journey with Jesus from slavery in sin to the Promised Land, from death to new life. Our individual journeys here are parts of a much larger procession, in the gathering of God's people joining around God's great table to give thanks.

by JA Berbon
Photo by: Chan

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