Miracles Happen...

February 2nd is the Traditional Feast celebrated in the Roman Catholic realm as Candlemass -or the feast of the Blessing of the Candles, coinciding with the Feast of the Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria [Our Lady of the candles]. If you have read my post from last year , then you will know why this day is of great significance to the Barefoot Baklesa.

I always tell people that I have inexplicable luck; lucky to the point that it seems unfair to the rest of the world. On one hand, that is being cognizant of that fact; the other is my eternal gratitude for such a good life. Having been healed of my rare skin condition by Our Lady of Candelaria, I wish all of you who are burdened with pain and physical ailments the same grace of healing I have been given, and the miracle I have been allowed to be living proof of.

Lastly, I would like to thank Our Lady for my Baby Tiger. There are people in this earth that never ever get to experience what true love is. I am happy that one moment I have with you is enough to last me ten lifetimes.

The Niki de los Reyes-Torres Carroza Challenge Year 3: Saying Goodbye to an old Friend

I haven't posted anything regarding this year's Carroza Challenge due to the really hectic schedule I had to juggle as of late. I still had to do a last minute check on the deliveries for a mall before my flight. This proved to be more than a challenge but also a series of miracles. [for the benefit of the readers who have no idea what a Carroza is, a Carroza is a tiered, decorated platform upon which images of Roman Catholic Saints are placed/mounted, usually with wheels, used in processions for holy week and certain feast days and days of ritual significance.]



Since the Carroza we have been using before has succumbed to termites and rotting, we had to build the wooden tiered platform from scratch once again -had it built in pieces to be bolted once it arrives at our ancestral home in Antique province. The pieces had to travel by ship and almost did not make it through, but the divine has ways.

So as i bid goodbye to the old one, here's to the rush of the new... Like many things, the impermanent remind us that if we don't take care of what we have, we might just lose it -and that applies to a lot of things in life as well.




Still a long way to go before the Maundy Thursday Procession...Breathe...


Thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa

Light and Hope [on the feast of Candlemass]

I am a Marian devotee, give or take the jokes that some have been thrown my way about being gay and collecting images of Virgins… But I am one to laugh it off like the last one. It’s not their money anyway. Hahahahaha!!!

But seriously, February 2nd is the traditional date for the Feast of the Presentation of the Christ Child at the Temple in Jerusalem. If you recall that lyric from a popular Christmas carol, “Two turtledoves and a partridge…” this is that biblical event to which the lyrics refer to when Joseph and Mary brought the newborn baby Jesus to the temple mount to be dedicated to the God of Israel. There was an old man named Simeon who had been promised that he shall see the Messiah in his lifetime. And when Simeon held that child in his arms, he knew that the he held the hope of the world.

(a miracle in stone, this statue of the Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, newly-restored under the hand of Tom Joven, has attracted the faithful for her miracle of healing. local legend and lore has it that the statue has grown; as she had been taken from her niche for her canonical coronation -done by the Pope John Paul II himself- for more than two decades now; and if they would return her, she would not fit anymore.)

In the Marian tradition of devotions, this same day celebrates the Feast of Mary as Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria [Our Lady of the Candles] and the miracle of healing she bestows upon her devotees. And personally, I can claim that I am living proof of that miracle. It pains me that I may never be at Jaro Cathedral today, where the canonically crowned image of Our Lady of Candelaria resides. I would have wanted to see her newly restored visage and see for myself the sea of devotees coming to celebrate her. But Our Lady understands…


Thus I shall be lighting candles from our shrine at home.

A single flame, flickering on a candle’s wick, best represents hope in the Roman Catholic Symbolic tradition. Simeon’s Canticle best speaks of this hope. The world seems like it is no better than before when you tune in to CNN, but I believe that things will always turn out. So I leave you with Hangad’s musical rendition of Simeon’s Canticle.





Photo courtesy of mic_cal from Flickr.


Thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa