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NOT
SO MUCH for himself, but for a troubled nation.
This
is the gist of Gov. Erico Aumentado's prayers that he also
often repeats in his speeches and messages.
Aumentado
was in Manila for most part of the week to attend a series
of meetings, follow up school building projects, sign a memorandum
of agreement with the Presidential Management Staff (PMS)
for the improvement of the Chocolate Hills resort restrooms,
receive a tourism award from the Rotary Club of Manila, among
others.
But
he found time to come home Thursday, even if it meant taking
the slow boat from Cebu and arriving in Tagbilaran at dawn
of Friday just to attend commitments in the morning and participate
in the pilgrim walk, hear mass and venerate the miraculous
relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face,
patroness of the police and the military in the afternoon.
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The
single file on Day 3 of the visit of the relics of St.
Therese to Bohol snaked from in front of the Shrine
of Our Lady of Assumption across the Dauis plaza to
the main road, turned 180 degrees and up the road beside
the town hall, extended like an appendix to the back
of the town hall, turned about face again going towards
the church before turning right going to the right wing
of the shrine where the glass-encased trunk containing
the relics was displayed for public veneration.
The
governor and his staff, holding roses, joined the line.
He declined to walk on ahead and past other people in
the line and go direct to the relics.
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Like
everyone else, he also extended the roses he brought to the
reliquary.
Although
seats were reserved for him and other government officials,
he did not take a shortcut from the relics to those seats,
either. Devotees exited through the door behind the altar
and those who would like to attend mass were to pass through
the main or side doors to go back in.
The
Day 3 lead pilgrims were government officials and employees,
lay organizations and renewal movements on the special intentions:
For a conscientious government attentive to human rights.
The
mass was scheduled for 5 p.m. - when veneration was supposed
to stop. The police and policewomen maintaining order and
guiding the devotees sensed, however, that announcing the
time cutoff would start a stampede.
The
veneration went on even as the Pontifical Mass went on - with
not only one, but two bishops: Msgr. Leonardo Medroso of the
Diocese of Tagbilaran, and his immediate predecessor, Msgr.
Leopoldo Tumulak, now military vicar who had been escorting
the relics since St. Therese arrived in Manila.
The
object of veneration are first class relics of St. Therese
of Lisieux, France, meaning these are bones or hair, or part
of the body of the saint. Second class relics refer to articles
of clothing and other objects that had touched the body of
the saint.
It
was soon time to go.
Bishop
Tumulak said it would have been nice if St. Therese could
stay longer, but that would mean depriving devotees in the
other provinces she was scheduled to visit of the chance to
similarly venerate her.
He
did say that he will strive to make her next visit to Bohol
longer - say one to two weeks - in the next five years or
so.
Meanwhile,
Christopher O'Donnell of the Order of the Carmelites wrote:
But do we really need relics, parts of the body of a saint
such as bone, a hair (called a first class relic) or cloth
that has been in contact with the saint's body (a second class
relic)? If we have a lively faith in the Eucharist, do we
need something infinitely inferior to the Body and Blood of
the Lord?
He
answered his own question:
Relics
are one way in which God helps us in our bodily humanity to
rise to spiritual realities. Through relics we can feel close
to a holy person. We have a deeper awareness of their life
and mission, of their presence in the Communion of Saints.
Religion
can never be purely intellectual; it must rather touch us
at different levels of our being.
Relics
are clearly not as important as the sacraments. And like the
sacraments, relics can be abused. We cannot stop at the holy
relics of the saints, but we must reach further into God's
plans. Buddhism, the only other major religion apart from
Catholic Christianity to have a major place for relics, insists
too that we must go beyond the relic.
One
of its traditions is that the Buddha himself told his followers
not to concentrate on his bodily remains but on his teaching.
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