Filipinos teaching in Houston public schools brought family and friends to seven churches for Good Friday ‘visita iglesia’ starting here at Saint Anne church
HOUSTON, Texas – More than a dozen women and men from the Philippines teaching in one of America’s largest cities drove in a convoy on their holiday, Good Friday, to pay a visit to seven churches in keeping with Filipino tradition of ‘visita iglesia‘.
In the Philippines, the general practice is to visit seven churches on Holy Thursday or Good Friday and make the Stations of the Cross in them.
Where the teachers’ group went and what they found?
1. re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross at Saint Anne church
Actors act out Stations of the Cross at Saint Anne church in Houston. NJ Viehland Photos
2. warm welcome and kind accommodation from parishioners of St. Raphael the Archangel
They had moved the Blessed Sacrament for exposition in a small chapel, covered all statues and locked up the church, but opened it up briefly for the teachers’ visit.
Saint Raphael church, Houston on Good Friday 2015. NJ Viehland Photos
Saint Raphael Houston
3. Saint Francis De Sales was busy with some service so the teachers’ group prayed in the hallway before a cross draped with red cloth.
4. Saint Thomas More Catholic community has built a shrine in memory of aborted babies
The group also visited St. Michael the Archangel, Holy Ghost and Corpus Christi churches.
Filipino teachers and their families visit Saint Michael the Archangel church in Houston on Good Friday, 2015
Holy Ghost church in Houston is run by Redemptorist Fathers. NJ Viehland Photos
Blessed Sacrament Fathers (SSS) administer Corpus Christi church in Houston. NJ Viehland photos
The Catholic Church recognizes the great responsibility teachers bear for building a society instilled with values and hope.
Pope Francis, in a recent meeting with educators called teaching a “beautiful profession” noting that it “allows us to see the people who are entrusted to our care grow day after day.”
The pope said only mature and balanced personalities can take on the “serious commitment” to teach. A former classroom teacher himself, the pope also reminded educators, “no teacher is ever alone: They always share their work with other colleagues and the entire educational community to which they belong.”
He told members of the Catholic Union of Italian Teachers, Managers, Educators and trainers (UCIIM) on their group’s 70th anniversary in March that being teacher is “like being parents, at least spiritually.”
