Preserving The Santacruzan Tradition As A Prayer For Peace And Unity - APoint Of Awareness

My husband Max has been often interviewed by foreign correspondents as regards to the Philippine situation. The basic questions asked by journalists is "How can one describe the Philippines?" Max's direct reply to an Australian journalist was "the Philippine culture is simply 300 years in a Spanish convent and 70 years in Hollywood."

The ritualizing of our faith is the best means of sharing, growing and developing our faith within the family and the community. Dating back to Spanish times, a religious procession usually concludes the fiestas many towns in the Philippines celebrate, specially during the summer school holidays in honor of the patron saints of their churches. Just recently the fiestas of Pulilan, Bulacan and Lucban, Quezon honored the patron saint of farmers, San Labrador. In May, homage to the Blessed Mother is done with Flores de Mayo flower offerings in church during the day and on a grander scale the Santacruzan evening processions. The latter should normally involve nine celebrations, as novena prayers whereby the parish hermanas and the barangay captain agree who will be the first eight hosts and hermano mayor for the finale night in the barrio. Since each procession is meant to celebrate Queen Helena's search in the Middle East for the Holy Cross on which Our Lord was crucified, the major personality of the parade is the Reyna Elena with her son, the Prinsipe Constantino.

Sorting out the confusion

From my childhood in the '50s, I always looked forward to being invited to be part of this celebration. As mestiza preschoolers, my cousin, sister and I were given "the honor" of holding the cape of the Reyna Elena. Auntie Plicia always managed to borrow pretty lace gowns for this occasion and later make us pose formally for studio portraits. However, as I grew older and became sagala, usually as one of the Ave Marias or the banderada, I observed the confusion of activities. In general, although the statue of the Blessed Mother is revered, the rosary prayers are seldom recited. More and more the interest concentrated on the beauty pageant. This is how the Spanish convent and Hollywood influences got mixed up. It is pathetic that as a Filipino nation, we allow ourselves to get lost in this confusion.

In the early '90s my daughter was invited to be Reyna Elena in Mandaluyong. To her surprise when she got there, all dressed in her gown and crown, as the lead personage of the traditional procession honoring the Blessed Mother and her Son -- there were 20 other Reyna Elenas. Yearly, the Manila Hotel Santacruzan has already become a ritual but is more a beauty parade and fashion show that features young beauties, models, actresses and actors. The gowns are designed by well-known Filipino designers. Although this crowd-drawer is labeled Santacruzan, its spiritual message has disappeared.

Beauties are indeed necessary to compliment the prayer and flower offerings of the Santacruzan. As to costumes and gowns, Roxanne, one of our poetic neighbors pointed out that to simply dress in white would be the best attire since Our Holy Mother prefers simplicity to express the purity of heart.

I must constantly remind the public of Our Blessed Mother's messages to the Philippines during the three national disasters that occurred in our country. First, in 1984 sugar production incurred losses in the world market. This ruined the province of Negros. Second, the lengthy Marcos dictatorship and the Martial Law which ended with the EDSA Revolution. Third, the Mt. Pinatubo volcano eruption which prematurely closed two major US military bases which used to give 42 percent of our national military support and employed as many Filipinos as our own government hired.

For the above the trinity of mystical shrines were requested through Punay Kabayao-Fernandez. These are the 1986 shrine of our Lord and Blessed Mother and St. Francis in hacienda Tamsi at Cadiz, Negros Occidental, the O.B. Montessori Shrine Avenue at the corner of Eisenhower and Annapolis in Greenhills, and the Hidden Temple Shrine of Mt. Pinatubo in sitio Palan, San Marcelino, Zambales. It faces the volcano, 20 kilometers away. Their constant and repeated messages are inner transformation, unity and prayers. It is no longer the old message of penance with the threat of hell. Neither is the rosary emphasized because the Blessed Mother and our Savior say that regular prayers from different religions contribute more to ecumenical unity. Mother mary also prefer that we worship our Lord her Son by placing His statue together with her. She wants to discourage our tendency to make a cult out of her, since she is only a personal intercessor of our Lord.

After each interlocution of messages through mystic artist Punay, I would always transcribe them in a series of articles principally in my Philippine STAR Thursday column.

The Santacruzan (santa means holy/ cruz means cross) is a religious tradition commemorating St. Helena's search for the real cross on which our Lord was crucified to redeem mankind from sin. By the Holy Cross He conquered death and gave men the power of Resurrection or the chance for inner transformation.

The Cross reminds the people of the central role of the Crucifixion in Christian faith. It also recalls the pivotal role it played in the conversion of a once pagan Rome that crucified our Savior and later persecuted the early Christians in the so-called Holy Roman Empire. Constantine, the princely son of the powerful Queen Helena, it is said was reminded frequently as a child by his mother, "I'd rather see you dead than you commit a mortal sin!"

It is also said that the Sign of the Cross appeared to him and his solders in the sky during one of his battles for claiming the throne to unite numerous feudal lands of Italy. A voice told him, "By this Cross you shall conquer!" Thus, he became the first Christian king of the new Holy Roman Empire. Christianity became the official religion of the state. To search for the Holy Cross, in the Holy Land became the lifetime search of the Queen Mother. This triggered two centuries of the so-called Holy Crusades among European princes in the Middle East. St. Francis played a major part in converting a Moorish sultan who convinced his uncle to part with the true Holy Cross of our Savior until it was given back to the Christians.

Since 1995 we have devoted the whole month of May to the Blessed Mother. She "mystically landscaped" the Love Garden on the wooden stage of the school lobby along Eisenhower front gate. From morning until evening, most of the 25,000 residents of Barrio West Crame behind the school building, pass by to go to work and return home. They cannot help but notice and at times pause and enjoy the beautiful wooden, life-like smiling statues of Our Lady of Liberty and Hope together with her Son who descends from a heavenly staircase blessing everyone. Our Lady wearing a golden cape not a crown holds a lotus in one hand to symbolize ecumenism. The summer school children do their daily Flores de Mayo offering here.

Through Punay's "inner dictations" after prayers, the lobby was landscaped as a flower garden. On top, the message "Pray for World Peace" was cut out in sparkling letters. Jesus, four-year old Niño Bonito and the blue and gold cross were on the other side of the stage. Three sets of fresh flower baskets, seven in each group, surrounded the holy images.

The personages and symbols of this procession is a mixed representation of the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Litany of Our Blessed Mother. The most powerful prayers in the world to our Lord is through the intercession of the Blessed Mother whose many titles include "Co-Redemptrix." Thus, the whole Santacruzan procession symbolizes the rosary as the intercessory prayer of the Blessed Mother to help solve the problem of peace and unity.

The procession starts with the Cross, held high by the church boys who accompany the parish priest. The banderadas or flag bearing ladies follow, carrying the Philippine flag and the banner of the village or institution. To represent the flower offering to Our Lady, a group of very young Flores girls and boys follows, holding eight scrolls of the prayer Hail Mary in English and Spanish. This has been my personal innovation to focus on the value of the Rosary. Eight young ladies hold the letter AVE MARIA. Next, three ladies follow representing Faith-Fe (the Cross), Hope-Esperanza (the anchor) and Charity-Caridad (the heart), the basic spiritual sentiments of man.

Four more titles suggesting the intercessory power of Mother Mary between mankind and God are shown by the Arc of the Covenant, the House of Gold, the Tower of Ivory and the Gate of Heaven. This year I am adding to these six more holy "gifts" to mankind as sculpted mystically around the pedestal of the Lord of Sixteen Summers riding the white horse along the Shrine Avenue fronting the O.B. Montessori Center. He is also known as the Lord of Love and the lieutenant of God the Father, Creator of the Earth along.

These "holy gifts" are symbolized by the Wheel of Justice, the Divine Call, a gold bell representing the gold house of Spiritual Learning, the Spiritual Well of Knowledge, the Tree of Life, Mother Earth, a gold eagle representing the Guardian of the Nation, and the Gold Sun Disc symbolizing God's energy bursting out of the sun.

The next group is headed by the Divina Pastora representing our Blessed Mother as the Shepherdess of the Faithful, wears a flower hat and carries a lamb and a staff. An angel with a lamb accompanies her. Last year we included four pairs of child shepherds. St. Veronica, the holy lady who wiped the bloody face of Jesus on the Way of the Cross, Reyna Justicia, the blindfolded Queen of Justice holding a balancing scale, Reyna Judith and Reyna Ester, two brave queens of Israel, one of whom cut off the head of the enemy Holofernes. The Queen of Peace is dressed in white and gold holding a white dove followed by four pairs of children holding cages of doves.

The next group shows other queenly titles of the Blessed Mother the Mystical Rose, the Reyna de las Estrellas (Queen of Stars), Reyna de las Flores (Queen of Flowers), Reyna de los Angeles (Queen of Angels) and Reyna Emperatriz (empress wife of Emperor Constantine). The final and most honored position is that Reyna Helena and the young Principe Constantino.

The 9th OBMCI Santacruzan - an attempt to forge unity among the four Greenhills villages Next Friday, May 26, 2000, the 9th O.B. Montessori Santacruzan will parade around the Shrine Avenue embracing Eisenhower and Annapolis streets and the Greenhills shopping complex to specially pray again for the elusive world peace and unity. We also attempt to forge unity among the four Greenhills villages by celebrating the Filipino family tradition together since Max became the founding president of North common Santacruzan. In perfecting the celebration we have extended the participation to 150 sagalas and their escorts from North, East, West and Northeast Greenhills in addition to the O.B. Montessori parents, teachers, students and friends.

During the yearly celebration of the grand spiritual Santacruzan, blessings have been manifested. They are showered upon the participants and the crowd who come and revere the statues as well as all the passersby. Such miraculous blessings were taken in pictures during the previous celebrations. Significantly, not only the people from Metro Manila benefit from these blessings but the whole nation as well.

O.B. Montessori's unique Santacruzan is not just a parade of beauties but instead a float with the miraculous Lord of Wisdom and Compassion and the Blessed Mother. Our Lady of Hope and Liberty and the Blessed Mother were carved during the uncertain and unsettled months preceding the Gulf War of 1990 through Punay and psychic sculptor Pempe Floriano. It also includes the very life-like wooden statue of blonde and blue-eyed, four-year old Jesus wearing the O.B. Montessori preschool uniform. A smaller float will hold the giant replica of Angelique Victoria who is a symbol of the school's "pains and gains" over the first 30 years.

Thus, we invite the public to come and join this solemn and spiritual activity.

(For more information, please e-mail at obmci@mozcom.com)