Hallow: The App for Catholic Meditation and Prayer for the Holy Week

The Holy Week begins tomorrow, and many of us Catholic Filipinos will observe the practices we usually do during this period.  For some, this is an excellent time to meditate on the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.  While some Filipinos do the “pabasa,” reading of the passion narrative through song, not all of us can do it. We would just observe through the recitation of the Way of the Cross, and praying of the rosary, and others.  Now, there's a new app that could help us in our meditation and prayer life named Hallow.

Hallow is a popular Catholic meditation and prayer app that offers audio-based guided meditations, daily reflections, and Bible-based content to help users deepen their spiritual practice.  The app has gained popularity among Christians looking to incorporate meditation into their daily lives.

One thing that sets Hallow apart is the quality of its content. The app offers a wide range of meditations and reflections based on scripture and the teachings of the Catholic Church and designed to meet the needs of users with different spiritual backgrounds and preferences. Aside from guided meditations, it includes audio recordings of various prayers, such as the Rosary, Angelus, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The app also provides prayer challenges, which focus on specific themes and are usually time-bound. The current challenge is the #Pray40 Challenge for Lent. If you want to test your knowledge, there's daily trivia on the Catholic faith.

I downloaded the app from the AppStore and now regularly listen to the Daily Reflections on the day’s Gospel with Jeff Cavins and Jonathan Roumie, the actor who plays Jesus Christ on the TV series “The Chosen.”  I listen to the Sunday Sermons of Bishop Barron, the founder of the Catholic organization Word on Fire. I started listening to the Catechism in a Year with Father Mike Schmitz, which started early this year.  

I also like the music section, which contains chants, and contemporary and traditional music. Last Christmas season, the app featured the entire album of Christmas songs from Andre Bocelli and his family. They recently added a lo-fi playlist that you could play while getting ready in the morning, studying, or working. 

With over 400,000 Filipino users across the globe, Hallow started offering meditations and prayers in Filipino in October last year. Yes, you can pray the rosary, Divine Mercy prayer, selected novenas and other prayers in Tagalog. I follow Fr. Franz Dizon's daily reflection on the gospel in Pagninilay Ngayon. There is also a section on the life of the saints named "Buhay ng Mga Banal."  

Many users praise the Hallow app for helping them deepen their faith and improve their prayer life. The app's user-friendly interface is easy to navigate, making it easy for users to find the content they want. The app also offers a community feature that allows users to connect with other members and share their spiritual journey.  

I have just one issue with this app, and that is the voice and delivery of some of the prayer guides. I know that prayer should be meditative, but the guides speak so slowly that some of the prayers take longer to finish than usual. 

Hallow is also affordable. The app offers a 14-day free trial period, after which users can choose to subscribe to the premium version of the app. The premium version gives users access to more meditations and features but is still affordable compared to other meditation apps on the market. At about PhP600 a month, the subscription is worth the cost.

Overall, the Hallow app is an excellent tool for Christians who want to deepen their spiritual practice through meditation and prayer.  The app's high-quality content, user-friendly interface, and affordability make it popular among users.

Images from Hallow

A Blessed Easter to Everyone!

 

VISITA IGLESIA 2022: New and Familiar Churches Around Quezon City

 We just completed our Visita Iglesia this year.  We weren't able to do this in the past two years due to the quarantine restrictions imposed by the government.  Compared to the last time we observed this tradition, the mood in most churches was more subdued, and people were seriously praying their rosaries and stations of the cross.

We decided to go to churches in Quezon City at sunset when the Lord's Supper Mass was about to begin.  The mass at the first church we visited had already started.  Along Cordillera St., the Our Lady of Fatima Parish is near our house.  

From this church, we went to Mayon Street.  We visited the Parish of Sta Teresita, which houses a Capuchin monastery.  The church has been on the land donated by the Araneta family since before the last world war.  I couldn't get a good angle of the exterior, but I managed to take a picture of the altar from where we were seated.  

We went a few blocks from the place and reached the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. I found out that the original shrine was in Intramuros until it got destroyed during the Second World War.  When missionaries found the image, they brought it to the Sta Teresita Church we earlier visited.  The icon stayed there until the Capuchins had the new shrine built and completed in 1977.

 Following the customs of the Catholic Church, the statues and images inside the church were draped in purple cloth.

 

The next church we visited was the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine along Broadway St. in New Manila.  The shrine is the center of devotion for the Brown Scapular.  As expected, the traffic was heavy in the church's vicinity, so we decided to walk the few meters going to the church.  

We visited the St. Joseph Convent of Perpetual Adoration for our fifth church.  The place is in the middle of Hemady St, a road dotted by old and modern mansions. The convent is home to the Pink Sisters, an order of cloistered nuns who spend their day praying.  You can even ask them to pray for your special intentions.  The exterior was not well lit, so sorry for the poor quality of the photo.

Our first choice for our sixth stop was Christ the King Seminary, but the traffic going inside was heavy. We decided to go to Sto. Domingo Church, instead.  While our goal was to visit churches we hadn't visited in our previous Visita Iglesia, we decided on the church since it was more accessible from where we were.

We were surprised that there were fewer people this year visiting the church.  Perhaps the devotees visited earlier in the afternoon and left after the mass.  There were still groups praying at the stations of the Cross when we arrived.

We ended this year's Visita Iglesia at our parish church, the Holy Trinity Parish Church in Manila, as part of the tradition.  This church is very memorable to me.  I went to hear mass every Sunday in this church during my elementary school days.  It went through a lot of renovation over the years, but the basic structure is still there.  Beside the church is the school where I finished elementary, and then I transferred to a different school.  

After saying our prayers, we headed home and plan to do this again next year with God's grace. Hopefully, we can visit churches we haven't gone to or even those farther from our location.

Visita Iglesia 2019: Visit to Seven Churches in Manila and Quezon City

Last Maundy Thursday, we joined thousands of Catholic Filipinos to perform the Visita Iglesia, a tradition observed on this particular day of Lent.  Pilgrims visit seven churches to pray the Stations of the Cross and meditate on the suffering and resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ.

UST Parish Church

Traditionally, one walks from church to church, but we used our car, and so did the other devotees.  This created huge traffic jams on the roads leading to the churches, and parking spaces became battlegrounds.  Mercifully, volunteers managed the traffic inside the church grounds.

We first stopped at Sto. Domingo Church, which is near our place and is the shrine of Our Lady of Naval.  We prayed our first two Stations of the Cross and then lighted candles for our special intentions.

Our next stop was the UST Parish church along España Boulevard.  After praying the next two Stations of the Cross, we exited the church and found a group of people distributing copies of the Way of the Cross booklets.

At the back part of the booklet, the group explained that they aim to stop the spread of communism and socialism, which destroy the basic beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church.

We were supposed to make Quiapo Church our next stop, but it appeared most of Manila's Catholic population converged there.  We decided to go straight to Manila Cathedral instead.  However, we made a wrong turn and ended up heading towards Binondo Church.  We decided to make it our next stop. It was still not too crowded inside, so we were able to do our prayers in peace.

Binondo Church

A popular deli store offered water and snacks outside the church. It's an old tradition practiced on Maundy Thursday called pa-caridad or charity.  It's almost forgotten, and very few devotees practice it now.

We finally found our way to Manila Cathedral, but the traffic jam was terrible, that we had to walk to the entrance.  People had to fall in line to get inside because of security checks.  The long line due to the high volume of people almost deterred us from going in, but it moved fast, so we decided to go inside.

The cathedral teemed with people inside, but not everyone was praying, and several people were taking selfies and groupies!  Okay, some people were actually doing the Stations of the Cross, and their prayers mingled with discussions of other groups on what part of the cathedral they would take their next selfies and groupies in.

The Manila Cathedral

From the cathedral, we took another trip to the Shrine of Saint Michael and the Archangels, or the San Miguel Church.  We could not drive to the church because of the tight security since its neighbor happens to be the President of the Philippines.  So we had to walk, and I immediately noticed the number of food stalls near the church.  It appeared that none of the well-to-do residents of the area made a pa-caridad.

San Miguel Church

The stations were outside, in the courtyard, and as in other churches we've already visited, many people were busy taking their selfies and groupies.  Inside the church, the priests and their assistants were already preparing for the Mass of the Lord's Supper.  Also, the parish has a museum dedicated to the Blessed Mother and the angels.

We ended our Visita Iglesia this year at the two churches in Bustillos: the Shrine of Saint Anthony and Our Lady of Loreto Parish Church.  We did not get inside both churches because the Lord's Supper Mass has already started in both of them. However, like in San Miguel, both churches placed stations of the cross on their grounds.

We finished all 14 stations of the Way of the Cross and the seven churches needed to complete the Visita Iglesia.  By the way, I remember that a lay minister once told me that the Visita Iglesia should be done when the Eucharist has been removed from the main altar following the Maundy Thursday mass.  This is a response to what Christ said when He found the apostles sleeping in the Garden that they could not stay with Him for even just one hour.

Also, I hope next year, the pilgrims will be more aware that the Visita Iglesia is not a road trip, and they should be more considerate of the others who were doing their prayers.  They should also learn to be more caring about their surroundings and not just throw their trash anywhere.

PHLPost Celebrates National Stamp Collecting Month with Exhibit of Papal Postage Stamps

We visited an ongoing exhibit at the PHLPost main office in celebration of National Stamp Collecting Month.  The exhibit named "Papal Visits Stamps"  features postage stamps memorabilia issued by PHLPost during the apostolic visits of Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Pope Francis from 1970 up to 2015.

Each of the visits has its own display featuring the stamps issued during the occasion.  The panels also provided information about the apostolic visits.  It's a good lesson for kids interested in stamp collection and the country's religious history.  For those like me who experienced the Papal visits, it was a nice experience to look back at those days.  

The 1995 visit by Pope John Paul II was especially memorable because I participated in the World Youth Day celebrations.  

   

The PHLPost also used the occasion to give the public a preview of the stamps that it will issue to commemorate the visit of Pope Francis in January.  This exhibit runs at the Manila Central Post Office from November 10 to 14. It will also be held at the Manila Cathedral (November 17 to 21) and the University of Santos Tomas (November 24 to 28) before going to Cebu and Davao.

The celebration is mandated by Presidential Proclamation Number 494 signed by former President Fidel V. Ramos, declaring the month of November as National Stamp Collecting Month (NSCM). with this year’s celebration carrying the theme “PHLPost: Going Beyond Tradition.”

Pope Francis

photo from reuters

Habemus Papam!

The Catholic Church has a new pope in Pope Francis. The conclave of cardinals chose  Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who became the first South American Pope.  He takes the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, a venerated 13th Century religious figure who live in poverty and wanted to reform the Church. 

Aside from being the first Pope Francis and the first Latin-American Pope, he is also  the first Jesuit Pope, an order considered within Vatican as one of the most liberal.

After his election, Pope Francis prayed for his predecessor Benedict XVI and then asked the people to pray for him before he gave his first Urbi et Orbi.  

"My hope is that this journey of the Church that we begin today, together with the help of my Cardinal Vicar, may be fruitful for the evangelization of this beautiful city." Pope Francis told his flock.