Feast of the Black Nazarene

OLPH - St. Helena of the True Cross Parishoners recently completed a novena in honor of Christ manifest in the Black Nazarene The Celebration is OLPH's way of remembering a tradition practiced in the Phillipine community of Quiapo, a suborb of Manila, since the the 18th century. There, the "Black Nazarene" is a life-sized statue of Christ. It is processed through the streets by bare-foot men yelling "Viva Señnor". Origninally the stature was purchased by a priest in Mexico and brought to Manila in 1606. Since 1787 the statue has been kept at St. John the Baptist Church in Quiapo. Every January since 1787, the statue is placed on a gilded carriage and pulled through the streets. People who touch it are sometimes reported healed of diseases.

The OLPH "tradition" began on New Year's Day afternoon with the first of nine services that comprised the novena. Each of the next 9 days varying numbers of parishoners met in the church for prayer service. The novena included prayers, Holy Rosary, Litany and meditation. On the final day we celebrated Holy Mass and Procession of the statue, followed by a pot luck lunch in the Hall.

	Mass began with a procession of parishoners offering roses to Christ the Black Nazarene and his mother, Mary.
Father James celebrated Holy Mass, assisted by Deacon Mike
	Steve Mesaros proclaimed the day's readings. He and wife Lydia were the prime co-ordinators for all the services.
Following the Mass, the Statue of the Black Nazarene was processed outside the Church.
	The Holy Rosary was recited along each step of the procession, which ended up in the Parish Hall where the last decade of the Rosary was completed.
Following the Rosary, everyone feasted on lumpia, pan cit, turkey, ham, and my favorite - cheese cake. Afterwards we were entertained with a harvest dance by the girls and a coco-nut dance by the boys.