>A Relic of the Cross of Christ in Tarlac! (Servants of the Risen Christ Monastic Community)

>Today was a hectic day! So hectic that I am skipping a great dinner at Diamond Hotel to stay home and rest. I left at 4AM to go to Tarlac. Stayed a few hours in the heat of the sun among thousands of people. And then drove back. Where did I go? To try to see the Cross of Christ.

There is a relic of the Cross of Christ here in the Philippines! In Tarlac actually. And twice a year, it is taken out for people to venerate it. Today and January 30. So off we went to do a pilgrimage to the site.

It was really a remarkable place. From Hacienda Luisita, it is still about an hour away through a zig-zagging road. And up a steep mountain. And through throngs of people (well, maybe especially today). It was really a pilgrimage to witness Christ’s cross, by enduring the “cross” of travel, heat, people, tiredness.

But definitely worth the trip. We have a gem of a place with this relic here in the country. A reminder of what Jesus did for us, so we can do the same. Though it is good to go and visit, we must remember that it is a reminder. We can still follow Jesus’ example even without trekking all the way there to see. We just need to believe.

How did it get here in the first place? The story is here.

And how did we look during the hot day? The pictures are here: