Simala Shrine, Sibonga
Sunday, September 07, 2014 Unknown 2 Comments Category : be inspired♥ , Cebu , Nativity of Mary , Sibonga , Simala shrine , Virgin Mary , wanderlust
"Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness."
The castle-like church in Sibonga, Cebu, which houses numerous statues of the Virgin Mary and other religious relics, will be expecting a lot of devotees this month as they celebrate the upcoming Nativity of Mary which is going to be on the eighth (that'll be tomorrow). In honor of this, my first post for this month is all about the Simala Shrine.
It was about two weeks ago when my family decided to visit this sacred place to fulfill a given promise. It's the faith that always brings us to this place over and over again and every time we come back, it's becoming bigger and better. You can definitely see in the pictures below how they renovated the place to make it like a castle in the sky.
How to get there? You can ride a Ceres bus (highly recommended bus liner) from the South Bus Terminal to Sibonga. A non-AC bus only costs you PHP 66.00 while an AC one costs you at around PHP 80.00. The driver will just inform the passengers when you arrive at the bus stop going to Simala. From there, hire a motorcycle or tricycle to get you to the shrine which costs PHP 20.00 per head. It'll take you about two and a half hours to get there.
We immediately went straight to the long queue which headed to the miraculous statue of Mama Mary. There were many people at that time since it was also a Sunday and many were attending the holy mass. The schedule of their holy mass is as follows:
Sundays - 12:00 NN & 3:30 PM
Mondays to Fridays - 12:00 NN
Saturdays - 10:30 AM
13th of the month - 10:30 AM & 3:30 PM
This place is also a house of souvenirs of granted prayers left by faithful devotees to serve as proof and inspiration to others.
Located at the back of the main altar of the church, people can touch and kiss the glass encasing the miraculous statue of Mama Mary which was reported to shed tears more than a decade and a half ago.
After saying a prayer, we then visited the gallery where you can see the various images of Mama Mary from all over the world and some other religious relics, like rosaries, veils, etc.
You can relax here and enjoy the greenness of nature and there are also cottages which provide shade from the scorching sun.
I really wanted to go to the highest part of this place so I urged them to go with me and assured them that the view is really great on top. The way to the top was like walking on the outside of a castle. I can't wait to visit here again once they will be done with their construction and renovations. Along the way, you can see life size statues depicting the stations of the cross.
Breathtaking. Isn't it? How great the heavens for blessing us with this wonderful world!
Our Moments. ♥
It was such a great day spent together with my family. What's more is that we spent it in the house of God. Always remember though, no matter how miraculous a place is, if your heart and your faith is not in it, then nothing will happen. The most important thing is to sincerely talk and pray to God, even if it's only at the small corner of your room. Drop the fear. Keep the faith. ♥
Till next post, lovies. Ciao!
