EXODUS / HOLY WEEK PASSIONTIDE
[PHOTO- MMDA GETS READY FOR HOLY WEEK
TRAFFIC]
MANILA,
MARCH 27, 2012 (BULLETIN) By
LEONARD D. POSTRADO and ANNA LIZA T. VILLAS — Government agencies are now
gearing up for the exodus of majority of Metro Manila residents to the provinces
for the Holy Week.
As early as the middle of March, the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) and the
Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) had already put in place their respective plans to
ensure the safety of travelers who usually opt to stay in the provinces during
the annual Lenten break.
In preparation for the huge volume of vehicles leaving the metropolis
starting this week, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA)
activated its "Metro Alalay Semana Santa (MASS) 2012" to ease the flow of
traffic in major thoroughfares.
Speaking at the weekly Tinapayan forum, TRB Director Edmund Reyes Jr. said
they are expecting a 20-percent rise in the number of motorists passing through
the North Luzon and South Luzon Expressways as Metro Manila residents will seize
the opportunity to go on vacation outside the city.
"It's the priority of my office to ensure the safety of motorists," Reyes
said.
For this reason, Reyes said that they will strictly enforce the speed limit.
According to the TRB director, light vehicles should observe a maximum speed
of 100 kph while 80 kph for passenger buses.
"There will be no special treatment in the enforcement of traffic rules, even
if violators are high-profile individuals," Reyes added.
Reyes said that they will slap first time traffic violators with P500 fine
while a much higher fine as well as six-month suspension of driver's license
will be given to third time traffic offenders. Violators will likewise be
obliged to attend a traffic seminar as part of their penalty, according to the
TRB official.
MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said MASS 2011 include the augmentation of
the traffic personnel deployed at critical areas and passenger holding areas
along major thoroughfares in the metropolis.
"It is a multi-sectoral effort that involves the agency, the PNP, Land
Transportation Office, Highway Patrol Group, the military, among other
agencies," said Tolentino, over the agency's radio program.
Since the Holy Week coincides with the end of the school term, the MMDA
chairman said the agency expects influx of passengers leaving Metro Manila for
the provinces.
"We have coordinated with these agencies in coming up with a contingency plan
under the MASS project and ensuring a traffic and accident-free observance of
the Holy Week," said Tolentino.
Emerson Carlos, agency assistant general manager for operations, said "this
year's Holy Week is also peculiar because it's a long break. April 9, Monday, is
also a holiday."
"The exodus would cause traffic congestion at exit points of the Metro and
transport terminals," Carlos added.
Carlos advised motorists to take alternate routes to avoid being caught up in
traffic going to exit points of Metro Manila, adding that the agency would be
coordinating with operators of North Luzon and South Luzon Expressways.
A number of MMDA personnel would be deployed to traffic choke-points,
churches, and pilgrimage sites to offer assistance to the public.
Moreover, Carlos said there would be no holidays for the MMDA Metrobase
personnel as they would facilitate communication among its traffic enforcers.
PCG spokesman Lieutenant Commander Algier Ricafrente said assistance centers
or help desks will be put up nationwide to address the concerns of sea-faring
passengers.
Passenger Assistance Center booths will be manned jointly by teams from PCG,
Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), Philippine Ports
Authority (PPA), Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), and the Philippine Coast
Guard Auxiliary (PCGA) with close coordination with the Philippine National
Police (PNP).
Meanwhile, Reyes said there will be no toll increase yet for the
Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (MCTE), Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), and
the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) during the Holy Week.
The toll operators had asked government permission to hike toll starting last
January 1 but their petitions remain pending after commuter and transport groups
opposed the TRB's way of conducting public hearings on the petition. (With a report from Kris Bayos)
FROM http://catholicism.about.com/
Sunday March 25, 2012
The Fifth Week of Lent: Passiontide
Easter 2012 is only two weeks away.
Until the introduction of the new liturgical calendar in 1969, these final
two weeks of Lent were known as Passiontide, and they commemorated the
increasing revelation of Christ's divinity, as well as His movement toward
Jerusalem, which He enters on Palm Sunday and where His Passion will take place
starting on the night of Holy Thursday.
Even after the revision of the liturgical calendar, we can still see this
shift in focus in the Church's other liturgical celebrations.
The Scripture Readings for the Fifth Week of Lent, drawn from the Office of
the Readings, part of the official prayer of the Catholic Church known as the
Liturgy of the Hours, are no longer taken from the accounts of the Israelites'
exodus from Egypt into the Promised Land, as they were earlier in Lent.
Instead, they come from the Letter to the Hebrews, in which Saint Paul
interprets the Old Testament in light of the New.
If you've ever had trouble understanding just how the Old Testament relates
to our life as Christians, and how the historical journey of the Israelites is a
type of our spiritual journey in the Church, the readings for this week and for
Holy Week will help to make everything clear.
If you haven't been following along in the scripture readings for Lent,
there's no better time to start than now.
The Days of the Holy Week 2012
PALM SUNDAY:
Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphal entrance of Christ into
Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-9), when palm branches were placed in His path, before
His arrest on Holy Thursday and His Crucifixion on Good Friday. It thus marks
the beginning of Holy Week, the final week of Lent, and the week in which
Christians celebrate the mystery of their salvation through Christ's Death and
His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Beginning in the fourth century in Jerusalem, Palm Sunday was marked by a
procession of the faithful carrying palm branches, representing the Jews who
celebrated Christ's entrance into Jerusalem. In the early centuries, the
procession began on the Mount of the Ascension and proceeded to the Church of
the Holy Cross.
As the practice spread throughout the Christian world by the ninth century,
the procession would begin in each church with the blessing of palms, proceed
outside the church, and then return to the church for the reading of the Passion
according to the Gospel of Matthew. The faithful would continue to hold the
palms during the reading of the Passion.
In this way, they would recall that many of the same people who greeted
Christ with shouts of joy on Palm Sunday would call for His Death on Good
Friday-a powerful reminder of our own weakness and the sinfulness that causes us
to reject Christ.
In different parts of the Christian world, particularly where palms were
historically hard to obtain, branches of other bushes and trees were used,
including olive, box elder, spruce, and various willows. Perhaps best known is
the Slavic custom of using pussy willows, which are among the earliest of plants
to bud out in the spring.
The faithful have traditionally decorated their houses with the palms from
Palm Sunday, and, in many countries, a custom developed of weaving the palms
into crosses that were placed on home altars or other places of prayer. Since
the palms have been blessed, they should not simply be discarded; rather, the
faithful return them to their local parish in the weeks before Lent, to be
burned and used as the ashes for Ash Wednesday.
SPY WEDNESDAY
A reader writes:
I know why Holy Thursday is called Maundy Thursday, but why is the day
before called Spy Wednesday?
That's a great question! Many Catholics, on hearing the name Spy Wednesday,
assume that Spy must be a corruption or abbreviation of a Latin word.
That's a reasonable assumption: After all, the Maundy in Maundy Thursday
(Holy Thursday) is an anglicization (by way of Old French) of the Latin mandatum
("mandate" or "command"), referring to Christ's commandment to His disciples at
the Last Supper in John 13:34 ("A new commandment I give unto you: That you love
one another, as I have loved you").
Likewise, the Ember in Ember Days has nothing to do with fire but comes from
the Latin phrase Quatuor Tempora ("four times"), since the Ember Days are
celebrated four times per year.
But in the case of Spy Wednesday, the word means exactly what we think it
means. It's a reference to Judas's action in Matthew 26: 14-16:
Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief
priests, and said to them: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto
you? But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver. And from thenceforth he
sought opportunity to betray him.
The beginning of Matthew 26 seems to place that event two days before Good
Friday. Thus, a spy entered the midst of the disciples on Wednesday of Holy
Week, when Judas resolved to betray our Lord for 30 pieces of silver.
If you have a question that you would like to have featured in our "Reader
Questions" series, send me an e-mail at catholicism.guide@about.com.
Be sure to put "QUESTION" in the subject line, and please note whether you'd
like me to address it privately or on the Catholicism blog.
HOLY THURSDAY
Holy Thursday is the day that Christ celebrated the Last Supper with
His disciples, four days after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday. Only hours after the Last Supper, Judas would betray Christ in the
Garden of Gethsemane, setting the stage for Christ's Crucifixion on Good Friday.
This feast, however, is more than just the lead-in to Good Friday; it is, in
fact, the oldest of the celebrations of Holy Week. And with good reason: Holy
Thursday is the day that Catholics commemorate the institution of three pillars
of the Catholic Faith: the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the priesthood, and the
Mass.
During the Last Supper, Christ blessed the bread and wine with the very words
that Catholic and Orthodox priests use today to consecrate the Body and Blood of
Christ during the Mass and the Divine Liturgy. In telling His disciples to "Do
this in remembrance of Me," He instituted the Mass and made them the first
priests.
Near the end of the Last Supper, after Judas had departed, Christ said to His
disciples, "A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I
have loved you, that you also love one another." The Latin word for
"commandment," mandatum became the source for another name for Holy Thursday:
Maundy Thursday.
On Holy Thursday, the priests of each diocese gather with their bishop to
consecrate holy oils, which are used throughout the year for the sacraments of
Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. This ancient
practice, which goes back to the fifth century, is known as the Chrism Mass
("chrism" is a mixture of oil and balsam used for the holy oils) and stresses
the role of the bishop as a successor to the apostles.
Except in very rare circumstances, there is only one Mass other than the
Chrism Mass celebrated on Holy Thursday in each church: the Mass of the Lord's
Supper, which is celebrated after sundown.
It commemorates the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and it
ends with the removal of the Body of Christ from the tabernacle in the main body
of the church. The Eucharist is carried in procession to another place where it
is kept overnight, to be distributed during the commemoration of the Lord's
Passion on Good Friday.
After the procession, the altar is stripped bare, and all bells in the church
are silent until the Gloria at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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