Lipa – Prayer Capital of the Philippines

"For four momentous days, from September 9-12, Lipa will become the Prayer Capital of the Philippines." These were the predictive words of Fr. Joseph Rodem Ramos at the opening rites of the 2007 National Pilgrimage to Lipa. And he was, by God’s grace and Mama Mary’s intercession, more than accurate.

The liturgies, the spiritual conferences, the prevailing prayerful atmosphere, and the mammoth attendance from the Triduum held at the San Sebastian Cathedral on September 9 to 11, to the actual pilgrimage date at the Carmel Monastery on September 12, were indeed concrete testaments to the faithful’s earnest desire for world peace and sanctification of the clergy.

On September 12, the talks of the priests, and the homilies in the opening and closing celebrations of the Eucharist, were animated. The faithful from the Ecclesiatical Provinces of Lipa, from Metro Manila, Davao, Iloilo, Tarlac, Pampanga, La Union, Bacolod, and many other provinces in the nation listened, prayed, sung, all for the God’s glory and fulfillment of the purpose for which the occasion was conceived. Not even the heavy rains intermittently falling during the concelebrated mass could subdue the numerous arch/bishops and priests and huge congregation’s fervor and passion.

On the fourth year of the National Pilgrimage, it has once again been proven, the Blessed Trinity – God Our Father, God the Son Jesus Christ, and God the Hoy Spirit – pour their love and blessing to those who hope, those who believe, those who gather around Mary, Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace.