Our 72nd entry in this blog is our trip to Simala.  This is not our first time but already the Nth time.  I’m just so lazy to blog the other ones. hihi… 🙂
“The Monastery of the Holy Eucharist, popularly known as the Simala Shrine or Simala Church is located in Marian Hills, Lindogon, Simala, Sibonga, Cebu. It was built in 1998 by the Marian Monks from Pampanga. It used to be just an ordinary church until after the incidents of miraculous events. One of which is the shedding of tears of the Mother Mary’s image. It paved the way for the shrine’s popularity with devotees constantly flocking the area.” -cebucitytour.com
On this day, a lot of people visited Mama Mary in Simala, the most number of people I have seen.  Maybe it’s because December? Holidays? But some say the crowd is normal.  Wow! Here is little Sai already tired looking while still going in to the entrance.

We were not able to line up to kiss Mama Mary because of the very very long line, perhaps thousands of people are lining up.  We went directly to the church area for the mass. “There are various reasons why people come to visit the Simala Shrine. For Catholic devotees, the main reason why they visit the place is for them to offer their devotion, prayers, and petitions to the Virgin Mary with a hope that each petition and devotion will be answered.” -cebucitytour.com

The place is still not yet completed but very much improved.  Structures and designs are like European buildings.

It looks like only us are taking this path… Everybody seems to be in the line.

We finally get to the candle area and church area just in time for the mass.

Everybody was tired from our 3-hour trip (traffic jam!) and thank God they still have seats for us.  And the mass starts…

After the mass, our little Sai here is again tired.  There is not much place for him to run around due to the huge number of people.

And here is the crew, happy to have visited Mama Mary again for this year.

Maybe next time, paints and new structures will already be completed.  And hopefully, lesser people (impossible!) so that we can line up again and offer our kisses to Mama Mary.