No heat, hunger, or exhaustion can stop the millions of devotees to join the Traslacion of the Black Nazarene just to get a chance to pull the rope of the Andas (carriage) carrying the “Poon” or touch the image widely believed as miraculous.
But as millions try to get a glimpse of the holy image, shoving, pushing, and pulling have dominated the annual feast.
So as not to lose the meaning of the procession, the Quiapo Church this year installed 12 prayer stations to make the celebration more holy and prayerful.
“Dati, walang prayer stations, ngayon lang nagkaroon, the aim is to make the celebration more prayerful,” said Fray Arniel Alvarez, a religious from the order of St. Augustine.
(There were no prayer stations before, only this year, and its aim is to make the celebration more prayerful.)
Alvarez, who has been a Black Nazarene devotee for nine years, was one of the friars who led devotions in Prayer Station No. 4 located at the foot of Jones Bridge near Lawton.
While waiting for the Andas to pass through the station, the friars prayed the rosary, and chanted songs of the Black Nazarene to uplift the spirit of the devotees.
“Kahit papaano, nakikita mo naman hindi pa natin na-e-embrace yung prayerful spirit,” Alvarez said, referring to the waves of people pushing and pulling each other.
(You can see that we haven’t embraced the prayerful spirit yet.)
“Pero at least meron tayong ginagawa para mas maging okay ‘yung ating celebration, mas ma-focus tayo sa pananampalataya kay Jesus Christ,” he added.
(But at least we are doing something to improve our celebration, to focus us our faith in Jesus Christ.)
As the Andas passed through the prayer station, Alvarez and the rest of the priests blessed the hundreds of devotees with holy water.
Alvarez called on the devotees to refrain from shoving each other during the procession to avoid inflicting injuries to fellow Black Nazarene followers.
“Iwasan na lang po nating mag-balyahan at magtulakan,” he appealed. /kga