Travel Philippines: Shrine of our Lady of Manaoag Pangasinan

Pangasinan is one of the province of the Philippines. It is located at west central of Luzon along Lingayen Gulf. There are lots of attraction that you can see on the province like Hundred Islands Marine Sanctuary in Alaminos, Caves in Bolinao, Tambobong White Beach in Dasol, Umbrella Rocks of Agno and a lot more.

While we visited Pangasinan, I feel like I went back in the times of Spanish colonial period. I have seen old churches and buildings that was been established during the spanish period. Unfortunately we haven't have a stop-over at those structure to take some photo.

One of the places that we visited was The Shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag.This shrine is famous throughout the country for its supposed miraculous powers.Catholic devotees frequent the shrine, especially on the feast days on the first of October and the 18th day after Easter sunday. If you are a catholic devotee or wants to have a solemn place to pray your personal intentions, this would be the one of the place to visit. Inside the shrine, there is a museum where it displays the history of the Shrine and the vestments the priest in different period.

They also have souvenir available on their shops. I bought a garnet rosary for my mother for she was born on January and garnet is the birthstone for january. On their souvenir shops you can choose lots of items from keychains, car decor, fans, t-shirts, hats, stampitas, novenas and statues/wall hangings of Our Lady of Manaoag, calendars, posters, candles, Holy Water bottles etc. At the shrine, they have a park with statue that display the station of the cross. When I entered the church, it feels like someone is calling you to enter the church. In the inside, there's a big statue of virgin Mary, which they called Our Lady of Most holy Rosary of Manaoag.

After visiting the inside of the church, it was already 3:00pm and it's time for blessing of religious items. Together with my friends, we gathered our items on the blessing area at the back of the church to take a blessing. When the blessing of religious item finished we take a little tour on the outside the church. We seen lots of small souvenir stores and food shops for "pasalubong". I haven't bought any food 'pasalubong' for I don't know what to buy because there are many food to choose from and we only have a little time to stay there. It was really nice to visit at the Manaoag Shrine and it feels that you are refreshed and you're problems are gone. hope I could visit again to the Shrine to take a Mass and have some meditation.

Below is the schedule of Mass and Religious event:

Masses

Monday - Friday every hour 5am - 11am
Saturday - every hour 5am - 12nn & 4:30pm
Sunday - every hour 5am - 12nn, 3pm & 4:30pm

Confession
Wednesday and Friday 7am - 8:30am
After every mass at the sacristy

Rosary
Monday to Saturday 5:45pm

Baptism
Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday10am - Registration, 11am - Baptism

Blessing of Religious Articles
Inside the Church after every mass and at the Blessing Area at the back of the church 3pm-4pm

Fiestas
First Sunday of October and Third Wednesday after Easter Sunday