A place to visit this coming Holy week the MONASTERIO DE TARLAC, Barangay Lubigan, San Jose, Tarlac where in the sacred relic of the cross of Jesus Christ cross in the entire Asia. If you just want to have a break from your worldly care visit the site itself has much to say God's wonders to behold. The place is very calm and relaxing. It's like your very close to God and because the location was on the top of the mountain.

The province of Tarlac with the Department of Tourism in Central Luson recently cited the Monasterio de Tarlac as one of the most pilgrimage site in the region for the spiritual prominence as the shrine of sacred relic of the cross upon which Jesus Christ was crurified and died.

The relic is contained in a silver reliquary housed in an ornately decorated glass case on one of the altars of the Church of the Risen Christ in the sprawling monastery where one also finds a 30-foot statue of the Risen Christ. At the top the imposing altar is the Latin inscription Ave, Crux, Spes, Unica, which means "Hail, the Holy Cross, Our Only Hope."

He said the relic is the only one of its kind in the entire Asia and is now under the ministerial care of the Servants of the Risen Christ, a monastic congregation led by its prior, Frater Ronal Thomas Cortez.

The congregation has only 30 contemplative monks or religious brothers nationwide. They are also called "frater" to the Catholic community.

Msgr. Volker Bauer of Germany turned over the sacred relic to Prior Cortez during the 2005 World Youth Day held in Essen, Germany. In Essen, he said Bauer first informed Cortez about plans to turn over the relic to the Philippines. Bauer flew into the country with the relic, which was first brought to a church at the Clark Freeport before being transferred to its final destination at the Monasterio de Tarlac.

Since then the number of pilgrims to the site has swelled, prompting the monks to hold 10 a.m. Masses on Saturdays and Sundays.

"After the Mass, the faithful are allowed to have a closer look at the cross fragment in the reliquary to pay homage and be blessed spiritually," he said.

Every September 14 when the entire Christendom commemorates the anniversary of the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the silver case containing the relic would be opened for public veneration.

In 1963, the Catholic Church declared September 14 of every year as the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.

The DOT recalled that the veneration of the true cross of Jesus Christ started in the fourth century.

"According to Christian tradition, when Emperor Constantine granted religious freedom to Christians in the Roman Empire in 313 A.D., his mother, Queen Helena, later in 326 A.D., made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to locate those places sacred to Christians and found the authentic cross of Jesus," and the province keep promoting pilgrimages to the Tarlac monastery and its eco-tourism park.

As the stories of "Queen Helena had churches built in many of these sacred sites, such as the Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary, the exact place where Jesus was born. She also found the true cross buried under a pagan temple as well the nails (used to crucify Jesus), and the title that was affixed to the cross".Queen Helena was said to have verified the true cross among the three that were unearthed under the temple, as it produced miracles, including the return to life of a dead girl when her body was placed on a part of the cross.

"She left part of the cross in Jerusalem, gave some parts to her son in Constantinople, and took other parts back to Rome where the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem was built," "Pieces of the cross were venerated as holy relics, and fragments were given as gifts to many churches in Europe,"

Our late Tarlac Congressman Jose 'APING" Yap developed the 278-hectare Tarlac Ecotourism Park where the Monasterio de Tarlac, Brgy. Lubigan. San Jose, Tarlac. He was buried at Monasterio de Tarlac too.

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