Another Weekend To Remember - Day 1

3rd day of April.

 After the experience I had at Capelinha de Fatima last March 13, (see link for that article below), I told myself that I would like to repeat that experience again but the next 13th of the month that will fall on a weekend is on November yet.

https://read.cash/@Judith1969/grateful-for-the-weekend-that-was-40d67ce1

After checking the calendar, May 13 falls on a Friday. So I said why not on May 13, I can always file for a leave as I am not so busy on a Friday and May 13 is the day that our Blessed Mother, Mama Mary's first apparition at Fatima. I tried to start planning for the trip. But then it will entail a lot of the members of my family to be on leave from either their job or their school. I don’t want to go alone too as I need someone to drive me there. I was really in a dilemma so I prayed and asked Mama Mary on what to do. And in just a few days, she gave me her answer.

While hearing mass last March 27, our parish priest announced that our church is one of the pilgrims invited to the 8th day novena mass at Capelinha de Fatima on April 2, Saturday. And that immediately rings a bell. It may not be a dawn mass but it is a novena mass for the consecration of the chapel on April 4.

So on April 2, we travelled early as the mass will start at 10 in the morning. The drive there is around 3 hours depending on the traffic. Gladly there was no traffic at all. We arrived at the venue with 15 minutes to spare.

This time there are 20 priests who co-celebrated the mass as the pilgrims consists of several districts.

The day was so hot and there are only a few tents available. We were able to get a spot under the tent but there were no more chairs available but I brought with me my own folding chair so no worries for me. My companions were all standing the whole time.

There was a solemn procession of our Lady around the grounds before the start of the mass.

The sermon was centered on the Rosary. For my Catholic friends, please pray the Rosary every day and ask for Mama Mary’s intercession, especially for the war to end.

After the mass, we could have drove back home right away as it was still early, we can even spare time to have lunch along the way. But since it is weekend, we decided to stay around the area and booked in another resort. This time we don’t have worry about the distance from Capelinha de Fatima as we were done hearing the mass. So we drove around to the next town which was almost an hour’s drive away from the chapel.

Though it is summer time and mostly, resorts are full, we were still being accommodated as their resort is so huge and they have plenty of rooms. We were placed in a barkada room that will accommodate 10 persons, just enough for us.

The resort’s name is Hagnaya Beach Resort.

When we arrived, we went straight to lunch as we were told that our room is not yet ready. We opt for a boodle fight kind of food serving but ordered soup on the side. Though there were 9 of us, we were not able to finish all the food. We have some left over that we brought to our room for snacks later that afternoon.

I think they are planning to make a safari theme on their resort as there were plenty of more than life size animals around. I also heard two men talking, I think one of them is the manager or the owner of the resort. He was saying that there will be more animals coming.

But they only have one huge pool for the guests to share.

Though, they are still in the process of building another one and they got their inspiration from the Titanic.

The night has come and the lights were on. Such a nice place to stay. The garden lights are all powered up by solar. A way of helping save Mother Earth. Yeah, use solar energy.

We didn’t order much for dinner as we brought along our extra food from lunch. Though they ate some of them for snack but there is still some left. We just ordered pizza, quesadilla and pasta.

After dinner, the kids went back swimming as the pool will close at 10 in the evening yet.

Then it is time to hit the sack. Our room has 5 queen size bed that we can sleep comfortably.

This is day 1 of our weekend. Day 2 is for another article as this is quite long already.

Hope you had a happy weekend friends.

That’s all for now folks.

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