I had my first visit with the nationally-known shrine of Mother Mary of Shedding Tears at Simala, Lindogon, Sibonga, Cebu just this morning. This is an agreed trip of thanksgiving after our reclassification was approved from Teacher 1 to Teacher 3.

From Lapu-lapu City, we rented a van driven and owned by our school accountant. At exactly 8 A. M. we travelled and we were able to catch the only mass of the day to start at 12 noon.

I was deeply impressed with the building architecture which is the first thing you can view when you were able to get in the entrance after the security check.

From the entrance, you have to walk at the passage where people are falling in line inorder to kiss the image of Mother Mary.

We hurried up going to the church as the bell rang to start the mass. The space inside the church is quite smaller in relation to the crowd attending the mass. A lot of people standing, we belonged to these people sitting on the floor near the church wall at the main entrance.

We lighted candles after the mass and gave our thanksgiving donations.

We took pictures as remembrance and collected some of these captures:

Just a reminder to those who are planning a visit to the shrine.

1. Wear a Sunday dress that must be below the knee by length, otherwise you are not allowed to get in. Our companion @rosevillariasa was wearing an A-line skirt but still not allowed so we go out and rented from a booth outside.

So I decided to take a photo for these outfit restrictions, though some of my companions had visited here but the rule was not imposed before.

The place I described was a good place for Mother Mary's devotees and at the same time became an attraction to pilgrims. Just one thing to comment about the twenty pesos fee in a single use of their comfort room, with a crowd of people going there especially during weekends, I think it's an overprice comparing to churches who only ask for donations at any amount or established 2 pesos usage fee. Hopefully, the management may hear this, pilgrims have no choice because there is no available comfort room nearby.

Thank you for reading this story.

@felicitas