Trip to Padre Pio Shrine

First out of town trip of the year! We went to Padre Pio Shrine at Batangas, Philippines to attend a mass there and for our wishes and thanksgivings.

All photos were taken using my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. Most of them are taken by me and one photo taken by my girlfriend using my phone.

Photos posted here are cropped and in smaller resolution. I didn't edit the color saturations, curves and other photo tweaking stuff. I wish the batteries of my Canon 7D aren't bloated and drain power fast.

Finally after a long drive, we arrived and almost late for the mass. The church is open and the wind circulates freely inside. Even it's sunny it feels cold inside this church.

We're inside the church, we are greeted with a very huge cross hanging at the center of the dome. The cross have two sculptures at the back and at the front. The most viewed by the people is this one where God holds Jesus on the cross.

The mass has ended. Time to roam around the place. This is a big place, there are lots of stuff to be seen here. Like this one. This cross holds a small portion of the actual cross where Jesus is crucified. The glass encasement is very reflective.

This is just behind and lower area of the church. Here's Padre Pio holding Jesus on the cross. Padre Pio is a Saint. His hands have stigmatism and they always bleed so his hands are always wrapped in bandages or cloth.

This is nice to look at. It's a small shrine of Mother Mary. This area looks Japanese-inspired.

We light up and placed some colored candles. Each color represents a specific type of wish: red - life, blue - peace, yellow - God/spirit, green - money, pink - health... Sorry, I forgot the other colors.

Another statue set of Jesus, Mary and Padre Pio. These statues are huge by the way.

This is inside the Holy Water shrine. Padre Pio is sitting on top of a wishing fountain.

This is one of the most popular areas of the shrine. The tower of Mary, Mother of Mercy. If there was no pandemic, you can climb this tower.

Now that we've payed our respects in the shrine and got some souvenirs, it's time to leave... but we took one last look at the entrance before going on our way.

Hope you guys like the photos we've taken here. I hope we can travel more. I wish this crazy pandemic and lockdowns end soon.

Cheers!