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To everyone who is interested to go to Agdangan, Quezon, for the Luminous Cross of Grace Sanctuary, here are directions on how to get there.

Take South Luzon Express Way, till the end of the tollway, you will go towards Lucena.

On the way you will pass the following towns Sto. Tomas, Batangas 8.3 kms, Alaminos, Laguna 13.3 kms , San Pablo, Laguna 13.3 kms, Tiaong, Quezon 12.6 kms, Candelaria, Quezon, 12.2 kms, Sariaya Church , Quezon, 12.0 kms, Lucena Tayabas Junction, Quezon, 3.9 kms, Lucena Diversion Crossing 6.5 kms Midway is the Lucena Grand Terminal then go towards Pagbilao, Quezon 8.6 kms. , Binahaan junction (Quezon) there will be signs saying Towards Bicol –follow that route, Malicboy Junction 5.3 kms then there will be an Arch that will say Bondoc Peninsula. Before seeing the arch you will see on your left St. Anne’s Church then Quenas College. Then you will pass by Padre Burgos 10.9 kms. Then to Agdangan 15.2 kms. A total of 170 kms. You can call Aia Halili 0917-817-5578 or Dra. Paz Carandang 0920-954-1475 or in Agdangan.

Dear apostles, how strongly you desire holiness. This desire pleases Me and I will bless this desire. I will increase your holiness. There are times when you despair of becoming as holy as you wish. At those times when you are tempted, I would like you to know that I can make you as holy in an instant. If you require heroic holiness in a moment, I can give it to you. The Holy Spirit blows where it is both welcomed and needed so if you welcome the Spirit, the Spirit will sanctify you. I, Jesus, lived on earth and in My humanity I understand the struggles that plague you. I understand the frustration you feel when you examine yourself and find that you have work to do in virtue. Dear ones, consider life like a walk. If you are taking a walk on any given day, you walk. You do not sit down on the path and call that action walking. That would be sitting down and that is different from walking. Your spiritual life is meant to be active. If you look at yourself and find that you need to work on holiness, then you are looking at yourself in truth. You are on the path and you are walking and you see that ahead of you the path continues on into the unknown as far as the possibility for your holiness. I, Jesus, am comfortable with this for you. I am not pleased, however, when you move backwards on the path or leave the path altogether. You were meant to serve Me and you were meant to serve Me in this time. Please do not be distracted. Do not believe that My plan can do without your service. My plan does not require your perfection, My dearest one, but it does require your presence. If you remain with Me during your time on earth, My treasures are transmitted to you. You can then open your heart to others and allow these treasures for others. I will send them to others through you. Have no fear that this prayer will go unanswered. It will not. It will be answered more generously than you can imagine. Draw closer to Me in holiness, dear apostle, so that I can sanctify you and move into the world through you. Do not be afraid of changes. Just as you must always be moving on your path, so the world must always be moving through time. As the world moves through time, it changes and it is changing now. You, dearest people, are a part of that change.

-Jesus

On the first of every month, Our Lord gives Anne a new message about His call to service.

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By Ruby Villavicencio Paurom

Contributor

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Sunday, August 24, 2008

National artist ARACELI DANS is not particularly religious. But a niece invited her to visit the site of the construction of the 120-foot high prayer edifice, the Luminous Cross of Grace sanctuary in Agdangan, Quezon on Sept 15 last year.

> Climbing up the uppermost floor and feeling the wind blow,
> she said she saw in her mind the image of a beautiful lady
> with her long hair rippling like soft waves swaying with the
> wind.
>
> The experience moved her deeply, she said, and she sought
> that her hands be made worthy of what she recognized as a
> call for her to depict, through a painting, an image of the
> Blessed Mother..
>
> To prepare for the task she said she worked her way back
> through the sacraments of her Catholic faith, something
> which she kept at the back burner for the past twenty years.
> She said she went on a “via crucis” (way of the cross)
> attended Holy Mass as often as she could, and went to
> confession. Believing she may have humbly manifested her
> desire to truly be in accord with the desires of the Blessed
> Mother, Dans picked up her brush and started on the work
>
> Cheloy, as she in known in the art world which has
> celebrated her unmatched ability to paint feminine lacework
> and make it come to life of its own, worked on an eight-foot
> by four-foot canvass, finishing an artwork she entitled
> “Ina ng Liwanag at Pagmamahal.”
>
> Now 78, Dans said she feels that
> her life has been in preparation for this painting of the
> Blessed Mother, each and every square inch of the canvass an
> expression of her life’s learnings as an artist, each and
> every brush stroke an expression of her own understanding of
> how motherly love, pain and hope can be carried for humanity
> by a single being in the person of Christ’s own beloved
> mother.
>
> The Ina, with arms open, holds a golden rosary and becomes
> the first painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary by a Filipino
> National Artist in Filipino “baro at saya.” Of splendid
> pina lacework are the Virgin’s veil, her “baro” and
> the “tapis’ over her saya of orange, yellow gold and
> blueblack. Her figure is illumined by a ray of light
>
> Dans’ Ina is also a more mature-looking lady, bearing
> lines between her eyebrows and under her eyes, unlike the
> young Blessed Mother depicted by European artists. Her hands
> also show signs of having toiled in her life.
>
> Dans first presented her painting to Servants of the
> Luminous Cross on May 18 at her residence in Quezon City. The
> Servants, the lay who mainly come from Metro Manila and
> Quezon who help in the fund-raising for the sanctuary’s
> construction, received the painting as a donation by Dans
> on behalf of Fr. Raul Enriquez, parish priest of Agdangan
> who spearheads the construction of the Luminous Cross of
> Grace Sanctuary.
>
> Dans informed the Servants that she chose the Ina to be
> more advanced in age to emphasize concern of the mother who
> worries for her children and seeks their return to the Light
> in utmost gentleness as her face reflects the gentleness of
> her Son who suffered for the entire world. ‘I wanted an
> image of the Blessed Mother that the suffering Filipinos can
> connect and identify with,” stated Dans.
>
> The painting has since been brought to the sanctuary at the
> poor town of Agdangan on the Bondoc Peninsula and received
> at the Luminous Cross of Grace with rites centered around
> the Holy Mass.
>
> Uncannily the colors of the painting blended so perfectly
> with the colors of the top floor, the prayer sanctuary
> itself, which had not yet been painted on at the time of
> Dans’ visit.
>
> As of this writing, the glass-domed Luminous Cross of Grace
> sanctuary is nearing completion after over four years of
> work which was done as funds were zealously generated from
> donors. With only windows, lighting and fresh retouches of
> paint lacking, the sanctuary, which was built based on
> inspirations and visions of priests and the lay, now casts a
> lofty presence in the town and other towns which can view
> the seven-meter by five-meter luminous cross mounted on top
> the structure. At the center of this cross is mounted an
> image of Our Lady of Guadalupe while on each of the four
> corners of the cross is mounted four other different images
> of Our Lady.
>
> A stream of visitors, steadily increasing in number, now
> comes to Agdangan not only to pray but also to experience
> the place. All of fourteen floors, the sanctuary is shaped
> like a monstrance, a fitting structural design for one which
> is envisioned to be a reminder of the vital role of the
> Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist for the salvation of man..
>
>
> On each of the landings are Stations of the Cross and all
> its walls are covered with murals depicting all the
> mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and the vital doctrines of the
> Church. The entire process of the construction of the
> Luminous Cross of Grace Sanctuary, including the painting of
> the wall-to-wall murals, involved offerings of sacrifices on
> the part of the workers and the lay volunteers who
> nevertheless now testify to the manifestations of God’s
> grace and blessings on the invocation of His Divine Will
> through the holy intercession of the Blessed Mother.
>
> Although visitors are mainly
> Catholics, Enriquez has noted that the sanctuary has also attracted members of other
> religions like Buddhists, Hindus and Taoists, as well as the members and
> followers of other sects and groups like the Science of the
> Mind and the \holy Mount Banahaw Confederation. To the priest, their attraction to the
> sanctuary may possibly be a lead-in to a foretold role of
> the Luminous Cross of Grace sanctuary in paving the way for
> unity of the Church.
>
> The presence at the sanctuary of Dans’ painting “Ina ng
> Liwanag at Pagmamahal” symbolizes the Blessed Mother’s motherly concern and guidance for > Filipinos in these trying times in the nation’s history and her urgent appeal
> for universal conversion and return to the ways of her son
> Jesus.