The Holy Week highlights for us the great mystery of the love of God for us.  Our processions must therefore help us to enter into this mystery of divine love.  It must not be allowed to become a tradition of cultural artistic pageantry.  It must lead to holiness.  The Holy Week processions must lead to the imitation of Christ.

† SOCRATES B. VILLEGAS
Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan
CBCP President

One of the more overt rites of the Holy Week is the procession.  Here, the streets come to life when the images and symbols of the last days of our Lord Jesus Christ are brought out.  Through the procession, the Filipino Catholics can express their faith in Jesus Christ, thus, it is vital that the procession be seen as a way of understanding and celebrating the Paschal Mystery.  This book is a great help in that regard and in making processions and our participation in them truly an act of faith and worship according to the Liturgy of the Church.

REV. FR. GENARO O. DIWA, S.L.L.
Director, Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission, Manila

That is why there is truth to our Filipino saying, “Sa hinahabahaba man ng prusisyon, sa simbahan din ang tuloy.”  Our processions should lead us to the Church, to a deeper adoration of God, to a greater love for Him, expressed concretely in our love for others, especially the poor and the powerless.

† LUIS ANTONIO G. CARDINAL TAGLE, D.D.
Archbishop of Manila