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Rota celebrates feast of Our Lady of Fatima
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- Devotees of the Our Lady of Fatima carry her on their shoulders during a short procession around the parish grounds. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)
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- Devotees pay respect and kiss the image of the Our Lady after the procession. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)
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- A potluck dinner was shared by the community at the Rota roundhouse to celebrate the Blessed Mother’s feast. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)
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- The Feast of Santa Maria Fatima was celebrated for the first time at the Songsong Village on Rota last Friday as opposed to the traditional celebration held at Tenetu. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)
ROTA—The feast of Santa Maria Fatima was celebrated by parishioners of the San Franciso de Borja Church last Friday.
After the last of the nine-day novena masses and a short procession, devotees and families gathered for a potluck dinner at the Rota roundhouse.
Fr. Sid Ogumoro, who celebrated the mass, said that his message to parishioners was to continue praying and relying on the promises of the Blessed Mother.
“We have to trust her to continue to give us her protection and become more faithful to her and to Jesus. We just continue to pray,” Ogumoro said.
For the first time, the feast was celebrated at the Songsong Village as opposed to their tradition of celebrating it at the Tenetu Village.
According to Fiesta Committee chair Frank Calvo, resident priest Fr. Isaac Ayuyu decided that the fiesta be held at the said village to bring the people together.
“Some of the people thought that maybe because it was the fiesta in Tenetu it was only basically for the Tenetu people but that’s not the idea because Santa Maria Fatima is supposedly for the whole island,” Calvo said.
“Whatever chapel that we have here where we usually have our fiesta, now its celebrated here,” he added.
Calvo said the turnout is as great as it was the past years and thanked those who participated in the fiesta and celebrated with them.
Calvo, who is a devotee himself of Our Lady of Fatima, has been leading the feast celebrations for Santa Maria Fatima for two decades.
He and his wife and daughter share the name of the three children—Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia —to whom the Blessed Mother appeared at Fatima on May 13, 1917.
He said they are already preparing for the centennial celebration of the apparition next year.
