Grand Launching of the Tercentenary Commemorative Plate
Our Lady of Peñafrancia Shrine, Naga City
April 21, 2010 @ 8:00 A.M.

There’s a song that Tommy Makem used to sing called “The Parting Glass”. It’s about a man who at the end of his days “sits beside the road and weeps for all the songs he didn’t sing and the promises he didn’t keep.”

If we come to think of it, life is quite about songs and promises, those we sing and we don’t sing, those we keep and don’t keep. And out of the songs and promises of life, we quarry our own unique existence in this world.

Today, as we hold this occasion to formally launch the commemorative plates for the tercentenary, we are singing a triumphant song. We are keeping a promise. We are carving out our own unique existence to this world. We are shouting to the whole nation that we have kept and live the devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia.

Everything around you here today recalls with great pride how a devotion of a young seminarian in UST changed the life of the Bikolanos. It is our intention to immortalize what he has started that is why we honor him with the Plaza Miguel Robles de Covarrubias. The whole tercentenary celebration, in fact, is a celebration of gratitude.

Right at the façade of the church you’ll find the marker indicating the humble beginnings of the devotion and how it all grew up to be a global devotion. Outside there is a beautiful mural depicting how the original devotion from Spain started. Right where you are sitting now, you can behold the antique retablo that was probably built at the same time when this shrine was constructed by Bishop Arevalo in 1750. His coat of arms can still be found engraved in the upper part of the western side of the church. And above all, we have the image of Ina in the pedestal, crowned in all glory, eliciting every time from us our majestic hymn to her, se siempre la reina de nuestra region!

All these are here to be constant reminders for all of us to be grateful for the legacy of our predecessors. In the words of Cicero: Memoria est thesaurus omnium rerum e custos. (Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.) We have truly inherited a glorious past and we will guard it with our life for the devotion of Ina has extracted a unique identity for the local church of Bicol.

But what I am more particularly delighted to see today is how you are all united to take part in this noble project which seeks to add another aide memoire to the devotees of Ina; how you are here to keep your promise to do whatever you can to protect the great legacy of our forefathers. The commemorative car plates will only last for a year, but the good that you have done today will echo into eternity. This event could be simply a fund drive for some but for everyone who has faith, for all of you who labored to contribute whatever you can to realize this project, it is a glorious song to sing. The Psalms for today is now your song. “Let the earth cry out with joy.”

It is my prayer that this endeavor will make you living reminders of how marvelous God’s work is for all Bicolanos and devotees of Ina. You will live to tell your children that you were part of the tercentenary anniversary and that you have you done something so that the future generation will inherit a treasure.

May I convey my congratulations to Fr. Gerry Hernandez, your parish priest, to the Rotary Club of Naga-Camarines Sur headed by Outgoing President Tim de Villa and Incoming President Chingsan Rañola, and to all of you here who participated to realize this task. You have sung a wonderful song to Ina. You have kept your promise to Ina. We will altogether shout joyfully to God.

Viva la Virgen!