“Perdón” held after the typhoon

by JASMIN SANTOS

DEC. 4-6, 2006, Few days after super typhoon “Reming” hit the Bicol region, Magarao parishioners had a simultaneous “Perdón” in all baranggays every 9 o’clock in the evening.

“Perdón” (Spanish term meaning “forgiveness”) is a traditional communal penitential procession. It was done to ask the grace of personal and communal conversion from the sins committed, to pray for recovery of all the victims of the typhoon, and to ask for the continual blessings of stronger faith and trust in God in the midst of tragedy and calamities.

In the exhortation read in the liturgy, the readings shed light on the meaning of suffering and on how to respond to it in Catholic and Christian way.

It is the first recorded and well-attended Perdón in Magarao held simultaneously in all barangays for three consecutive nights.