The Church
More than just a site of Sunday worship and Saturday novenas, the baptisms and funerals, of weddings and all the rites of religion, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, in 85 years, has turned into a place where people of every persuasion, color, age, nationality gather for fellowship, celebration, camaraderi. With the consecration of its Marian Shrine, the Parish has also become a center for devotees of the Blessed Mother. While it has added a new structure, OLPH has kept its character and its traditions and it is worth our while to take a look at the people, the groups, the events, and the institutions that make it what it is today.
The Buildings and the Icons
Patterned after the Mission-type architecture prominent in most California churches (OLPH is one), the Shrine's building features exposed rafters, arched entry, tile roof, mosaic art and earth tone colors. The altar holding the icons blends with the structure, the niches connected by protruded wood railings to symbolize the assembly of three icons from different places of origin: Our Lady of Guadalupe from Mexico, Our Lady of Perpetual Help from Italy, Our Lady of Immaculate Conception associated with Lourdes, France. The tiled floor and walls in earth tone contrasts with the light blue ceiling, blue representing the clouds of Daly City and the color of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In December of 1531, "La Virgen de Guadalupe" appeared before Juan Diego, a poor Mexican peasant asking him to tell the Bishop to build a temple, saying "...anyone coming to me, I will give console, my help and all my love." When the Bishop rebuffed him, Juan Diego was told by the Lady to pick flowers from the barren rocks to offer as a sign to the Bishop. As he showed the flowers, there was the image of the Lady on his cape, an image existing until now in the basilica at Tepeyac hill.
In the 1500s a miraculous painting stolen from a church in Crete and brought to Rome attracted devotees to its iconic beauty and wonder-working powers. In 1866, the Pope granted custody of the painting to the Redemptorists with instructions to make the Mother of Perpetual Help known all over the world. The icon's depiction of Mary holding Her child's hand directs attention on Jesus, Son of God and source of all salvation. The Mother of God, from the moment of her conception in the womb of St. Anne, was preserved "free from the stain of Original Sin", thus she is the Lady of Immaculate Conception, greeted by the Angel Gabriel as "full of grace". The icon's dress in its whiteness reflects this.
The OLPH School
Boasting a top-rate faculty and first-class facilities, the school, since 1933 has provided quality elementary education grounded in Christian family values.
The Rites of the Seasons
"To everything, there is a season." To the OLPH parishioners, there is nothing truer, more so with the various rites marking the special times in their church's calendar. In the fall and winter, Advent, or Christmas as we know it, ushers in the year. The Church takes on a festive air with the lights, the banners, the lanterns, the nativity scenes and the much-awaited and well-attended "Simbang Gabi". It is a tribute to the hardy OLPHers that they have kept the ways of their folk back home with these pre-dawn novena of masses.
Spring is the season of Lent when the Christian world honors the supreme sacrifice the Son of God made to redeem humanity. OLPH observes Easter Sunday with the early dawn "Salubong" (Tagalog for "meeting") when Mary is reunited with her Risen Son.
The Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in early summer brings the year's festivities to a grand and glorious close. Its center-piece, after the novenas that are distinct in their reflectiveness and profoundness, is the procession around the Parish block. Then, in a joyous School Hall setting, the OLPH family feast, sing, and dance the night away.
The Minstrels of the Church
Also known as the choirs of OLPH, they sing their hearts out to give the Sunday masses and other Church events the air and feel that only music can bring. The souls of the OLPH church goers indeed soar and doth glory not only in the love of the Lord, but in the melodic chorus of voices of their very own choirs.