Rizalistas as Religious Sects

• Ciudad Mistica de Dios • Adamista • Bathalismo

• Watawat ng Lahi • Iglesia Sagrada Flilipina

• and Espiritual Pilipino Catholic Church

Rizalistas as Religious Sects

• some believed that Rizal has an apparent parallelism to Jesus Christ in

many ways • other's believed that Rizal is the

messiah of the Philippines just like Jesus Christ as messiah of Israel

• there were also those who believed that Rizal was the re-incarnation of

Christ

Rizalistas as Religious Sects

•Ciudad Mistica de Dios • Adamista • Bathalismo

• Watawat ng Lahi • Iglesia Sagrada Flilipina

• and Espiritual Pilipino Catholic Church

Ciudad Mistica de Dios most popular and important Founder: Maria Bernarda Balitaan – b.1876 located in Mt. Banahaw, Quezon largely a women-dominated community headed by a woman leader named Suprema her name is Isabel Suarez, celibate and a

convert from Roman Catholicism

Ciudad Mistica de Dios Mt. Banahaw once an active volcano

its last eruption was in 1721 it is also a National Park Holy Week as the “yearly rape of

Banahaw now under restoration

Ciudad Mistica de Dios: Banahaw as altar of brave Filipino heroes

like Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, and Gregorio del Pilar

hiding place of political dissidents like Hermano Pule during the Spanish era

their saints are all Filipinos self-sufficient and independent from the

Catholic Church

Ciudad Mistica de Dios considered Mt. Banahaw as a holy place, a

Holy Land it is a spiritual center since pre-Hispanic

times a power mountain having extraordinary

spiritual potency a center of religious pilgrimages it has healing power: through orasyon, herbs,

hilot, waters

Ciudad Mistica de Dios Puwesto: a sacred natural shrine like a river,

waterfall, peak, cave, or rock (like Catholic’s Via Crucis)

Ciudad Mistica de Dios Puwesto: a sacred natural shrine like a river,

waterfall, peak, cave, or rock (like Catholic’s Via Crucis)

Rituals for cleansing and purification from sin in

puwestos include: bathing lighting a candle silent prayer climbing meditations on the events of Christ’s passion

Ciudad Mistica de Dios

monothestic; Jose Rizal is not a God nor messiah but a messenger worship is directly to God through Jesus

Christ alone they worshipped the androgynous

masculine and feminine aspects of God

called Dios Ama-Ina: “Sa ngalan ng Ama-Ina, at

ng Anak at ng Espiritu Santo.”

Ciudad Mistica de Dios

Prepare its members until the final New Jerusalem (which was supposed to take place in the year 2000)

Catholic Church statement on popular/folk/indigenous religiosity or spirituality:

“...if it is well oriented…it is rich in values. It manifests

a thirst for God which only the simple and the poor

can know. It makes people capable of generosity

and sacrifice even to the point of heroism, when it is

a question of manifesting belief. It involves an

awareness of profound attributes of God: fatherhood, providence, loving and constant presence. It engenders

interior attitudes rarely observed to the same degree elsewhere:

patience, the sense of the cross in daily life, detachment, openness to others, devotion.”

Pope Paul VI

Assignment:

Write a one-page essay, Times Roman 11, 1.5 space, 2.0. margins on all sides by answering this question:

As a Christian, what could you possibly learn for your

faith or search for personal meaning from

indigenous religion or spirituality like the Ciudad Mistica de Dios?

Submit a hard copy next meeting. Good for 40 points. Prepare for quiz also.