Holy Land Retreat Part 2


On March 12-20, 2019, another group of Woodrose students, their families, and friends joined the Woodrose Holy Land Retreat Pilgrimage. They visited several holy sites such as the place of Jesus’ birth, the house of Mother Mary and site of the Annunciation, the site of the Visitation, and the site of Jesus’ Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection. Led by our Assistant School Chaplain, Fr. Francis Ongkingco, the retreat-pilgrimage was also attended by our Executive Director, Dr. Gina Rama, and School Board Chairperson, Mrs. Milette Lorenzo.

Some of the Grade 11 students who joined the retreat-pilgrimage were asked to speak about their Holy Land experience during a get-together with the Grade 10 students. Their reflections show how moving their experience was.

“The feeling I got when I was in Holy Land was a sense of homecoming, as if I belonged there, or as if I knew I was destined for a place as beautiful as that.” – Iya Fernandez

“For a lot of the girls in my group, it wasn’t just one Holy Land moment, it was many small moments in every place we went to because we really felt the presence of Christ and how he was human…just like us” – Kyla Yu

“In this retreat, the only expectation I really had was to encounter our Lord. I didn’t expect to encounter Mary and Joseph in a way that they too have become my parents who love me, support me, and care for me the way they did for their son.” – Tasha Yang