Red Wednesday is an annual celebration of the Catholic Church that remembers those who have been persecuted and have been receiving violence because of their chosen expression of faith but this year, the Church will dedicate it to the COVID frontliners and those who fell victim to the virus and disasters.
The Catholic Church will celebrate this year’s Red Wednesday with the title RED MEANS LOVE: One Church Against Covid-19 that aims to “rekindle hope amid darkness.”
All Parishes under the Diocese of Antipolo will have a simultaneous mass on November 25, 6:00 PM. Parish exteriors will also be lit in red as part of this celebration. Aranzazushrine.ph also aligned its website theme to today’s event.
Everyone who will support the celebration is encouraged to wear red. You may attend the mass at the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Nuestra Senora de Aranzazu or watch the livestream at the Parish’s Facebook Page.
We are all called to pray for our brothers and sisters in the medical frontlines, and those who are still battling with the sickness and aftermath of disasters.
Red symbolizes the martyrdom of the faithful who stood up for their faith even until their last breath.
According to Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of Aid to the Church in Need Philippines, color red also connotes love that is courage, patient endurance and compassion. “It is the courage of our frontliners, the patient endurance of our Covid survivors, and above all the compassion of God made manifest through the Church and His people.”
Red Wednesday is an initiative of ACN that was first organized in the United Kingdom in 2016. The Philippines started celebrating this annual movement a year after.
