Vessels of Faith

This room presents the various expressions of Philippine spirituality. The pieces here – from coffins to images for the altar — speak of belief systems and the ways by which their believers stage rituals, think about the afterlife, invoke the spirits, and so on.

At the center of the room is a contemporary installation by Jose Tence Ruiz that combines the structure of a cart and a cathedral. It links the sacred institution of the church and the everyday life of the faithful.

To be found here as well is National Artist Vicente Manansala’s I Believe in God/Give Us This Day (1948) in which workers in a farm pause from their toil to pray.