When life seems extraordinarily ordinary

Now I'm kinda used to the daily commuting between my house and my office.
Traveling for one hour, gives me not only chance to sleep again *oops*, but also a chance to read novels, work on a little bit of translation, and to think.

It also means that there are moments when I really need to stop because I am down with sore throat and cough (like today).

At these moments, life seems extraordinarily ordinary. You 'just' wake up, eat, work, eat, go home, eat, sleep, etc. Before you can do extraordinary things like let's say...doing parchment craft? The time has shown that it's 10 or 11pm and you'll find yourself 'rushing' to sleep again to make sure you can be 100% awake tomorrow.

Nevertheless, isn't it the reality of this life? That we spend most of our time to do ordinary things, and that the most heroic things to do is to do our ordinary duty extraordinarily well. These are not my words, but the words of many great saints. In the book Mary of Nazareth, the author explained that if most of us do not have chance to do extraordinary things and we don't strive to do our ordinary things well, what's left behind as an offering for God? Thus, our offering is precisely in these ordinary things.

Everyone wakes up in the morning. How about waking up 'on the dot', promptly when the alarm rings? Well, not everyone can do it or at least strive to do it. Thus, it's not an easy sacrifice to wake up on time day after day, month after month.

Most of us go to work every day. How about working without creating distractions for ourselves (e.g., messaging or browsing)? That's the struggle for most of us.

Thus, today's sick leave is a good reminder for me. At times my duty is exactly to rest (even though I don't want to!). At times God's will for me is to stay at home and put order in my room rather than meeting up with a friend and doing apostolate. On another day, God wants me to have dinner with my friend rather than hanging out with my boyfriend.

The constant awareness of presence of God is needed every day, and I need to ask God how I can struggle better in many areas of my ordinary life this year. =)

Rome Sweet Home - Part 1

I was planning to write about the experience in Madrid first  (after the Santiago trip). However, my friend is going to Rome in January, so I promised her to write about Rome as quickly as possible. Here is the first part of the write-up!

Day 1

We arrived on 30^th September and we were amazed that the hotel where we stayed was so close to St Peter’s Basilica. First thing we did was to shower because we had not showered for 22 hours (we slept over at Barcelona airport during the transit). We also washed our clothes and we hang the clothes at the balcony, oops!

We had our first Italian lunch at a small café nearby. I doubted myself whether I could finish the pizza because it was so huge!! And yes, I managed to finish the pizza. Hahaha. It costs only 6.50 Euro with coke! We were so excited to enter St. Peter’s Basilica. The queue was long but it moved very fast. We also said a Creed outside the Basilica. From the middle of St. Peter’s Square, we could see Pope’s apartment and the statue of Our Lady outside that wall. Apparently that statue was only recently added during Pope John Paul II’s time. One of the youth told the Holy Father that St Peter’s square was incomplete without Our Lady. There are statues of many saints, but not Our Lady’s. Pope John Paul II agreed and Don Alvaro asked people that he knows to start designing it without waiting for instructions, so it could be used when the Pope needs it. And it’s true. One of the designs was approved by the Pope and stood there till now.

View from our hotel

The obelisks in Rome were gifts from Egypt. One of them is in the middle of St. Peter's Square

One of our friends in our group, who lived in Rome for 3 years before, explained to us about how just like other basilicas, this basilica was built above smaller church. Similar with Cathedral of Santiago, when they found the body of St. Peter, they also found many other people were buried around St. Peter. This is the characteristics of the first Christians. They want to be buried near the holy people.

After we passed the security screening (we just need to put our bags in the X-ray), we saw the Bronze Gate. My friend later on went there to get tickets for us for the audience with Pope Francis (the one held every Wednesday).

Bronze Gate, where we asked for the ticket for audience with the Pope

Once we entered the Basilica, we could see the beautiful sunlight that went through the windows and ceiling. It could be captured even using a normal camera. The floor was made in mosaic style and one of our group who studied fine arts explained that the statues at the ceiling was not made not in the correct proportions so that when we looked at them from our level, they looked in the correct proportions.

We also saw the huge statues of two angels for the holy water. Our friend always mistakenly called them ‘the two babies’. Hahaha.

Do you see the sun ray?

My head was tired of looking up, but it's worthwhile!

Below the altar was the body of St John Paul II

This one is the comparison of sizes of various Basilicas in the world!

St Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, saint of ordinary life!

These are the two angels that are always called as 'babies' by my friend

The Pieta by Michaelangelo!

The altar where the Papal Chair was located was exactly above the tomb of St. Peter. Unfortunately we couldn’t go down because there was a Mass at the area where the entrance to the tomb was. Behind the Papal Chair was the stain glass with a dove, a representation of the Holy Spirit, which was mistakenly thought as clock by my friend. Hahahaha. 

We also saw a wall with the list of Popes starting from St. Peter. It was really amazing to witness the continuity of the Catholic Church and this is an affirmation that this Church is not merely a social or human institution. The people have ‘problems’, faults, sins, but the Church is still here and God fulfilled the promise of ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’!

We spent quite some time just walking inside the Basilica. We also prayed in front of the body of St John Paul II. 

St Peter's Basilica view in the evening

Enjoying our first gelato!!

Day 2

Audience with Pope Francis!!!

The queue was really really really horrible, but all of us got seats. Our friends also told us to run to where we saw babies because there’s a chance that Pope Francis will stop and bless the babies =P Anyway, we didn’t reach that close, but we were happy to see the Holy Father were much closer than in TV :p We were climbing the chairs and screamed, “Holy Father! Holy Father!” Once we saw him went to our side, my two friends and I raaaaaaaaaaaaaannnn and we could see him quite close. I think around 2 meters away? I don’t mind that I don’t have good photo of him, but to really see him was such a relief. I think this craziness is really different with craziness over celebrity. Even though we screamed, we climbed the chairs, we ran after him, it’s a feeling that is definitely different because it has helped me to pray more to the Church and the Holy Father. It’s a feeling of small kids that don’t see the father after let’s say an overseas trip? I grow up in a totally ‘remote’ areas from Rome, and in Indonesia, we’ve always been a minority. I only heard about the Pope or saw him on TV. At that moment, he’s so real and close! I also met many people who also loves the Pope. It was really an encouraging experience.

He gave a homily about charism and the importance of using the charism for others and God because it’s a gift from God. At the end, I took out all the religious articles that I bought the day before to get them blessed by the Pope ^^

The best photo that I took!

My friend who was really good in drawing (while we were waiting for the audience to start)

After the audience, we went to Colosseum. We just looked at it from outside because there’s nothing much inside. Our friends explained how Colosseum was built in such manner that a large number of audience can go in and out easily.  My friend also reminded us of a story of St Therese of Lisieux who went into a part that was actually restricted and kissed the soil as the first Christians were martyred there.

There again I was reminded on how many people have died for the faith in Rome. 

Colosseum, it is mainly for entertainment. One of the 'entertainment' that time was the killing of many of the first Christians

Afterwards we went to the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem (Santa Croce in Gerusalemme). There we saw the relics related to the Passion of Our Lord: nails that were used to nail Jesus to the cross, the thorns from the crown, part of finger of St. Thomas who wanted to touch the wound of Jesus before he believed that it’s Jesus who resurrected, and the copy of the Holy Shraud which was used to wrap the body of Jesus (the original was in Turin). 

When I saw these things, it was a real reminder how Jesus that I talk to every day is a real person. A real God and a real man and his sacrifice is not a joke. His sacrifice is real. 


On the same day, I also went to Basilica of St Mary Maggiore and Archbasilica of St John Lateran.
Unfortunately I can't really remember which photos are the interior of which churches :( Sorry! (Except one photo that I managed to match with wikipedia =P)

 

Interior of Basilica of St Mary Major

Regina Pacis, Queen of Peace

Mass Schedule at Santa Croce de Gerusalemme

A reminder about death

It's always mentioned in the prayer books, in recollections, or retreats. Meditations during November particularly talked about 'the Last Things'.

This year has been a surprising year for me. One of the passengers in the missing MH370 is the husband of my housemate's friend. It seems such a far connection. Nevertheless, it was shocking for us because my housemate just attended this friend's wedding  a month before that. One of the passengers in MH17, which was shot down, was my boyfriend's labmate's sister. Thus, he saw his labmate crying in the lab once she heard the news.

I saw the news about the missing Air Asia plane on TV yesterday morning as I was meeting up with my best friends. My first thought was, "Hey, I have lots of friends from Surabaya". I was a bit worried, and one of my friends said that I could check the passenger list. After I reached home in the evening, I still felt a bit restless, so I searched the passenger list. I've never bothered about 'passenger list' after reading a news, but this time, it felt so close. So there I saw my senior's name. I checked her facebook wall and saw people writing posts for her, expressing prayers for her safety.

Another friend posted, "One of the Air Asia passengers is a friend of mine. We are not the closest of friends, yet it hurts, it hurts." It does hurt. The feeling is like a domino-effect. Not only we know her, but we also know her brother and her boyfriend. Even though we just met for a "hi" "bye", I always know her as a senior who is very good in playing guitar. Her smile and our chance encounters came to my mind these three days, and I couldn't help but feel this 'little' pain compared to the pain of her families.

How many times have we really prayed hard for a miracle? For a cause, which doesn't have no other extra alternatives available other than praying? Here's one of the moments when I really feel the urge to really hope for a miracle.

This news is also a reminder for me. I may be used to listen to the message of living each moment well, doing our ordinary duties extraordinarily well, attend Mass as if it's our last Mass, but here and now, it's a real message for me, as someone I know, someone I've talked to, is missing. I don't know my time either and I should live with this awareness every day.

Please pray for the passengers on board and their families.

Pampered!

My office has been moving to Expo in a week. I enjoyed the peace in the new building as our team has our own lab this time, yeay! I also enjoyed the clear and beautiful sky because we are so close to the airport that our buildings and the surrounding buildings are not too tall (see my post in Indonesian language here). Of course, there are many disadvantages of working at a far east area. I realized that I've been too pampered for the past 2.5 years of working.

I'm very grateful that the location of my current house is somewhat in the middle of the city. Therefore, if I take MRT, I only need to spend around 40 minutes on MRT plus a few minutes of walk (total around 1hour). However, I would prefer to take bus after attending morning Mass because the church is not walkable from MRT, and there's a direct bus from the church. The bus ride takes about 1 hour (excluding walking time). It really feels long, though I enjoyed the time praying in the bus, sleeping, and waking up and doing translation work on the ride. Hahaha. So many things I can do in the bus!

Unfortunately, I need to say goodbye to some kind of 'holy land' location of the previous office. My office was only 20minute-bus ride from a church and another 15-minute bus ride from another church plus another 30minute-bus ride from another church! Hahaha. I could choose Mass timing according to how much sleep I had the night before. Now, the nearest church is 30 minutes away and it starts at 6pm, so it's kinda too early because I need to reach office by 8am to be able to leave at 5.30pm. There's another church which has 6.30pm Mass. I attempted to go to that church, and it took almost 50minutes to that church. Anyway, now it's really a high time to be more discipline. I've been too pampered for the past years!! It's as if God is saying now, "Okay, this is real life. Prove your love even though it's inconvenient"

Thank God Christmas is coming. It's really a good start to be more discipline in this Advent =) Counting down for Christmas already! Yeay!!

Honest thoughts about Natural Family Planning (NFP)

I first heard about NFP when I was in my first year in university. In Legion of Mary meetings, my seniors often shared about how they explained to their friends about the Church stand on abortion, and sometimes it's easier to explain why abortion is wrong than why contraceptive is wrong. I also used to wonder whether it is truly possible for a married couple to not use artificial contraceptive.

I think there was a point of time when I bumped into this blog through my friend. Since then, I started to enjoy blogwalking these mommies' blog. I learned a lot about the true meaning of marriage, of sacrifice, and the beauty of the crosses in various forms in family life. I also slowly get to know married couples who do practice NFP in the real life.

I think these couples really impress me. The thing is the more I read and pray about these issues, the more I realize that NFP is not something that can be prescribed easily like a pill. It is under the big umbrella of understanding what marriage is and  how to deepen our spiritual life.

Therefore, as next year I will 'hit' the age of 25, there is more sense of urgency in me to challenge my friends and create a sense of urgency in them. Those who are engaged are busy preparing their logistics and decorations. With one off explanation (3-days-2-nite experience in Engagement Encounter), I have met quite a large proportion of friends who only heard about the church teaching on artificial contraceptive for the first time during the session. Some think that not using artificial contraceptive is 'impossible', or 'by right,the church says ...but I think it’s impossible to practice NFP.’ 

Honestly...I think all good habits are difficult to pick up. It's very hard to say that "God has a plan" if we are not used to finding out God's plan in every moment. We think that Sunday Mass + 10minutes prayer before going to bed is all that we need. We are poisoned by the idea of ownership of our body is equal to 'I can do whatever I want'. We grow up thinking that it's so 'natural' that after we are married, we can do 'whatever we want'. From my observation, that it seems that only a small percentage of dating or engaged couples truly understand up and down, in and out, about the implication of saying that marriage is a vocation (and I’m very grateful that there are still small percentage of people who do understand about this).

Nevertheless, I do believe that God has his own time. Even though I feel sad that quite a lot of friends entering marriage with the thought that ‘as long as I get the certificate of completion of Engagement Encounter or Marriage Preparation Course à I’m ready to get married’, I believe that it’s never too late to grow deeper in understanding of God’s plan in marriage. For many people, it’s through the children God converts the parents. As I’m trying to put myself in their shoes, I can’t deny that the pressure to have a big banquet in this region is really high, that as much as the young (and  without-much-money *duhh, raise my hand up!*) couples have a good intention to prepare a marriage, not only a wedding, there’s a real challenge in struggling to please parents and big families and save money for the house (that won’t even be ready in 3 years, in Singapore case!), that it’s really hard to focus on the marriage preparation.

Anyway, back to the title, I think we, as young and not-married-yet ladies, have lots and lots of homework to do. Isn’t it so natural for us to talk about relationships and families? The challenge now is to bring up the supernatural aspect of these natural topics for us in our conversations. It’s never too early to know about the beauty of our vocation and to ask our priests or friends that can be trusted if we are not sure.

Day 5 - Arca to Santiago

We needed to leave our beautiful accommodation at 4.30am. The Pilgrim Mass in Cathedral started at 12 noon, so we hoped to enter the cathedral by 11am because 2000 pilgrims arrived at Santiago every day. This time I borrowed Conchita's stick as my legs were really aching.

Welcome to Santiago!

That morning was not the first time we walked in the dark. However, the stars were sooo amazing. (un)fortunately, Wei Lian's and Josephine's cameras were good enough to capture the stars, so we paused here and there to take photo of the stars. Interestingly, that morning we also made a new friend from Germany. She shared with Carol about her journey to find God and that day was her birthday! So, when we stopped for quick breakfast, we sang happy birthday for her.

There was one horrible uphill when we almost reached the Cathedral. It was called Mount of Joy because from the top of the hill, we could see the view of the Cathedral. However, it was cloudy on that day so we couldn't see much. Actually the uphill was not that bad =P

Mount of Joy

When we almost reached the Cathedral, we saw this monument which displayed some images of the saints

We finally reached the Cathedral around 11.20am. Apparently big backpacks were not allowed so after we got our seats, some of us deposited our backpacks at visitors' center. Our guide also lost her mobile phone in the Cathedral :(:(

The Cathedral was sooo amazing. I cried after I received the Holy Communion. I guess this 5-day-walk was really a renewal experience for me. Every morning we were not sure whether we could 'finish' the walk, yet God showed His grace through great people around us, great view, great singing-buddies, and we did finish the walk. I really feel that this pilgrimage is a mini-version of our life as pilgrims on earth. There will be lots of moments when we thought we can't do it anymore, but it's worthwhile. It's worthwhile to continue walking with our heavy backpacks. It's worthwhile to continue carrying our sleeping bags because the night was freezing. Perhaps these sleeping bags are the reflection of our norms of piety throughout the day: the prayer, the rosary, or even our formation. It require sacrifice to carry it, but it protects us from the coldness of the world.

the huge thurible which was not used unless on Fridays and Feast Days or during Pilgrim Masses in Jubilee Years

the holy door

the tomb of St James

a side chapel where St Josemaria celebrated a Mass once here in the cathedral

the inner part of the holy door

It depicted how a priest found the tomb of St James

below was the Necrapolis

heaven was portrayed on the top part

We had a yummy lunch and we dropped our bags at Maruxa's uncle's and aunty's house. Maruxa is our Spanish friend who worked in Barcelona but grew up in Santiago. We tried to encourage her to do Camino because she hasn't done the Camino even though her town is always filled with pilgrims! Then we had a tour in the Cathedral and we also explored the compound around the Cathedral. We didn't go down to the Necrapolis, a mass graveyard of the first Christians where you can see many people buried in the position of facing where St. James was buried (similar with the one that was found under St. Peter's Basilica). That's why the doctrine of Assumption of Our Lady was very evident. If Our Lady was not assumed to heaven, there should be similar Necrapolis around the tomb of Our Lady because it was the first Christians' tradition to want to be buried near to the holy people.

the father of St James

and the mother of St James

We took our bags then took bus to Maruxa's parents house. We had a very late dinner and shower (not too late according to Spanish dinner time, 11pm). The next day we needed to leave the house early to catch our train to Madrid for the Beatification Mass. Thus, the second part of our trip has begun ^^