St Anthony's Feast Day

Cake??!!! Mine? no no! it's meant for a lot of people... today, 13th of June, is a feast day of St.Anthony of Padua. MY SAINT! haha! I never realized the real meaning of this name till recently. never knew such a name was so great and noble in the past. (geez, i'm carrying such a burden)
known as the restorer of lost things, the doctor of church, the father to the poor, zealous for justice, and defender of innocence. Also as liberator of prisoner, guide of pilgrims, example of humility, comforter of those in distress, and lover of the cross... (see? i told you I'm carrying such burden)


I went to (again) St.Mary of the angels church. people brought lilies along with them. the atmosphere pre-mass was AMAZING! dimmed lights, voice of water, scents of lilies, it was just so thrilling...
after mass, there's a devotion to St.Anthony, and we walked around the columbarium (the place where ashes were kept), bringing candles and lilies, while prayers and petitions are chanted.
I really wanted to buy the lily, but I'm going back home tomorrow, so i can't buy it and leave it just like that, rite?
then, after that, we had a mega-dinner together. it's really like a feast day! spaghetti, roti john, roast meat (dunno what meat... don't have the chance to take some), prawn noodles, and stuffs the congregation brought to share.
I was queuing for spaghetti when the friar asked whether there is anyone named Anthony and its derivatives (Antonio, Antonella, Antoinette, if you understand what i mean). we were asked to gather at the middle, near a huge cake (I mean, HUGE), and we celebrated our saint's feast day together! after we cut the cake, i went to queue again for the spaghetti, intending to use the plate to take the cake.. but, geez, the cake is finished by the time i got there.. so saddd...

didn't know why back there in Indonesia, we didn't celebrate Feast day.. it's really fun and nice.. really happy back there.



reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_of_Lisbon

Grateful

I dunno why, but suddenly, I feel grateful for lots of things (which answers my last post..haha)
I know it's very hard to be satisfied, but yet, I feel grateful for a lot of things that I took for granted... grades, halls, but yet, the most important thing is... friends, which are like my own family here...
really can't imagine living in NTU, without any friends that i know now... life will be even suck-er than now... If I think about friendship, I remember this very beautiful story.. maybe it's a bit old, but it really reminds me to really open myself.. and the story begins...


One day a young man was standing in the middle
of the town proclaiming that he had the most
beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large
crowd gathered and they all admired his heart
for it was perfect.
There was not a mark or a flaw in it.
Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most
beautiful heart they had ever seen.
The young man was very proud and boasted
more loudly about his beautiful heart.
Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of
the crowd and said, "Why your heart is not
nearly as beautiful as mine."

The crowd and the young man looked at the
old man's heart. It was beating strongly,
but full of scars, it had places where pieces
had been removed and other pieces put in, but
they didn't fit quite right and there were
several jagged edges. In fact, in some places
there were deep gouges where whole pieces
were missing.
The people stared -- how can he say his heart
is more beautiful, they thought?
The young man looked at the old man's heart
and saw its state and laughed.

"You must be joking," he said.
"Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect
and yours is a mess of scars and tears."

"Yes," said the old man, "Yours is perfect
looking but I would never trade with you.
You see, every scar represents a person to
whom I have given my love - I tear out a piece
of my heart and give it to them, and often
they give me a piece of their heart which fits
into the empty place in my heart, but because
the pieces aren't exact, I have some rough edges,
which I cherish, because they remind me of the
love we shared. "Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart
away, and the other person hasn't returned
a piece of his heart to me. These are the
empty gouges -- giving love is taking a chance.

Although these gouges are painful, they stay open,
reminding me of the love I have for these people too,
and I hope someday they may return and fill the
space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?"
The young man stood silently with tears running
down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man,
reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart,
and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old
man with trembling hands

The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart
and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and
placed it in the wound in the young man's heart.
It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.
The young man looked at his heart, not perfect
anymore but more beautiful than ever,
since love from the old man's heart flowed into his.
They embraced and walked away side by side.



If we didn't open ourselves, true that we'll not be hurt... but, will our heart be beautiful? we grow stronger through the hardness of friendship..
for my special friend out there.. I hope u read this blog, and think about it... never think that u are sacrificing too much... there's no word 'too much sacrifice' in a friendship..
for my friends in NTU... thanks for being there.. thanks for just being a friend which shares a lot of things.. thanks for being so helpful.. thanks for being a listening ear.. thanks for being a stronghold.. bless u all my friends!

About Giving Thanks

Well well.. been quite a while since my last post!
it's been very tiring special term, lots of projects (well, only 2, but..), project meetings, playing games, working out, etc etc... hufff.. i just wish 6 days will pass soon... wanna go back to hometown, running awayy!!!
but before that, still got exam to do... hope i'll do well on that...

aghh.. TODAY! the results are out! not only last semester's results, but also the hall application result!
i hope i did better on the hall application result than the semester result... my GPA suck!
i'm just praying that my appeal will succeed... that cursed little subject.. agh!
but well, no use to mourn and cry... although i banged my head against the wall a few times.. definitely i'm not satisfied, but.... got no chance!!

it's very easy for us to give thanks when we're happy, have something to be proud of.. but it's so damn hard to do so, when we're sad and in my case, no good result..
i really prayed that i'll be given a prepared heart to accept my result, but hey! after all, i can't accept it... huf.. so i just wish, in the future, i'm able to give thanks on my sadness...
i think i should not look to the top all the time...