Urbi et Orbi is a special papal blessing usually given at Christmas, Easter, and after election of a new pope. Today is a special day because Pope Francis did a special Urbi et Orbi to pray for an end to the current coronavirus situation. It was at 6pm in Rome (GMT +1) which was 1am here this morning. I would rather be sleeping and I initially did not care about it. In fact, I was so irritated with the bombardment of whatsapp messages about this in my family groups.
Man proposes but God disposes. I spent my past few Friday nights watching my Thai dramas and that was the plan last night. Unfortunately, there was a Windows Update and my fucked up laptop was damn slow for the updating. While waiting for the updating to complete, it went past 1 am and that was how I ended up following the Urbi et Orbi. Initially I could not find a youtube live broadcast with English subtitle but I was glad that on a second try, I found one by EWTN. There was no subtitle but there was an English narrator to translate real time. The woman has a very soothing voice and the whole experience feels like a prayer session rather than a news session so kudos to the woman.
It was indeed a blessing and special experience for me. The Gospel reading was only 7-verse long (it is the story of Jesus calming the storm) but Pope Francis' homily covered the details commonly glanced over such as 'When evening came..' and 'Do you not care?' and relate it to what the world is facing now. It is a powerful image to see the Pope leading a prayer in the never-empty St Peter's Square. It is a grim reminder that it takes an invisible virus to bring the world to a halt and bring humanity to its knees to return to God. After the homily, the Pope prayed in front of Salus Populi Romani and Miraculous Cross of San Marcello. They were brought around the city of Rome in prayers to end the plagues in the years 590 and 1522, respectively. An Eucharistic adoration then followed at the atrium of St Peter's Basilica and the Urbi et Orbi blessing marked the end of the prayer.
One thing that made me happy to belong to the Catholic Church is regardless of the location, the prayers are universal. The Benediction and the Divine Praises are the same with the Eucharistic adorations that I attended before. Urbi et Orbi blessing comes with plenary indulgence. I am not too familiar with the 'rules and regulations' surrounding it so instead of being too focused on the blessing, I just pray as usual and so be it.
I visited my aunt to deliver the stuff I brought from my trip to Jakarta during my friend's wedding this January. I ended up staying there for 5 hours and being overfed. I bought lunch from the hawker centre near her place and I agreed to share oyster omelette with her even though I was supposed to avoid eggs. I wanted to leave at 2pm but she said I already promised to stay for beef steak pie that she brought from Australia for teatime. I thought we would be sharing the pie but it ended up just for me because she tried it before. Not to mention the additional teh botol, hibiscus tea, and cocoa drink that I had. It was my first time trying hibiscus tea which I find to taste more like a flower/fruit than a tea. Oooh lastly, she let me try some figs before lunch! That is my first time trying fig fruits. The sweet ones are very good but the not sweet ones taste like vegetable because of the skin. Haha.. I think they will definitely taste better when peeled.
I thought I would be full until tomorrow morning because of the overeating but nope.. I got hungry earlier and had 2 bananas for dinner.
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| Too bad that the Cross is blocked by the pillar from this angle |
I visited my aunt to deliver the stuff I brought from my trip to Jakarta during my friend's wedding this January. I ended up staying there for 5 hours and being overfed. I bought lunch from the hawker centre near her place and I agreed to share oyster omelette with her even though I was supposed to avoid eggs. I wanted to leave at 2pm but she said I already promised to stay for beef steak pie that she brought from Australia for teatime. I thought we would be sharing the pie but it ended up just for me because she tried it before. Not to mention the additional teh botol, hibiscus tea, and cocoa drink that I had. It was my first time trying hibiscus tea which I find to taste more like a flower/fruit than a tea. Oooh lastly, she let me try some figs before lunch! That is my first time trying fig fruits. The sweet ones are very good but the not sweet ones taste like vegetable because of the skin. Haha.. I think they will definitely taste better when peeled.
I thought I would be full until tomorrow morning because of the overeating but nope.. I got hungry earlier and had 2 bananas for dinner.
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