Tentang Cinta

Wahhhh..., mau ngomong apa yah tentang cinta...
Yang jelas tema ini akhir akhir ini lagi nge-trend bangets nih di sekitaran circle temen2ku dan saudaraku..
Dari yang religius bangets.., cueks.., serius.., pendekata psikologis.., rasional.., hehehe...
Pernah suatu ketika ada temenku yang nanya.., how on earth could you be in a relationship for such a long time..
To tell you the truth, I don't have a 100% satisfying answer to that question..

Love needs tending.., like a plant it needs to be water.., said my friend, Kay's mom.., you can read her article, Love and Plant, a very good article, just click on the link.
My other friend said that, "Some words are better left unspoken" the example of that is of course the word of love (which I totally disagree.. :P .. I think we always have to express love)
My other friend said that love is overrated.. And my other friend (gank buntu pasti tahu dong siapaaa.. hehehe) that love is closed or almost identical with s*x... ehehehehehehehehhe....

Nevertheless, I think.., love does need tending...
You have to love first before being loved.. sometimes even I believe that love is just a feeling we create.., that we can love just practically anybody that we desire..., we can stay loyal and truthful to anyone that we choose.., It's very easy...
Yet.., is it also easy to find somebody that love us back loyally and truthfully?

Now.., a case study.. I do believe that if we love somebody.., we have to work it, we have to show our love to him/her, be persistent in showing the love every single step of the way.
I just read an article in Reader's Digest of a Phillipines couple that loves each other but was forbidden to marry by their family. The girl is caged at her parents house.., forbidden to go out... But every single night the boy would walk down the alley of houses blocks to her gate and wait there..
Every single night! After a while the mother let her daughter to see him on the gate. After a while he was welcomed at the porch. After a while he was welcome at the guest meeting room. After a while the parent approve them.., all because the boy take that road to his girl's house every single night relentlessly...

I really do think that love should be like that.. Love should be shown and worked on right from the beginning, middle and the end. And this applies to both women and men. I certainly did that. I didn't get my bf, I earned him.
But if the love of your life does not love you back.., what should you do? ... I really think you should keep on loving him/her as a friend while looking for somebody else to love.

Sometimes, relationship does get sour, boring, dull, and there even sometimes you are very mad at your partner you just want to dump him/her right there on the spot. We're Asians I think are lucky, because we have an abundace of what I think of as a good example from our parents. Even if the relationships crumble, they stick together. And when they have stuck together pass the turmoil moments, it turned out that the relationships is getting stronger instead of weaker.
When I am bored of a relationship, I simply called it a time off, and before I know it, I already miss it.. ;)

There's a scene that touches me the most from Michelle Pfeiffer and Bruce Willis movie about relationship. They were a couple that has lost the spark in their relationship and very bored with each other, yet they stayed married and acted harmonious for the sake of their children..
To make a long story short, finally they decided to get a divorce and to tell their children about it. Their children was quite schocked but then the show must go on...
But after they decided to get a divorce both of them starting to view life in a different perspectives. One scene that touches me the most was from the last scene, when after negotiating on the terms and conditions of the divorce and the child care, Michelle Pfeiffer and Bruce Willis somehow had to pick their children together and at that time Michelle just snapped, she cried and said that she wouldn't want to lose their history together.., She dreaded the possibility of having somebody else as a partner in her life, and when they walk pass a stair or something, would not be able to share the story of the child had fallen from that stairs during some occasion. Because the partner will not share the same memories...

That really hits me... Loving somebody is easy and that is something that you must do.
Having somebody loving you back is truly a blessing.., it is not a coincidence, I believe it is God given..
Having a long history with somebody is even more a blessing..
To take that away is never a good idea..., It's like creating a void in your life and in your heart...
There is nothing that cannot be settled between two hearts that love each other, I truly believe..
Unless one is being unreasonable and abusive, I really think that love really can be mended and renewed every day. Like the motto of the Phillipines couple: ... Love Lasts...

Paus Benediktus XVI

HABEMVS PAPAM
BENEDICTVM XVI


Lord God, you chose your servant Pope Benedict XVI
to succeed the apostle St. Peter as shepherd of your flock.
Listen to the prayer of your people,
and may our pope,
Vicar of Christ on earth,
strengthen his brethren in the faith.
May the whole Church be kept in communion with him
by the bond of unity, love, and peace
so that all will find truth and eternal life
in you, Shepherd of mankind.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(From the mass "for the Pope" in the Roman missal)

First Urbi et Orbi Blessing

Dear brothers and sisters,

after our great Pope, John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in God's vineyard.

I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and how to act, even with insufficient tools, and I especially trust in your prayers.

In the joy of the resurrected Lord, trustful of his permanent help, we go ahead, sure that God will help. And Mary, his most beloved Mother, stands on our side. Thank you.

Pope Benedict XVI

Requiem for mio papa Giovanni Paolo II

And so it was..
A very good man..
True to the end..
Home with his Father..


A simple wooden casket to carry a great humble pope...


Millions that paid respects...


"Sainthood Now !!," cried the masses... and I...



Goodbye.........., 'till we meet again...........
We love you! ...
Be at peace now...

-Requiem In Pace-

Il Papa Ioannes Paulus II, the Great ~ 1978-2005

Last Saturday, 2 April 2005 , 21.37 (Sunday, 3 April 2005, 02.37WIB), Catholics and the world lost one remarkable Pope.

...Pope John Paul II the Great...

Only two predecessor popes were given the title, the Great, and pope John Paul II is now given one, and I can't find a person who doens't agree with it..

In a world.., full of politicians, when even the women's hearts are hardened...
Pope John Paul II was the milestones, the one man who serve as a role model, on how a man can be of so great good virtue.., embracing the modern world, yet staying true to the values..

Pope John Paul II reconciliated Catholic with the Jews, apologized for past Roman Catholic's failure to save the Jews during holocaust, he also visited the wailing wall in Jerusalem...
Pope reconciliated Catholic with the Moslems, visited Omayyad mosque in Syrian capital...
Apologized to the Catholic Orthodox for past hostility between the two religioins...
And he promoted reconciliations of all Christians denomintation...

I respect and love Pope John Paul II the Great..., he is the only pope I know..., and I love him...

For now, let me say a prayer, from the song, Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Dona eis requiem
Agnus Dei
Dona eis requiem sempiternam

Goodbye, my Pope..., Requiem in Pace...


-Even the doves love him-
Just two months before his death, Pope John Paul II laughed as he tried to release white doves and they flew back to him. (Plinio Lepri, AP)

An Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you...
May the wind be always at your back...
May you'll be in heaven an hour before...
The devil knows you're dead.
-anonymous-

In simple sadness..., for il papa..., Ioannes Paulus secundus' passing...

The Pope is moved for public viewing

At 22:00WIB on 4 April 2005 (last night), or at around 17:00 in Vatican the same day,
Pope John Paul II body was moved from the Clementine's hall (Sala Clementina) across the St. Patrick's square into the St. Peter's basilica.
In a very moving processions that has been waited for thousands, tens of thousands of people.
The procession begins with the prayers from the cardinals..., and then as the pope was carried out of the Clementine's Hall, the Litany of the Saints are sung..., I joined in the litany from the private of my kos2an room.., as I said before, it's my favorite litany where we summon all the saints, calling them one by one by their names to come and pray with us and for us. I have never heard so so so many saints are called, probably all the saints were called last night, and I think that it is just just and suited to be done in the death of a pope, evenmore for Pope John Paul II the Great.
After reaching the front steps of St. Peter's Basilica, the pope is shown to the public.., the people's pope.., is shown to the people. And then he is rested in St. Peter's Basilica.
And the flock of people now can pay their respects. The line is so long..., from St. Peter's Basilica reaching until the heart of the city of Rome. People must wait very long hours, but they are willing.., for the people at the back of the line, they could have to queue for three days before reaching the pope.. yet they'll wait..
If I were near Vatican, I would do it also, I would go there and be there at St. Peter's square.. melayat Sri Paus.., staying there, praying for him...

~888~

Worshippers react as Pope John Paul II's body passes St. Peter's square during the procession, guarded by Swiss guards and preceded by cardinals.


The body of Pope John Paul II lies in state Monday at St. Peter's Basilica after being carried in a procession from the Apostolic Palace where it had been since Sunday.
John Paul II's funeral will be held Friday morning. His remains will be interred in the grotto of St. Peter's Basilica where popes throughout the ages have been laid to rest.

~888~

The college of cardinals has decided that Pope John Paul II will buried under St. Peter's Basilica where most popes are buried, on Friday, 8 February 2005. Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles had to postpone their wedding day from Friday to Saturday to avoid the clash, since Prince Charles and Tony Blair and the priest to marry them are expected in Vatican to attend the funeral.