Ave Santa Anna I: Novena
Mel taught me this prayer way back when I was in university:
St. Anne, St. Anne,
Find me a man,
As fast as you can!
At that time, I was still in the closet and I had not yet embraced Catholicism. But perhaps I was subconsciously praying to St. Anne for such an intercession and she answered with KH. Years after that, I finally made the pilgrimage to St. Anne's Church, Batu Mertajam. For MYR230 per pax, SK, mum and I followed a church trip there. Luckily, SK and I weren't the youngest participants in the group of aunties and uncles. Leaving on Friday night, we arrived there at around 5:30am. At that hour, there were already volunteers on duty! I had been sleeping the whole trip. Mum had quite a time smacking me awake. Upon arrival, we freshened up and did the stations of the cross in candlelight. It was kinda like a treasure hunt, looking for the life-sized statues in the dark. Finishing the stations, we prayed at St Anne's Shrine, collected some St. Anne's Water and climbed the St. Anne's Hill at the back.
Breakfast was at the Bukit Mertajam wet market. We ordered hokkien mee (prawn mee that has Ah Xian's seal of approval, served with big prawns and chicken feet, but too oily and normal in my opinion), roast pork, pork noodles and flat noodles in soup. Even had cakwe with black coffee. Such a nutrituous start to the day. After filling our tummies, we drove for ninety minutes to Taiping. Believe it or not, all hotels in the vicinity were fully-booked, so we had to stay so far away. At Taiping, the first thing we did was stop at some confectionery shop. Then just a few lots away was our restaurant. The food was horrible. Next, we checked in at Legend Inn. The place was quite nice, but we had to switch rooms as the air-conditioning was shot. It was clean and there were no unpleasant odours. The rooms were fitted with LCD TVs too.
We had about 5 hours to kill, so we lazed around a bit and did a walk about at their main street. Did some windowshopping at The Store and mum tried her luck at the local 4D branch. The weather was stifling, so we stopped at the nearby food court for shaved ice and kuih-muih. For some reason, kuih stalls can be found all over the place. Some obsession. Had a fantastic kuih koci. Back at the room, I watched an old wuxia movie that I suspect "The Sword of Many Loves" got inspiration from. At 5:00pm, we left for Bukit Mertajam to attend the evening mass.
It was only the second day of the feast, so the famous crowds were absent. But the carnival-like atmosphere was already taking shape with all the stalls and buses. Plenty of people were making petitions and mass offerings at the parish office. The main church was very large with a layered roof not unlike the famous Sydney Opera House. As per conventional design, it's shaped like a cross with the difference that parishioner's could also sit BEHIND the altar. The first time I celebrated mass with the celebrant's back towards me. Guess that how it feels pre-Vatican II. The guest speaker from Sacred Heart Kuala Lumpur gave an interesting homily about the challenges of the youth. Managed to take a look at the St. Anne Museum where all the offerings from the faithful are kept-- anything ranging from golden rosaries, plaques, cards, art to silver and gold etchings of body parts (some kind of traditional Indian thanksgiving token?).
During the bus ride back to the hotel, I watched "Just Follow Law", a Jack Neo production about government red tape. Quite nice, but I didn't get to catch the ending. Back at the hotel, some idiotic hashers were having some kind of pow-wow OUTSIDE their rooms. With the thin walls, it was really annoying, so SK made an irate call to the security to shoo them off. Had to wake up at 6:30am to go to Maxwell Hill the next day!!!
St. Anne, St. Anne,
Find me a man,
As fast as you can!
At that time, I was still in the closet and I had not yet embraced Catholicism. But perhaps I was subconsciously praying to St. Anne for such an intercession and she answered with KH. Years after that, I finally made the pilgrimage to St. Anne's Church, Batu Mertajam. For MYR230 per pax, SK, mum and I followed a church trip there. Luckily, SK and I weren't the youngest participants in the group of aunties and uncles. Leaving on Friday night, we arrived there at around 5:30am. At that hour, there were already volunteers on duty! I had been sleeping the whole trip. Mum had quite a time smacking me awake. Upon arrival, we freshened up and did the stations of the cross in candlelight. It was kinda like a treasure hunt, looking for the life-sized statues in the dark. Finishing the stations, we prayed at St Anne's Shrine, collected some St. Anne's Water and climbed the St. Anne's Hill at the back.
Breakfast was at the Bukit Mertajam wet market. We ordered hokkien mee (prawn mee that has Ah Xian's seal of approval, served with big prawns and chicken feet, but too oily and normal in my opinion), roast pork, pork noodles and flat noodles in soup. Even had cakwe with black coffee. Such a nutrituous start to the day. After filling our tummies, we drove for ninety minutes to Taiping. Believe it or not, all hotels in the vicinity were fully-booked, so we had to stay so far away. At Taiping, the first thing we did was stop at some confectionery shop. Then just a few lots away was our restaurant. The food was horrible. Next, we checked in at Legend Inn. The place was quite nice, but we had to switch rooms as the air-conditioning was shot. It was clean and there were no unpleasant odours. The rooms were fitted with LCD TVs too.
We had about 5 hours to kill, so we lazed around a bit and did a walk about at their main street. Did some windowshopping at The Store and mum tried her luck at the local 4D branch. The weather was stifling, so we stopped at the nearby food court for shaved ice and kuih-muih. For some reason, kuih stalls can be found all over the place. Some obsession. Had a fantastic kuih koci. Back at the room, I watched an old wuxia movie that I suspect "The Sword of Many Loves" got inspiration from. At 5:00pm, we left for Bukit Mertajam to attend the evening mass.
It was only the second day of the feast, so the famous crowds were absent. But the carnival-like atmosphere was already taking shape with all the stalls and buses. Plenty of people were making petitions and mass offerings at the parish office. The main church was very large with a layered roof not unlike the famous Sydney Opera House. As per conventional design, it's shaped like a cross with the difference that parishioner's could also sit BEHIND the altar. The first time I celebrated mass with the celebrant's back towards me. Guess that how it feels pre-Vatican II. The guest speaker from Sacred Heart Kuala Lumpur gave an interesting homily about the challenges of the youth. Managed to take a look at the St. Anne Museum where all the offerings from the faithful are kept-- anything ranging from golden rosaries, plaques, cards, art to silver and gold etchings of body parts (some kind of traditional Indian thanksgiving token?).
During the bus ride back to the hotel, I watched "Just Follow Law", a Jack Neo production about government red tape. Quite nice, but I didn't get to catch the ending. Back at the hotel, some idiotic hashers were having some kind of pow-wow OUTSIDE their rooms. With the thin walls, it was really annoying, so SK made an irate call to the security to shoo them off. Had to wake up at 6:30am to go to Maxwell Hill the next day!!!
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