Ignatian

St Ignatius of Loyola, swiped from Lawrence OP on Flickr.

My church recently celebrated its feast day-- the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The 31st of July marks the anniversary of his death. For three days, talks were arranged and on the last day, a carnival and a bilingual mass followed by fellowship. On this special occassion, mum and I skipped marketing and went to church instead. Spent about four hours at the carnival. Took us about an hour to get there because the LDP was all crazy due to the rain. The jam had started right from BK5! Not wanting to rot at the Sunway Toll, I took a U-turn and approached from Kerinchi Link instead. By the time we got to church, the rain had stopped. Whopee! Had $130 worth of coupons to spend cause SK's boss bought ten booklets. Breakfast was yam cake, chai kueh, nasi lemak and coffee. The rest of the coupons, we spent on some Johnson & Johnson Baby bath gel, corn and a bouquet of roses. Also tried my luck guessing the numbers of peanuts in a box. Other than food stalls, there were games, train rides, counters from the Carmalite Nuns and the Capuchin Brothers, arts and crafts, buskers, clowns, a Myanmar refugee counter, religious artifacts, Quantum Science and a whole giant inflated playground. Had basically covered everything, so I moved into the cafeteria to get myself off my feet. Chatted with my godfather while waiting for SK and her grandma to arrive.



When SK arrived (after braving another jam in Cheras), I went out for a second round with her. Prices had started to be slashed and I had some popiah. Did more chatting with my BEC President, talking about his daughter's tertiery education plans. SK finished up the last of the coupons with more nasi lemak, nasi kandar, porridge and plastic soft-boiled egg maker. SK also took a chance guessing the peanuts. She guessed 1,350. Things were already winding up, so we helped the stall owner to count the peanuts. The answer was 1,331 and you know what? SK won the 1HP Mitsubishi air conditioner! super lucky! We bagged the peanuts too in case a recount was called. LOL. Fishy having the winner count the peanuts kan? Left at about 2:00pm. By 3:00pm we were eating again and mum boiled up some chrysanthemum buds. I slept for about forty five minutes before going to church again for the bilingual sunset mass. It was presided over by Fr. John Lee, the Archbishop in Kota Kinabalu. Feisty at his age. I think no less than seventy. His sermon was about the basics of Christianity-- the parallels that were found between the Old and New Testament. Of the exodus from Egypt and our exodus from sin to the Kingdom of God. Of the Passover sacrifical lamb and the Lamb of God. Of manna and the Body of Christ. At the end of the eucharistic celebration, there was a fellowship of sorts. Read free food. Hehe. A simple meal of rice with vegetables, sweet and sour chicken, curry chicken and bananas. A truly packed feast day celebration. Penat!.