book 1: ash wednesday
the first quarter of the year is always the most toxic period in our lives at work, where we spend 10 - 12 hours each & every single day including saturdays. as we were all preoccupied with work, we were all unprepared for the coming of ash wednesday. although we have discussed it a few weeks back, when the actual day came, we were caught off guard on the mass schedule of the churches that we usually go to. a good friend told me that there would be an 8pm mass at st. theresa's (the church near our place), diane already had plans of going to their church in tampines, candy was going to st. anne's in sengkang & our other friends had plans as well. but our little miss sunshine was still undecided whether to go with us to st. therese or go to woodlands with her roommate... it was already 7:30pm when my sister & i left the office, we took a cab to get to st. therese on time, we were such in a hurry that we forgot to ask whether little miss sunshine would be joining us or not.
so in the end she went by herself and since she was caught in a traffic jam & could not make it on time to woodlands for the mass, she alighted at the stop next to the nearest church that she could find. this was the st. andrew's cathedral near the city hall mrt station. she immediately went in & sat at the front row. at the time that she entered the priest was already giving the homily. she sat there for about 30 minutes, wondering why the priest was giving such a long homily. the homily stretched a few minutes more, which made her wonder... is this a mass or is just a bible study??? she waited a few minutes more but the priest went on. so she finally decided to step out. past the door she saw a few church elders and asked them : "would there be a mass for ash wednesday after this?" and the elder quickly replied: "oh no no, this is not a catholic church, this is anglican. but if you are free you can join us for our service as well."
