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NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS

NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS

DAY 1

O Sweet Child Jesus, here at Your feet is a soul that, conscious of its nothingness turns to You, who are all. I have so much need of Your help. Look on me O! Jesus, with love since You are all powerful, help me in my poverty.

Our Father...Hail Mary...Glory Be...

By your Divine Infancy, O! Jesus, grant the grace that I now ask (Express it) if it is according to Your will and for my true good. Do not look upon my unworthiness, but rather on my faith and show me Your infinite mercy.

Day 2

O Splendour of the heavenly Father, in whose face shines the light of the divinity. I adore You profoundly and I confess You a the true Son of the living God. I offer You, O Lord, the humble homage of all my being, Grant that I may never separate myself from You, my highest goal.

Pray the PURPLE response

Day 3

O Holy Child Jesus, in gazing upon Your countenance, from which comes the most beautiful of smiles, I feel myself filled with a lively trust. Yes. I hope for all from Your goodness. Shed, O Jesus, on me and on those dear to me Your smile of grace and I will praise Your infinite mercy.

Pray the PURPLE response

Day 4

O Child Jesus, whose forehead is adorned with a crown, I accept You as my absolute sovereign, I do not wish to serve any longer the evil one, my passions, or sin. Reign, O Jesus over this poor heart and make it all Yours forever.

Pray the PURPLE response

DAY 5

I gaze upon You, O Most Sweet Redeemer, dressed in a mantle of purple. It is Your royal attire. How it speaks to me of blood! That Blood which You have shed solely on my account. Grant, O Child Jeus that I may respond to Your great sacrifice and not refuse when You offer me some difficulty to suffer with You and for You.

Pray the PURPLE response

DAY 6

O Most Lovable Child, in contemplating You as You sustain the world, my heart fills with joy. Among the innumerable beings that You sustain, I also am one. You look on me, uphold me at every instant and guard me as Your own. Look after, O Jesus, this humble being and help it in its many necessities.

Pray the PURPLE response

Day 7

On Your breast, O Child Jesus, shines a Cross. It is a standard of our redemption. I also, O Divine Saviour, have my cross, that, although light, very often weighs me down. Help me to bear it and may the carrying of it be fruitful. You well know how weak and worthless I am.

Pray the PURPLE response

Day 8

Together with the cross, I see on Your breast, O Child Jesus, a little golden heart. It is the image of Your heart, which is truly golden on account of its infinite tenderness. You are the true friend, that generously gives Himself; even immolates Himself, for the one He loves, Continue to pour out on me. O Jesus, the enthusiasm which Your love inspires and teach me to respond always to Your great love.

Pray the PURPLE response

Day 9

How many blessings, O Little Child has Your almighty right hand poured out on those who honour You and call upon You. Bless me also, O Child Jesus, my soul, my body and my interests. Bless and help me in my necessities, and grant me what I now desire. Listen with compassion to my prayers and I will bless Your Holy Name everyday.

Pray the PURPLE response

A very powerful prayer, when you in need. :) 

The Business of My Own

Oops!

It happened again. I started to write, promise to continuously write things up, and the puff... disappear into thin air. So what has happened??

First, I quit my job. Yes. It was a great job, good salary, very nice colleagues and bosses. No. I have no conflict with any of them, at least not an obvious one. And No. I did make a stupid move by doing that.

A month before I quit, I thought I was going to start an EO with my friends. Told everyone about it, even used it as the reason why I decided to stop my contract. But no. It didn't happened. With some of us being busy while the other were simply M.I.A, the plan had to be buried underground.

So, I ended up starting up a business with my sister. It's a home made accessories and gift ideas where we produce various of items, from bag to stationary, and using our very own philosophy "the cuter the better".

That's where our problem begin. I never expected opening up a business would be this hard. I know theoretically, we should suffer a huge amount of loss before making the business actually working. But the drama, the fear, the doubt, the worrisome, blablabla are haunting like crazy.

I was even at one point comparing my income and workload from working for my own and working for someone else in the office, it was a pain in the ash. Long working hours and big debt are part of my life for these couple of months.

But we believe we'll be better in no time! Coz at least I believe it will work, and fate is all one (mad) (wo)man need to make all her dream come true! So wait and see!!! :D

Day 6: Picture Part 3

De Meisje

 If you go to Volendam, there are at least two shops that offer to dress you up in Dutch traditional costumes and take a picture of you. I paid around 20 euro to get one printed copy of my picture and a CD with pictures in it. So... this is mine. Pretty cute, isn't it? :P

Christmas Dinner

I have no idea why I chose to put this picture. But this picture was taken in an Ethiopian restaurant in Utrecht. My first Christmas far away from my family. That was also my first time eating Ethiopian food. And it was good! A bit pricey, but good! So... for anyone looking for a nice Ethiopian restaurant in Utrecht, this restaurant is located around Pathe oudegracht. Do look for it as they have a nice banana beer!

Oudegracht

Lay at the center of Utrecht, I remember Oudegracht as a chain of small rivers scatter around the center of Utrecht (my Dutch sucks, but I think Oudegracht means Old Canal or something like that). I remember the time when I felt down, homesick and such, I always took a stroll around this lovely canal just to calm myself down. One of the place in Holland that I miss the most.

Dom Tower

 The tower from Oude Kerk in Utrecht. I often used it as a direction sign every time I got lost in town. My friend love this tower so much. He was mad at me because I couldn't find a way for him to climb the tower. This picture was taken by him.

Somewhere in Holland

 Seriously, I can't remember the place where I took the picture, but I think it's in Amsterdam during a windy and foggy day. Yes. That's my gift of remembering little detail but forget the important matters.

Madurodams

Pictures below were taken in Madurodam. Madurodam is an interesting place located in Den Haag (the Hague) where you could find the miniature of Holland. It was a cute little (big) theme park. More information could be found in madurodam.

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Day 5: Picture part 2

After blogger refused to upload more than four picture in the first section and after waiting for a confusing half an hour - not very patient, I know - here's another part of the pictures. 

The Goddess

Taken in front of Utrecht, Domkerk. Some information from Wikipedia:
St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht, or Dom Church (Dutch: Domkerk) was the cathedral of the diocese of Utrecht during the Middle Ages. Once the country's largest church and only cathedral, dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, it has been a Protestant church since 1580. The building is the one church in the Netherlands that closely resembles the classic Gothic style as developed in France. All other Gothic churches in the Netherlands belong to one of the many regional variants. Unlike most of its French predecessors, the Dom Church has only one tower, the 112 m (368 ft) high Dom Tower, which is the hallmark of the city.

De Meern Church

 T'was a foggy evening, during winter time in the Netherlands. Me and my friend, Mumba - a very nice Zambian girl, decided we need to walk to the nearest market for groceries shopping. It was Saturday and no shop will be opened on Sunday. We took the bus, got out at the wrong bus stop. Decided it's oki to get lost once in a while especially in a foggy and windy day like that. We found this church, complete with graveyard in front of it. The first thing came to our mind is that we need to take lots of pictures. So here one of them.

PS: I was thinking about silent hill the whole time. (like maybe there this zombie dogs came to attacked us, or the walking dead. Thrilling!)

De Meern

 Mumba was sick. She asked me to go with her to the doctor. The bus came every half an hour. So while waiting for the bus, I took the picture. It was so beautiful, the place I used to live for one and a half year. De Meern is a village outside Utrecht. Far from the school, bus rarely came. I just couldn't forget those days when I used to walk under snow storm just to go to school. But it's a very nice neighborhood.

Spring Sky

Spring sky in De Meern. Imagine you see this after being stroke by fall and winter for more than 6 months. Rain, snow, wind, storm... this scenery was so enlightening, I just felt like I have to take picture out of it.

The Bird in The Station

Taken in Utrecht Centraal Station, birds are just playing around in the station area. One time during winter, me and my friends were joking about how we were going to catch each and every one of the bird and cooked them for our dinner if the school did not disburse our monthly allowance anytime soon. 

Where There's Pole, There's Bike

 Typical Holland! :D

What's This?

This actually has special meaning for me. It's a pillow belong to Mumba and I named it Catepee. It does look like caterpillar, doesn't it? So... I used to spent time in Mumba's room when I felt lonely and homesick in my room. We lived at the same student house. She would just do her own business, with her loud sound system playing her kind of song, and I would just sit there and fell asleep. I miss her! :(

Hogeschool Utrecht!

The scenery that I always saw when I left school. But this one time, it was so pretty I couldn't help myself not to take picture of it.

Day 4: Pictures Part 1

 When I was studying in Holland, I kind of took pictures that I haven't been able to upload for some times. Now that I have lots of free time, I'll just going to upload it. Since blogger turned me down every time I tried to upload more than 4, so here we go. The first part of the pictures and the story behind it.

Butachan, The Pink Piggie
I bought Butachan before I went to Holland. Got attracted by its fluffiness and cuteness. Buta-chan literally means Piggy in Japanese.

Port of Volendam
I went to Volendam with a good friend of mine. He lived in Switzerland. Back then, even though I have lived in Holland for around a year, winter kinda locked me up inside my house. I never went anywhere except Utrecht, school and home. So when my friend came over for a visit, he's the one drag me all over Holland to enjoy the country. Volendam was one of the city he picked (he actually wanted to go to Edam to buy some cheese, since we couldn't find the way there, we decided to go to Volendam). And I fell in love with the city that moment I got there. I miss Volendam!

The Volendam Village
Still part of Volendam. One of my Dutch favorite singer is Volendamese. His name is Jan Smit. Though most, if not all, my Dutch friend dislike him, I think he's pretty cute and has a nice voice. By the way, according to my friend, Volendamese are famous for cross family marriage. Most Volendamese will marry other Volendamese. Thus, there are around four biggest family name in the Volendam village that confused me, as I though my friend's friends were brother since they have the same last name and both live in Volendam and both have similar physical characteristic. But they aren't.

Mr. Dog
Just a random dog picture taken by my friend in Volendam. It was a cold spring, but this one dog was playing actively with waves. Very cute.

Day 3: Hypocrite

Human are actually similar to animal in term of behavior. There are patterns that can be generated if observed thoroughly.  These patterns are applicable to all, borderless. Some patterns could even be found in animal. Love, for example, is the human language for sex in animal kingdom. “I love you. Let’s have sex!” is probably similar to “I bite you. Let’s have sex!” among some species in shark. Yet, since human tend to think they have higher caste than animal, sex-love argument is often being used as thing-that-makes-us-different-than-animal. This argument was also being used by the missionaries when they invaded Latin-America. They were the one who taught the local that the only sex position acceptable before God’s eyes was missionary position and that this style was the one differentiate human and non-human. I bet they did doggy style back then. Oh... and do you know that bat also perform fellatio? Dolphin enjoys sex? Maybe I should do deeper research on the topic. :D

The introduction has nothing to do actually with what I want to write. I just got drifted away. Sorry. Nonetheless, the behavior pattern I would like to write tonight is about being a hypocrite. According to Miriam-Webster dictionary, a hypocrite is a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.

I am human. I made tons of mistakes my whole life. Huge one, small one, white lies, black lies, yellow lies, you get my point. One thing that I really am appreciated is when people being brave by acknowledging their feeling. 

There was this blackout in the afternoon. Very short, only five second each. But it happened again and again. I got a little bit touchy since my laptop crashed every time it happened.  I went to protest and being told to shut up and use my anger to do something useful instead of complaining things.

Um… yes. Got that!

I didn’t even THAT mad in the first place. I just want to say something just to let my emotion go. But it’s cool. I sat down quietly, being the sweetest girl in the world.

One minute later, the lady who told me to STFU, started to complain. Sitting there in the dark, doing absolutely nothing, I decided to see how long she’s going to complain. It turned out to be the whole hour. I didn’t even care to protest. I was amazed and puzzled. Why on earth she told me to be quiet while she opened her mouth for more than an hour.

I just thought that if each of us has a little mirror that shows things we said and things we did, maybe the number of hypocrite will be less in the world. But then again, maybe I did something like that in the past. Who knows? I’m just human after all…