End of the Month Roundup - February 2013

Ah February! You are the shortest of months but also a turbulent one.

Yes, this is what I feel with February. She is very turbulent indeed but not for this blog but for my life in the offline world.

Today is the last day of February and this is the last day of pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. I am saddened by his departure but what can I do? All I can do now is to thank him and to pray for him.

My exile here in Thailand is about to end so I already did some shopping. I also visited the Grand Palace, which is the best tourist spot in Bangkok.

I also said my farewells to Bangkok Cathedral and my favorite Holy Rosary Church. Aside from that, I managed to buy my most valuable souvenir, an image of Our Lady of Thailand.

February is the month when I launched my newest blog, entitled Tome of a Layman. This blog is for my musings about my Faith and other issues affecting the Philippine society. Let us just say that I returned writing about socio-political topics, which I stopped years ago. If you want, you can read the reason why I started this new blog.

I was glad to discover that Wikipedia cited my post about the Pink Sisters in its entry about Tagaytay City. It seems like this online encyclopedia considers my blog a credible source of information. Thus, my Refresh Post about the Pink Sisters' convent is very timely. 

I persisted in cookery this month. I posted three dishes that I cooked. The first is the very easy carbonara-styled spaghetti. Another dish, which perfectly fits the Lenten Season, is the ampalaya with egg. The dish that generated much buzz is my Afritada de Ahab.

Many commenters (Einz, Phioxee, MeCoy, Fiel-kun and Unni) were confused. Someone even gave me a grade of F. Well, I couldn't blame them. This dish does look weird.

I also talked about my visit to Bang Saen Beach, which is not the usual haunt of foreign tourists to Thailand.

I also posted about another visit to a Catholic church near BTS-Surasak Station. Too bad that it was closed during my visit but I was still glad because I reached the Papal Nuncio's office in Bangkok.

The best tourist spot that I posted about this month is the Victory Monument. I learned many things about Thailand while I was I writing my blog post about it.  It is definitely a good read.

Finally, I posted about the visit of Saint Camillus' incorruptible heart to the Philippines. I was awed with this saint who served the sick even to his death.

February was a busy month! I expect March to be busier and more bloody, because of the Conclave, the coming Holy Week and my imminent return to the Philippines.

End of the Month Roundup is the monthly segment of this blog that summarizes all the adventures that I featured for the month.

Heart of a Saint

Note: I'm still in Thailand but I will post something that is currently occurring in the Philippines. No! I don't have the power to bilocate to witness that event. The photos that I posted here was donated by a friend.

One of the things that amazes me are the incorruptibility of the bodies of some saints. I had read about the incorruptible tounge of St. Anthony of Padua, the incorruptible body of St. Bernadette Soubiros and other saints that was given the grace to have their body to be supernaturally preserved.

Seeing an incorruptible body (or part of a body) is a rare opportunity that's why I felt sad that I wasn't in the Philippines when the relic of St. Camillus de Lellis visited the country.

So, I just contented myself on seeing the photos shared to me by a friend.

St. Camillus is established the Order of Clerks Regular, Ministers to the Sick. This saint cared for the sick, especially those who are poor. He suffered abscesses to his feet during his priesthood but he never stopped visitng the sick, even if he had to crawl from his bed.

His great love for the sick is possibly the reason why his heart is incorruptible.

Heart of St. Camillus.

The journey of the heart of St. Camillus around the world is part of the celebration for the 400th death anniversary of the St. The heart reached the Philippines last February 18 and was first displayed in Our Lady of La Paz Church in Makati.

Altar of the Our Lady of La Paz Church.

The queue of the people who want to get near the relic is quite long.

The line even extended outside the church!

Too bad that I'm not in the Philippines. It doesn't matter if I have to wait in line for a long time just to see the incorruptible heart of St. Camillus.

If you're in the Philippines and interested to see St. Camillus, then I suggest to visit the Camillians' Facebook page to see the schedule of the relic's journey.

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Information about St. Camillus was obtained from the Catholic Encyclopedia. Second image on this post came from the Facebook page of the Camillans.