weekend wonderland

As everybody was wrapping up World Youth Day '95, I was asleep in my room with a pang of regret that I was not able to attend the event because I chose to have my exams that were scheduled that same week. It was in the news that the late Pope visited many places before he left for Rome after the event, but there was one place he visited that were not on the news. I met the Pope in my dream the very same day that he departed from Manila after the event of 1995.

I was among the crowd that was lining along the street where the Pope's entourage was supposed to pass by. As his limousine (this was in my dream, remember) people were pressing to come closer to the edge of the crowd and I was pushed up front. This was when I noticed that the black limousine was slowing down in front of me and before I knew it, I was being escorted inside where I was face to face with the pontiff himself. In my room, I was crying my heart out.

When the media broke the news that Pope John Paul II passed away, people were recalled the times that they shared with him and how they influenced their lives. If I may shed tears today, it would not be out of sadness. Rather it would be the same tears that I shed almost 10 years ago, tears of happiness that comes when something pure and holy has touched your existence.