Completing the 9 days of Simbanggabi

I got home last night at around 2.30am from a night out with the girls. This would be the first time I will be completing Simbang Gabi; I was thinking about what a good job I had done and that I only had one more to go. I was debating on whether to close my eyes a bit before going to the 4.30am mass at MTQ or the 5am mass at Santuario de San Jose. My sister was on ym and so we ended up chatting for a while. After replying to something Melissa said, I remember putting my head down on my pillow and then... I slept.

Later on, I woke up because my mom came into the room asking Chris about something she had bought and was also asking me if I gave out the salary of all the maids while they were gone. When she left the room, I was still really sleepy and wondered what time it was. I checked my phone and saw that it was 6.07am. Through my sleepy haze, it dawned on me that I slept through both the 4.30am and 5am mass. My thoughts ranged from-- sadness & dismay: "oh my god, I won't be able to complete it", and regret: "I shouldn't have slept", and of course: "sayang naman". I contemplated running off to Santuario but then I'm sure the mass was over already. Physically, I knew that I needed to sleep some more and was still quite tired but I was so looking forward to completing the 9 days that I was more disappointed than I was tired. At that moment, I received a text from Jong telling me he fell asleep last night while waiting for me and also asking me if I was able to go to mass. I said.. am so sad kasi nakatulog ako and so I missed mass that morning. He called me up and urged me to go to mass anyway... para macomplete ko pa rin yung 9 days. I said I was going to do that nga and was going to MTQ for the 7am mass.

After a couple of minutes, I got dressed and went to hear mass. At the end of the mass, I felt content that I was still able to pray and somehow complete simbang gabi. When I spoke to Jong after lunch, I mentioned that I still felt bad about missing the dawn mass. He reminded me that it's more important that I completed the whole 9 days kasi novena nga naman yung simbang gabi... I think his words were-- I'm sure masaya ang Diyos na nakapag-misa ka kahit na di ka nakapunta sa simbang gabi kanina. Ano ba ang difference ng anticipated mass sa simbang gabi sa umaga? Oras lang. It's the sacrifice of going to mass for 9 days (even when you didn't have to) that counts. That's what's important to God.

So there. This is the first time I've completed the novena... Hurray for me :) In the past, I always went based on my mood. It was a conscious effort for me this year to go everyday. To choose to wake up, get dressed, to drive to the church and to listen to what the priest is saying and to reflect/ pray on how this relates to me. This year, it was not about meeting up with friends at mass or about where to eat breakfast after... It was about committing to 9 days of prayer.

Let's see if I can still do it next year... when I have work na. haha.