Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Tens of thousands view body of former Pope Benedict
Tuesday, January 03, 2023
Malaysiakini : A steady stream of tens of thousands of people filed into St. Peter's
Basilica yesterday to pay their respects to former Pope Benedict XVI,
whose body was laying in state without any papal paraphernalia ahead of
his funeral this week.
Benedict, a hero to conservative Catholics
who yearned for a return to a more traditional Church, died on Saturday
at the age of 95 in the secluded Vatican monastery where he had lived
since 2013, when he became the first pope in 600 years to resign.
"I
feel like he was a grandfather to us," Veronica Siegal, 16, a Catholic
high school student from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is in Rome for a
programme of religious study, told Reuters in St. Peter's Square after
viewing the body.
She said she had read one of Benedict's books on Jesus for one of her courses. "I know that he is in a better place because he was a holy man and he
led so well," said her classmate, Molly Foley, also 16, from Atlanta,
Georgia. A third girl in the group wore an American flag on her back.
Security
was tight, with visitors going through several checkpoints before
entering the basilica. Many stopped to pray after viewing the body or
stayed to attend Mass in side chapels.
Vatican police said that 65,000 people had filed past on the first day.
Benedict's
body, dressed in red and gold liturgical vestments and placed on a
simple dais, was moved in a procession just before dawn through the
Vatican Gardens from the monastery to a spot in front of the main altar
of Christendom's largest Church.
Two Swiss Guards stood at attention on either side of the body, which
bore no papal insignia or regalia, such as a crosier, the silver staff
with a crucifix, or a pallium, a band of cloth worn around the neck worn
by archdiocesan bishops.
Both were on Pope John Paul's body when it lay in state in 2005.
It
was not clear if the pastoral cross or any other items he used will be
buried with him but the decision not to have them during the public
viewing appeared to have been decided to underscore that he no longer
was pope when he died.
Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said
Benedict will be buried according to his wishes in the same spot in the
crypts under St. Peter's Basilica where Pope John Paul II was originally
interred in 2005 before his body was moved up to a chapel in the
basilica in 2011.
Italy's leaders pay respects
Before
the Church was opened to the public, Italian President Sergio
Mattarella and Prime Minister Georgia Meloni were the first outsiders to
pay their respects.
Benedict's closest aide, Archbishop Georg
Ganswein, sat in the first pew to the side of the body along with
Benedict's household and medics who looked after him in his final days.
After a few hours, they rose to pray before the body. Ganswein stayed behind to receive condolences from visitors. "I had to come," Sri, a woman visiting from Jakarta, Indonesia, told
Reuters. "He was the pope and I am a Catholic," she said, declining to
give her surname.
Benedict
will lie in state until Wednesday evening. His funeral will be held on
Thursday in St Peter's Square and be presided over by Pope Francis. The
Vatican has said it will be a simple, solemn and sober ceremony in
keeping with Benedict's wishes.
The Vatican has painstakingly
elaborate rituals for what happens after a reigning pope dies but none
for a former pope, so what happens in the next few days could become the
template for future ex-popes.
Bruni said the details of the funeral Mass were not yet completed.
While
the number of visitors was large, there were no signs of the huge
crowds who came to pay their respects to Pope John Paul II, when
millions waited for hours to enter the basilica.
