Liturgical Colour : Green
Ephesians 4 : 1-6
Therefore I, the prisoner of Christ, invite you to live the vocation you have received. Be humble, kind, patient and bear with one another in love. Make every effort to keep among you the unity of Spirit through bonds of peace. Let there be one body and one spirit, for God, in calling you, gave the same Spirit to all.
One Lord, one Faith, one baptism. One God, the Father of all, who is above all and works through all and is in all.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 144 : 10-11, 15-16, 17-18
All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.
All creatures look to You to be fed in due season; with open hand You satisfy the living according to their needs.
Righteous is the Lord in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.
Liturgical Colour : Green
2 Kings 4 : 42-44
A man came from Baal-shal-ishad bringing bread and wheat to the man of God. These were from the first part of the harvest, twenty loaves of barley and wheat. Elisha told him, “Give the loaves to these men that they may eat.”
His servant said to him, “How am I to divide these loaves among one hundred men?” Elisha insisted, “Give them to the men that they may eat, for YHVH says : They shall eat and have some left over.” So the man set it before them; and they ate and had some left, as YHVH had said.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Offertory
Psalm 18 : 9, 10, 11, 12
Justitiae Domini rectae, laetificantes corda, et judicia ejus dulciora super mel et favum : nam et servus Tuus custodiat ea.
English translation
The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts, and His judgments sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, for Your servant keeps them.
Secret Prayer of the Priest
Concede nobis, quaesumus, Domine, haec digne frequentare mysteria : quia, quoties hujus hostiae commemoratio celebratur, opus nostrae redemptionis exercetur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
Grant us, we beseech You, o Lord, worthily to frequent these mysteries, for as often as the commemoration of this victim is celebrated, the work of our redemption is performed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Communion
John 6 : 57
Qui manducat Meam Carnem et bibit Meum Sanguinem, in Me manet et Ego in eo, dicit Dominus.
English translation
He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood, abides in Me, and I in Him, says the Lord.
Post-Communion Prayer
Tui nobis, quaesumus, Domine, communio sacramenti, et purificationem conferat, et tribuat unitatem. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
Let the communion of Your sacrament, we beseech You, o Lord, both cleanse us from sin and make us of one mind and one heart in Your service. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke
Luke 19 : 4-47
In illo tempore : Cum appropinquaret Jesus Jerusalem, videns civitatem, flevit super illam, dicens : Quia si cognovisses et tu, et quidem in hac die tua, quae ad pacem tibi, nunc autem abscondita sunt ab oculis tuis.
Quia venient dies in te : et circumdabunt te : et coangustabunt te undique : et ad terram prosternent te, et filios tuos, qui in te sunt, et non relinquent in te lapidem super lapidem : eo quod non cognoveris tempus visitationis tuae.
Et ingressus in templum, coepit ejicere vendentes in illo et ementes, dicens illis : Scriptum est : Quia domus mea domus orationis est. Vos autem fecistis illam speluncam latronum. Et erat docens cotidie in templo.
English translation
At that time, when Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, seeing the city, He wept over it saying, “If you had also known, and that in this your day, the things that are to your peace but now they are hidden from your eyes.”
“For the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and encompass you round, and straighten you on every side, and beat you flat to the ground, and your children who are in you, and they shall not leave in you a stone upon a stone, because you have not known the time of your visitation.”
And entering into the Temple, He began to cast out those who had sold therein, and those who bought from them, saying to them, “It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” And He was teaching daily in the Temple.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 8 : 2 and Psalm 58 : 2
Domine, Dominus noster, quam admirabile est Nomen Tuum in universa terra!
Priest : Quoniam elevata est magnificentia Tua super caelos.
Alleluja, Alleluja.
Priest : Eripe me de inimicis meis, Deus meus : et ab insurgentibus in me libera me. Alleluja.
English translation
O Lord our Lord, how admirable is Your Name in the whole earth.
Priest : For Your magnificence is elevated above the heavens.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Priest : Deliver me from my enemies, o my God, and defend me from those who rise up against me. Alleluia.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians
1 Corinthians 10 : 6-13
Fratres : Non simus concupiscentes malorum, sicut et illi concupierunt. Neque idololatrae efficiamini, sicut quidam ex ipsis : quemadmodum scriptum est : Sedit populus manducare et bibere, et surrexerunt ludere. Neque fornicemur, sicut quidam ex ipsis fornicati sunt, et ceciderunt una die viginti tria milia.
Neque tentemus Christum, sicut quidam eorum tentaverunt, et a serpentibus perierunt. Neque murmuraveritis, sicut quidam eorum murmuraverunt, et perierunt ab exterminatore.
Haec autem omnia in figura contingebant illis : scripta sunt autem ad correptionem nostram, in quos fines saeculorum devenerunt. Itaque qui se existimat stare, videat ne cadat. Tentatio vos non apprehendat, nisi humana : fidelis autem Deus est, qui non patietur vos tentari supra id, quod potestis, sed faciet etiam cum tentatione proventum, ut possitis sustinere.
English translation
Brethren, let us not covet evil things, as they also coveted. Neither should you become idolaters, as some of them, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither should you murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now all these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he who thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human, and God is faithful, He Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Introit
Psalm 53 : 6-7
Ecce, Deus adjuvat me, et Dominus susceptor est animae meae : averte mala inimicis meis, et in veritate Tua disperde illos, protector meus, Domine.
Deus, in Nomine Tuo salvum me fac : et in virtute Tua libera me.
Priest : Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper : et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
Behold, God is my Helper, and the Lord is the Protector of my soul. Turn back the evils upon my enemies, and cut them off in Your truth, o Lord, my Protector.
Save me, o God, by Your Name, and deliver me in Your strength.
Priest : Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Collect
Pateant aures misericordiae Tuae, Domine, precibus supplicantium : et, ut petentibus desiderata concedas; fac eos quae Tibi sunt placita, postulare. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
Let the ears of Your mercy, o Lord, be open to the prayers of Your suppliants, and that You may grant their desires to those who seek, make them to ask only for those things that please You. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate together the feast of the Holy Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, St. James, also known as St. James the Greater to distinguish him from another St. James, the Lesser, who was one of the relatives of Christ. St. James the Greater was one of the Twelve, the principal disciples of our Lord in the spreading of the Good News of the Gospel, and among the first to be martyred for the Lord’s sake.
In the readings today we heard how in the Gospel, the mother of both St. James and St. John begged Jesus for favour and power for her sons, not knowing that for the Lord, the terms of this world do not hold weight at all. The other disciples of Jesus grumbled at what they saw as an attempt to gain favour over them, and they bickered over it, but the Lord Jesus rebuked them and reminded them that true greatness and power lies not in human favour and fame, nor in prestige or worldly power, but in humility and in leading by example, by a committed and devoted service to one another, that the greater a person is, the more humble and dedicated that person must be.
In the first reading, we heard how St. Paul exhorted the faithful of the Church in Corinth of the treasure that is in us, the true treasure contained within our beings. The treasure within a container of clay is truly a metaphor, showing how we have in our bodies, made by God from mere dust and earth, have inside a true treasure, that is the Holy Presence of our Lord Himself, who had decided to dwell within us.
And by sharing in the treasure which is in us, we have been made to share in the death and resurrection of our Lord Himself. And by His death, we have also died to our sins and to our old life filled with sins, while by His resurrection in glory and return into life, He had brought us all into a new life as well, one that is no longer bound by sin and death, nor by the wickedness of our past sins, but with a new hope of eternal happiness in God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, all these remind us that human life and all the glories and joys of this world are just temporary, and they do not last. Eventually, all the good things of this world must go, and the things we have accumulated in this world will not follow us to the world that is to come. Therefore, just as Jesus had reminded His disciples, we too should come to realise this fact, that to follow the Lord, we have to shed ourselves of the excessive pleasures of the flesh and worldly goodness.
And then the Lord also mentioned what would be the challenges for all of those who follow after Him, and that is the cup of suffering which He has drunk and shared with all of us, that is to have a share of His cross. St. James and St. John at first did not understand what the Lord spoke to them about, but eventually they would come to understand, that following Jesus would mean that they would encounter challenges and obstacles from all those who have refused to believe in the Lord and gave themselves into temptation.
And St. James who would spread the Gospel to the faraway lands, including what is now Spain and Portugal, the place where his most famous shrine at Santiago de Compostela is located, would encounter martyrdom at the hands of King Herod Agrippa, the king of Judea, who killed St. James in order to please the Jewish authorities and to increase his own prestige.
Thus through death, St. James would share in the suffering of Christ, having faithfully served Him through the spreading of the Good News of the Gospel to the far ends of the earth. And by shedding earthly glories and worldly fame, he has gained the true treasure which can only be found in the Lord, that is the glory of heaven and the joy of the world that is to come, an eternity of true happiness.
All of us should be inspired by what we have witnessed in the life and works of St. James and that of the other holy Apostles, martyrs and saints. We all should walk in their footsteps and be more like them. Remember, the greater we are, the humbler we should become. This is so that we will not fall into the traps of our own pride and arrogance, which is often our greatest undoing.
It was pride, greed and hunger for what we often covet, such as power, greatness, human fame and praise that had led many of us to sin and to fall into darkness, and that was what had brought Satan down from his glory days as the mighty angel of heaven but drunk with power and with his own vanity. Let us all learn to overcome our own desires to seek the temporary pleasures of the flesh, and aim higher to seek the true treasure that is our Lord and His love.
May Almighty God bless all of us, strengthen us in faith, and awaken in all of us the ever stronger desire to love Him and devote ourselves to Him in complete faith and dedication. God bless us all. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 