Month: November 2015

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Tuesday, 1 December 2015 : 1st Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 71 : 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

O God, endow the King with Your justice, the Royal Son with Your righteousness. May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

Justice will flower in His days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

He delivers the needy who call on Him, the afflicted with no one to help them. His mercy is upon the weak and the poor, He saves the life of the poor.

May His Name endure forever; may His Name be as lasting as the sun. All the races will boast about Him, and He will be blessed by all nations.

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Tuesday, 1 December 2015 : 1st Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 11 : 1-10

From the stump of Jesse a Shoot will come forth; from his roots a Branch will grow and bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him – a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and power, a Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.

Not by appearance will He judge, nor by what is said must He decide, but with justice He will judge the poor and with righteousness decide for the meek. Like a rod, His word will strike the oppressor, and the breath of His lips slay the wicked. Justice will be the girdle of His waist, truth the girdle of His loins.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will rest beside the kid, the calf and the lion cub will feed together and a little child will lead them. Befriending each other, the cow and the bear will see their young ones lie down together.

Like cattle, the lion will eat hay. By the cobra’s den the infant will play. The child will put his hand into the viper’s lair. No one will harm or destroy over My holy mountain, for as water fills the sea the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. On that day the “Root of Jesse” will be raised as a signal for the nations. The people will come in search of Him, thus making His dwelling place glorious.

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Monday, 30 November 2015 : Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle, Feast Day of the Church of Constantinople (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Apostle Andrew, St. Andrew the First-Called, known as such because he was among the first of the Apostles to be called by the Lord, as we heard the story in the Gospel passage of today, where Jesus called him and his brother Peter from their job as fishermen on the shores of the Lake of Galilee.

St. Andrew was the brother of St. Peter, who would later be the one to establish many churches and structure of the Universal Church in many places, and in the end became the first Bishop of Rome, and also as the first Pope as he was given the authority by the Lord to be the chief shepherd and the leader of all His faithful ones. St. Andrew himself went on to establish his own dioceses and churches, and the most famous and lasting one is the Church of the city of Constantinople, then known as Byzantium.

St. Andrew would become the patron of that city and as its first bishop, and as that city grew in importance, and especially after the Roman Emperor Constantine, the very first Christian Emperor and the one to rescind the persecution against the faithful, conquered the whole Empire and chose the site if Byzantium to be his new capital city, the city he named after himself as Constantinople, to be the site of New and Second Rome.

And thus from then on, the episcopal see of St. Andrew, the See of Constantinople rose in prominence and importance until it became second in importance only after the See of Rome. And the Patriarchate that grew from Constantinople, patronised by St. Andrew, would become eventually a great Church that helped to spread the Faith to many peoples in what is now Eastern Europe, and as the centre of the Eastern half of Christianity.

It is therefore with a sense of great regret that we now exist as a divided and shattered Church, where the Universal authority of St. Peter of Rome was not recognised and acknowledged by the successors of St. Andrew, his brother, as since about a thousand years ago, due to the worldly ambitions of the then Patriarch of Constantinople, the See of Constantinople tore itself apart from the Universal Church, a division that we now seek to heal and restore.

Therefore, today, on the feast of the faithful and devoted St. Andrew, brother of the first Vicar of Christ, who shared with him the blood of martyrdom and in the defense of his Faith in God, having both been tortured, incarcerated and crucified as the chief disciples and Apostles of our Lord, we pray that firstly the Church established by St. Andrew will be reunited to the whole Universal Church under the primacy, supremacy and leadership authority of the Pope, whose authority extends over the entire Church and over all the faithful without exception, as the Vicar of our Lord Himself.

And then, let us also pray for ourselves, as the examples of the Holy Apostles and disciples of Christ should have made us to realise that there are still so many of the works which they have initiated that are still left undone and incomplete. And if we look carefully and listen to what St. Paul had exhorted the faithful in Rome in our first reading taken from his Epistle to the Romans, then we should know what is to be expected from us.

Yes, St. Paul reminded that salvation cannot come to the people of God unless they believe in the Lord God Who saved them from sin and death, but they cannot believe before someone bring to them the truth and the wholeness of the Good News, and while the Good News is already there, but without someone to convey the message and the truth, no one would know and thus no one will be saved.

This is the fact that all of us should understand and know, and we have to realise that God has not just called the Apostles to be His bearers of the Good News of His salvation, but in fact, He has called even all of us, all of us here living in this world today, many years after the time of the Apostles, to continue their good works and missions, following in their footsteps and in the examples of their successors.

Let us all therefore on this day, ask for the intercession of the Holy Apostles, particularly that of St. Andrew, that through us and through our works, we may bring light into the world, and also unite all the faithful ones of the Lord, especially those who have separated themselves from the unity of the Church under His Vicar. Let us all pray for the unity of all Christians and for the conversion of the whole world. Amen.

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Monday, 30 November 2015 : Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle, Feast Day of the Church of Constantinople (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 4 : 18-22

At that time, as Jesus walked by the lake of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fish for people.”

At once they left their nets and followed Him. He went on from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them. At once they left the boat and their father and followed Him.

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Monday, 30 November 2015 : Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle, Feast Day of the Church of Constantinople (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.

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Monday, 30 November 2015 : Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle, Feast Day of the Church of Constantinople (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Romans 10 : 9-18

You are saved if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart you believe that God raised Him from the dead. By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; by confessing the faith with your lips you are saved.

For Scripture says : ‘No one who believes in Him will be ashamed.’ Here there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord, Who is very generous with whoever calls on Him. Truly, all who call upon the Name of the Lord will be saved.

But how can they call upon the Name of the Lord without having believed in Him? And how can they believe in Him without having first heard about Him? And how will they hear about Him if no one preaches about Him? And how will they preach about Him if no one sends them?

As Scripture says : ‘How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of Good News.’ Although not everyone obeyed the Good News, as Isaiah said : ‘Lord, who has believed in our preaching?’ So, faith comes from preaching, and preaching is rooted in the word of Christ.

I ask : Have the Jews not heard? But of course they have. Because the voice of those preaching resounded all over the earth and their voice was heard to the ends of the world.

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Sunday, 29 November 2015 : First Sunday of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters, on this Sunday, we begin a new liturgical year, that is a cycle in our year beginning with the season of Advent and ending with the solemnity of Christ the King which was last Sunday. This season of Advent as we all should know, is the season of preparation, the preparation for the celebrations of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we celebrate as Christmas.

Advent comes from the word Adventus, which is the term that describes arrival, onset, coming, and the approach of the world’s long awaited Saviour, the Messiah Whom God had promised will be the deliverance of all peoples, of all mankind from all the wickedness, the troubles they had in this world. The season of Advent is the time of preparation, for us to be ready to welcome the Lord when He comes again in time to come.

We may think that our liturgical celebrations and the calendars have no link in terms of how the seasons and the celebrations are arranged, but if we look deeper into it, in fact we should all realise that there is a certain central theme and meaning to the celebrations, and including this season of Advent, that is placed between the Solemnity of Christ the King, and the readings that are associated with it, and the solemnity of the Nativity, that is Christmas.

The Scripture readings immediately preceding the season of Advent, that is last week’s readings all came from the Book of Daniel and the Gospel passages that spoke about the time to come, the coming of the great tribulations and sufferings, the persecutions and the troubles facing the faithful, and how the Lord will come again to deliver His people from the dark times and from their enemies.

This is linked closely with the meaning of Christmas itself, that is a feast celebrating not all the glamour of commercial giving and greed, not a feast celebrating Santa Claus and all the Christmas goodies and the gifts, but instead, it is a feast that is about Christ, from which the name Christmas came from. The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Hope that the world and all creations had long awaited, and in Him, the world that was once bereft of all hope and filled by despair can finally have hope once again.

This was His first coming into the world, the entry of which had been prophesied and foretold by the prophets and by the Lord Himself, Who promised that the Deliverer shall reunite all those who have been scattered and cast away from the Lord’s grace because of their disobedience, and then, by His works, mankind would be healed once again and be brought together to the Lord their Father.

And the Lord Himself has promised that He will come again one more time, for one final time, and this time He will gather all of His faithful and righteous ones to Himself, while all those who have not sided with Him will be rejected and cast out. This is what He wanted us all to know, and this is what we must be vigilant and be careful about, lest we find ourselves on the wrong side of the camp when the Lord comes again.

The celebration of Christmas therefore should not be mistaken for something that is just happening in the past, or even worse, that we even forgot its true intentions and meaning. As a result, many of us have not understood the meaning of Christmas and its importance even as we rejoice and join in the revelry and join in the celebrations. This is a danger that is commonplace now, and the devil’s tool in preventing us from realising the truth.

Yes, it is the marginalisation of God in our own lives, and how our lives have been filled with so much distractions so much so that especially during the time of Christmas, we are too focused on the giving and the revelry, the partying and all the rejoicing, the trumpets and the bells, and then we forget about the very One Whom we ought to celebrate about!

Yes, indeed, it is the birthday anniversary of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God Who had willingly come down upon this world, taking up our own flesh so that through Him the salvation of the world would come, death and sin would be conquered and defeated, and hope comes to all of us. But for all that He had done, He had been rewarded with rejection, ridicule and placed below all the festivities and joys we have in our version of Christmas.

Shall we rethink of our actions and how we approach our Christmas celebrations? There is nothing wrong with celebrations, festivities and joy, as long as we do not forget about the One Whom we ought to celebrate about. It is not a celebration about ourselves, or about pleasures of the flesh, but it is a celebration of the joy we all have because our Lord has come, and in His triumph, He has liberated all of us.

And it is not just about what had passed, but instead, also about what will come in the future. The Lord had indeed come firstly in great humility, and even though He is a King, the King of all the universe, but He came through such means so as to be lower even than the lowest human beings, born in a stable fit only for the animals. Yet, when He comes again, He will come in great glory, and to finally claim a people He had made His own.

Therefore, this season of Advent, we are not just preparing for Christmas, but we are in fact also preparing for the coming of our Lord, Who had promised that He will come again at the end of time. And we do not know when this will happen. Certainly we must not let ourselves to be so preoccupied and so distracted by the many things in this world so as to forget our real intention in this life, that is not to serve ourselves and our own needs first, but rather to give glory to God and to serve Him.

Let us find the true meaning of Christmas and reflect on how we ought to celebrate it well, with true joy, with true and genuine intention and understanding its importance and true meaning, so that our joy may become greater, and our salvation be closer to us, as we know that in all that we say and do, we will always remain true to our faith, and God will find us righteous when He comes again.

Let us not let ourselves be deceived by the devil and let us all learn to resist the temptations of the flesh. Let us not give ourselves to excessive partying, revelry, or even debauchery and orgies of pleasure, but let us give glory to God and refocus all of our celebrations upon Him. May God be with us all. Amen.

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(Usus Antiquior) First Sunday of Advent (I Classis) – Sunday, 29 November 2015 : Offertory, Secret Prayer of the Priest, Communion and Post-Communion Prayer

Liturgical Colour : Violet

Offertory

Psalm 24 : 1-3

Ad Te levavi animam meam : Deus meus, in Te confido, non erubescam : neque irrideant me inimici mei : etenim universi, qui Te exspectant, non confundentur.

English translation

To You, o Lord, have I lifted up my soul : in You, o my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies laugh at me, for none of them who wait on You shall be confounded.

Secret Prayer of the Priest

Haec sacra nos, Domine, potenti virtute mundatos ad suum faciant puriores venire principium. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

Cleansing us by their mighty power, may these Holy Mysteries, o Lord, make us become more pure before You Who are their Author. 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

Psalm 84 : 13

Dominus dabit benignitatem : et terra nostra dabit fructum suum.

English translation

The Lord will give goodness, and our earth shall yield her fruit.

Post-Communion Prayer

Suscipiamus, Domine, misericordiam Tuam in medio templi Tui : ut reparationis nostrae ventura sollemnia congruis honoribus praecedamus. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

May we receive Your mercy, o Lord, in the midst of Your Temple, that with due reverence we may prepare for the coming festival of our redemption. 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.

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(Usus Antiquior) First Sunday of Advent (I Classis) – Sunday, 29 November 2015 : Holy Gospel

Liturgical Colour : Violet

Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke

Luke 21 : 25-33

In illo tempore : Dixit Jesus discipulis Suis : Erunt signa in sole et luna et stellis, et in terris pressura gentium prae confusione sonitus maris et fluctuum : arescentibus hominibus prae timore et exspectatione, quae supervenient universo orbi.

Nam virtutes caelorum movebuntur. Et tunc videbunt Filium Hominis venientem in nube cum potestate magna et majestate. His autem fieri incipientibus, respicite et levate capita vestra : quoniam appropinquat redemptio vestra.

Et dixit illis similitudinem : Videte ficulneam et omnes arbores : cum producunt jam ex se fructum, scitis, quoniam prope est aestas. Ita et vos, cum videritis haec fieri, scitote, quoniam prope est regnum Dei. Amen, dico vobis, quia non praeteribit generatio haec, donec omnia fiant. Caelum et terra transibunt : verba autem mea non transibunt.

English translation

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves, men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world.”

“For the powers of heaven shall be moved, and then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand.”

And He spoke to them a similitude, “See the fig tree, and all the trees, when they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh; so you also, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen, I say to you, this generation shall not pass away, till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

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(Usus Antiquior) First Sunday of Advent (I Classis) – Sunday, 29 November 2015 : Gradual and Alleluia

Liturgical Colour : Violet

Psalm 24 : 3-4 and Psalm 84 : 8

Universi, qui Te exspectant, non confundentur, Domine.

Priest : Vias Tuas, Domine, notas fac mihi : et semitas Tuas edoce me.

Alleluja, Alleluja.

Priest : Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam Tuam : et salutare Tuum da nobis. Alleluja.

English translation

None of those who wait on You shall be confounded.

Priest : Show, o Lord, Your ways to me, and teach me Your paths.

Alleluia, Alleluia.

Priest : Show us, o Lord, Your mercy, and grant us Your salvation. Alleluia.