Month: October 2016

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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 23 October 2016 : Holy Gospel

Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Matthaeum – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew

Matthew 9 : 18-26

In illo tempore : Loquente Jesu ad turbas, ecce, princeps unus accessit et adorabat eum, dicens : Domine, filia mea modo defuncta est : sed veni, impone manum tuam super eam, et vivet.

Et surgens Jesus sequebatur eum et discipuli ejus. Et ecce mulier, quae sanguinis fluxum patiebatur duodecim annis, accessit retro et tetigit fimbriam vestimenti ejus. Dicebat enim intra se : Si tetigero tantum vestimentum ejus, salva ero.

At Jesus conversus et videns eam, dixit : Confide, filia fides tua te salvam fecit. Et salva facta est mulier et illa hora. Et cum venisset Jesus in domum principis, et vidisset tibicines et turbam tumultuantem, dicebat : Recedite : non est enim mortua puella, sed dormit.

Et deridebant eum. Et cum ejecta esset turba, intravit et tenuit manum ejus. Et surrexit puella. Et exiit fama haec in universam terram illam.

 

English translation

At that time, as Jesus was speaking to the multitudes, behold a certain ruler came up, and adored Him, saying, “Lord, my daughter is even now dead, but if You come to lay Your hands upon her, she shall live.”

And Jesus, rising up, followed him with His disciples. And behold a woman, who was troubled with an issue of blood for twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment. For she said within herself, “If I shall only touch His garment, I shall be healed.”

But Jesus turning and seeing her, said, “Be of good heart, daughter, your faith had made you whole.” And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus came into the house of the ruler, and saw the minstrels making a tumult, He said, “Give place, for the girl is not dead, but sleeps.”

And they laughed Him to scorn. And when the multitude was put forth, He went in, and took her by the hand. And the maid arose. And the fame thereafter went abroad into all that country.

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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 23 October 2016 : Gradual and Alleluia

Psalm 43 : 8-9 and Psalm 129 : 1-2

Liberasti nos, Domine, ex affligentibus nos : et eos, qui nos oderunt, confudisti.

Response : In Deo laudabimur tota die, et in Nomine Tuo confitebimur in saecula.

Alleluja, Alleluja.

Response : De profundis clamavi ad Te, Domine : Domine, exaudi orationem meam. Alleluja.

 

English translation

You had delivered us, o Lord, from those who afflict us, and had put them to shame, those who hate us.

Response : In God we will glory all the day, and in Your Name we will give praise forever.

Alleluia, Alleluia.

Response : From the depths I have cried to You, o Lord. O Lord, hear my prayer. Alleluia.

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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 23 October 2016 : Epistle

Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Philippenses – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Philippians

Philippians 3 : 17-21 and Philippians 4 : 1-3

Fratres : Imitatores mei estote, et observate eos, qui ita ambulant, sicut habetis formam nostram. Multi enim ambulant, quos saepe dicebam vobis (nunc autem et flens dico) inimicos Crucis Christi : quorum finis interitus : quorum Deus venter est : et gloria in confusione ipsorum, qui terrena sapiunt.

Nostra autem conversatio in caelis est : unde etiam Salvatorem exspectamus, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, qui reformabit corpus humilitatis nostrae, configuratum corpori claritatis suae, secundum operationem, qua etiam possit subjicere sibi omnia.

Itaque, fratres mei carissimi et desideratissimi, gaudium meum et corona mea : sic state in Domino, carissimi. Evodiam rogo et Syntychen deprecor idipsum sapere in Domino. Etiam rogo et te, germane compar, adjuva illas, quae mecum laboraverunt in Evangelio cum Clemente et ceteris adjutoribus meis, quorum nomina sunt in libro vitae.

 

English translation

Brethren, may all of you be my followers, and observe those who walk so as you have our model. For many walk, of whom I have often told you (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

But our conversation is in heaven; from where we also look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of His glory, according to the operation whereby He is also able to subdue all things unto Himself.

Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and most desired, my joy and my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche to be of one mind in the Lord, and I entreat you also, my sincere companion, help those women who have laboured with me in the Gospel with Clement and the rest of my fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 23 October 2016 : Introit and Collect

Introit

Jeremiah 29 : 11, 12, 14 and Psalm 84 : 2

Dicit Dominus : Ego cogito cogitationes pacis, et non afflictionis : invocabitis me, et ego exaudiam vos : et reducam captivitatem vestram de cunctis locis.

Benedixisti, Domine, terram Tuam : avertisti captivitatem Jacob.

Response : Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper : et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

 

English translation

The Lord said, “I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. You shall call upon Me, and I will hear you, and I will bring back your captivity from all places.

Lord, You have blessed Your land, You have turned away the captivity of Jacob.

Response : 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

Absolve, quaesumus, Domine, Tuorum delicta populorum : ut a peccatorum nexibus, quae pro nostra fragilitate contraximus, Tua benignitate libremur. Per Dominum…

 

English translation

Remit, we beseech You, o Lord, the sins of Your people, that by Your kindness we may be delivered from the trammels of our sins, in which, through our frailty, we have become entangled. Through our Lord…

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Saturday, 22 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard a key message from the Scripture passages and the Gospel we heard today, namely that each and every one of us Christians have been given gifts from the Lord, and we have the responsibility to cultivate those gifts that we may bear rich fruits of the gifts God had given us, and thus become the source of grace for all who have come into touch with us.

It is a reminder for us all, that we as Christians cannot be passive, and neither can we be ignorant of what we need to do, our roles in this world. For indeed, as we all should be aware of, we are saved not just by saying to the Lord, “Lord, Lord, I believe in You.” But also through an active and genuine faith, meaning that we practice and do things as how our faith in God had taught us and shown us.

A faith that is not practiced nor lived to its fullness is a meaningless and empty faith. Faith must be vibrant and genuine, and not merely an empty proclamation or declaration. It was what the Lord wanted to tell is in the Gospel today. He mentioned about people who died in a terrible accident, and how these compared to the others who died in normal circumstances.

It was not due to their fault that they have suffered the kind of terrible death they endured, but even though it was not so, but everyone ultimately will face death at the end of their lives. It is God alone Who knows how and when we will meet the end of our earthly existence, but then what truly matters will be the deeds and actions we have done in this life we have, be it short or long, and regardless of how we meet our end, which God alone knows.

There is nothing that we have done, or which we have not done, that the Lord will not know and find out through His most omniscient understanding and knowledge, He Who knows everything, even the very deepest secrets that we mankind have hidden from Him, and from one another. But this is where what we do with our lives make a difference with us.

It is here that Jesus used the example of the fig tree in His parable, in order to show the fate of those who were faithful versus those who have not been faithful to God in their ways. The fig tree represent each and every one of us, while the owner and master of the field is the Lord our God. And as fig tree bears fruits that are sweet and nice to be eaten, when the owner planted the fig trees he must have been looking forward to collect those sweet fruits, and either eat them or sell them for profit.

But he was not happy when the fig tree was found to be barren despite what must have been the best of conditions it had been planted in, the best soil, sufficient water, sunlight and all that the plant needs in order to grow well and bear many fruits, sweet and good. But instead, there were none at all. Imagine then, how is this a parallel to us. We have been given many gifts by the Lord, but are we utilising them and cultivating them in our own lives?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Paul in his letter to the Church and the faithful in the city of Ephesus reminded them and from them to each and every one of us, that from God, the Holy Spirit has been given to us all who believe in Him, and from the Spirit we have received a rich multitudes of gifts, which were given to us. And he mentioned that to different people, different gifts have been given.

It is a reminder to each and every one of us, members of the Church, that we have our respective roles to play, to contribute and do what we can in order to fulfil our parts as God’s people and servants. Fulfilling God’s will is what made us all to grow in strength and faith, and therefore to bear the rich fruits of the Holy Spirit, love, faith, hope, joy and many others.

And perhaps, we should follow the examples of the great saint whose feast we are celebrating on this day, one whom many of us are familiar with, our own Holy Father for many years, the leader of the Universal Church, Bishop of Rome and successor of St. Peter the Apostle, the Vicar of Christ, Pope St. John Paul II, the first Polish Pope, and one of the great figures of the last century.

He was born Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Krakow in the year 1920 of our Lord, and he had a loving family who cared for him, but he had a rough early years of his life, when one by one his family members were taken away from him. His elder brother passed away due to sickness, his mother also passed away, and eventually during the great conflict of the Second World War, he also lost his father.

But despite the personal tragedies, the difficulties he encountered, and the very fact that his own nation was obliterated and millions of others suffered because of the great war that had happened at that time. He himself brushed against death in many occasions, and had to endure great hardships at that moment of suffering. But that did not stop him from pursuing the path to which God had called him, that is the path of service, the path of priesthood.

Karol Wojtyla was eventually ordained a priest after the war, but just as one problem ended for his country and fellow countrymen, another even bigger problem came to the fore, when Communism came to power in Poland, causing great difficulties for the Church and the faithful in Poland and in other parts of Eastern Europe under the atheist Communist rule.

Nevertheless, he persevered through, and having been made first as the Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow and then succeeding as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope St. John Paul II, led the people of God in persistence and perseverance against the many forms of discriminations and persecutions that they faced.

When the Communist authorities banned and prevented the construction of a new church building in the suburb of Nowa Huta of Krakow, which the authorities intended to be the first town without a church, in opposition to the Church and a new way to oppress it and the faithful people of God. Archbishop Wojtyla refused to budge and led a silent but real opposition against it, and championed the establishment of a church despite the persecution and challenges.

And he continued to devote himself to serve the Lord’s Church and His people even as he was made a Cardinal and thus a Prince of the Church, and then later on was elected as Pope and successor to St. Peter the Apostle and thus leader of the entire Church in 1978. His many works as Pope, his dedications in bringing down the tyranny of Communism throughout Eastern Europe and the world, and his contributions towards peace are truly remarkable.

We all knew of his deeds and contributions both to the Church and to the world. And we have to take note that he is just a man like us, and as I have mentioned earlier on, he did not exactly had an easy life, and he lost most of his family early on in his life. And yet, all of those did not stop him from doing so many good works that throughout his life, and impacted the life of so many others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if Pope St. John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla had shown to us how to be a fruitful son of God, bearing rich fruits of the Holy Spirit, making use of the many gifts God had given him, then we too can also do the same as well. And each of us can contribute in our own ways. Many of us will continue to do as what we have done in this world, the laity, who help the Church in numerous groundwork, while some of us may be called by the Lord to serve Him and His people as priests and religious.

May the Lord help us to realise our vocation in this life, that we may give our best and devote our whole life in full hearted commitment to the Lord and to His ways, and may He bless us and keep us forever in His grace, deliver unto us the fullness of His blessings. Amen.

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Saturday, 22 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 13 : 1-9

At that time, one day some people told Jesus what had occurred in the Temple : Pilate had had Galileans killed, and their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.

Jesus asked them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this? No, I tell you. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did. And those eighteen persons in Siloah, who were crushed when the tower fell, do you think they were more guilty than all the others in Jerusalem? I tell you : no. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.”

And Jesus continued with this story, “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it, but found none. Then he said to the gardener, ‘Look here, for three years now I have been looking for figs on this tree, and I have found none. Cut it down, why should it use up the ground?'”

“The gardener replied, ‘Leave it one more year, so that I may dig around it and add some fertiliser; perhaps it will bear fruit from now on. But if it does not, you can cut it down.'”

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Saturday, 22 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 121 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!”

Jerusalem, just like a city, where everything falls into place! There the tribes go up.

The tribes of the Lord, the Assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

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Saturday, 22 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Ephesians 4 : 7-16

But to each of us divine grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said : When He ascended to the heights, He brought captives and gives His gifts to people. He ascended, what does it mean but that He had also descended to the lower parts of the world? He Himself Who went down, then ascended far above all the heavens fill all things.

As for His gifts, to some He gave to be Apostles, to others prophets, or even evangelists, or pastors and teachers. So He prepared those who belong to Him for the ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ, until we are all united in the same faith and knowledge of the Son of God. Thus we shall become the perfect Man, upon reaching maturity and sharing the fullness of Christ.

Then no longer shall we be like children tossed about by any wave or wind of doctrine, and deceived by the cunning of people who drag them along into error. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we shall grow in every way towards Him Who is the Head, Christ. From Him comes the growth of the whole body to which a network of joints gives order and cohesion, taking into account and making use of the function of each one. So the body builds itself in love.

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Friday, 21 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we are approaching fast to the closing and the end of the liturgical year in November, we are reminded to be prepared and to be ready for the coming of the Lord and His judgment that awaits each and every one of us at the date and time of His own choosing. And we do not know when this time will come for us, as only the Lord alone knows it.

Through the readings which we received and heard today, we are also reminded that we have been sundered from the Lord because of our sins and iniquities, all the things that prevented us from being able to be reconciled and reunited with God. And unless we are reconciled with our God, we have no hope in us, and we are in a great danger for eternal damnation.

And the way for us to achieve this reconciliation is just as what our Lord Jesus mentioned, that is by seeking to make peace with God, and to be absolved and be freed from what had made us to be lacking that peace of God in the first place. And this requires us to seek true and genuine repentance for our sins and wickedness. It means that we must learn to change our ways and adopt what the Lord had shown us, His ways and precepts.

In the first reading today, St. Paul in his letter to the Church and the faithful in Ephesus mentioned how through baptism we have been made members of the Church, and be made into one body, the members of the Body of Christ, the Church, and be freed from our past sinful ways, and be brought into a new life, namely a life blessed and graced by the righteousness of God.

And therefore, all of us Christians, who have been washed anew by the holy water of our baptism, have passed on from the chains of slavery of sin, just as the Israelites have walked through the sea from their slavery in Egypt, and into liberation in God, Who brought them and guided them through the desert into the lands promised to them and to their ancestors.

But perhaps from that experience and history, we can also learn several things that we ourselves need to take note of in our own lives today. Firstly, the people of Israel, despite having been liberated from their slavery, they were easily tempted and in many occasions, they complained and even openly rebelled against God and His servant Moses, comparing how their lives in Egypt had been far better than living in the desert, although God cared for them day and night.

It is a lesson for us, that as we live our lives in this world, today, it is easy for us to get distracted and to be tempted by the many persuasions and temptations that the devil and his forces arrayed against us, the people of God. It is a reminder for us that as Christians, we cannot be lukewarm in our faith, but instead, we must be active and be truly devoted to God via our actions, words and deeds.

And this is what is meant by true reconciliation, where we cast away our sinfulness, our past rebelliousness and resistance against God, and instead learn to live with faith, with a new commitment for our God, be true Christians in our way of life, and not just be a Christian on paper alone. And surely, God Who sees our actions made with genuine faith in Him will reward us and bless us, and we will be made righteous and just, worthy of Him and His salvation.

May the Lord bless us all and grant us strength to persevere on in this life, filled with zeal and devotion, to do what He has asked of us and more. May the Lord bless all of our endeavours. Amen.

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Friday, 21 October 2016 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 12 : 54-59

At that time, Jesus said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it happens. And when the wind blows from the south, you say, ‘It will be hot’; and so it is. You superficial people! You understand the signs of the earth and the sky, but you do not understand the present times. And why you do not judge for yourselves what is fit?”

“When you go with your accuser before the court, try to settle the case on the way, lest he drag you before the judge, and the judge deliver you to the jailer, and the jailer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the very last penny.”