Day: November 20, 2019

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Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Thirty-Fourth and Last Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 23 : 35-43

At that time, the people stood by, watching. As for the rulers, they jeered at Jesus, saying to one another, “Let the Man Who saved others now save Himself, for He is the Messiah, the Chosen One of God!”

The soldiers also mocked Him and, when they drew near to offer Him bitter wine, they said, “So You are the King of the Jews? Free Yourself!” Above Jesus there was an inscription in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, which read, “This is the King of the Jews.”

One of the criminals hanging with Jesus insulted Him, “So You are the Messiah? Save Yourself, and us as well!” But the other rebuked him, saying, Have you no fear of God, you who received the same sentence as He did? For us it is just : this is payment for what we have done. But this Man has done nothing wrong.”

And he said, “Jesus, remember me, when You come into Your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “Truly, you will be with Me today in paradise.”

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Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Thirty-Fourth and Last Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Colossians 1 : 12-20

Constantly give thanks to the Father Who has empowered us to receive our share in the inheritance of the saints in His kingdom of light. He rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. In Him we are redeemed and forgiven.

He is the Image of the unseen God, and for all creation He is the Firstborn, for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible : thrones, rulers, authorities, powers… All was made through Him and for Him. He is before all and all things hold together in Him.

And He is the Head of the Body, that is the Church, for He is the first, the first raised from the dead that He may be the first in everything, for God was pleased to let fullness dwell in Him. Through Him God willed to reconcile all things to Himself, and through Him, through His Blood shed on the cross, God establishes peace, on earth as in heaven.

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Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Thirty-Fourth and Last Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 121 : 1-2, 4-5

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!

There the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stands the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

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Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Thirty-Fourth and Last Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

2 Samuel 5 : 1-3

All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your bone and flesh. In the past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel. And YHVH said to you, ‘You shall be the shepherd of My people Israel and you shall be commander over Israel.'”

Before YHVH, King David made an agreement with the elders of Israel who came to him at Hebron, and they anointed him king of Israel.

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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Offertory, Secret Prayer of the Priest, Communion and Post-Communion Prayer

Liturgical Colour : Green

Offertory

Psalm 129 : 1-2

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

 

English translation

From the depths I have cried out to You, o Lord. Lord, hear my prayer, from the depths I have cried out to You, o Lord.

 

Secret Prayer of the Priest

Propitius esto, Domine, supplicationibus nostris : et, populi Tui oblationibus precibusque susceptis, omnium nostrum ad Te corda converte; ut, a terrenis cupiditatibus liberati, ad caelestia desideria transeamus. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

 

English translation

Be propitious, o Lord, to our supplications, and accept the offerings and prayers of Your people. Turn all our hearts unto You, that, being delivered from earthly desires, we may pass on to the enjoyments of heaven. 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

Mark 11 : 24

Amen, dico vobis, quidquid orantes petitis, credite, quia accipietis, et fiet vobis.

 

English translation

Amen, I say to you, whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive, and it shall be done unto you.

 

Post-Communion Prayer

Concede nobis, quaesumus, Domine : ut per haec sacramenta quae sumpsimus, quidquid in nostra mente vitiosum est, ipsorum medicationis dono curetur. 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, that, through this sacrament which we have received, whatever is evil in our hearts may be restored by its gift of healing. 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) Twenty-Fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Holy Gospel

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 24 : 15-35

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

In illo tempore : Dixit Jesus discipulis Suis : Cum videritis abominationem desolationis, quae dicta est a Daniele Propheta, stantem in loco sancto : qui legit, intellegat : tunc qui in Judaea sunt, fugiant ad montes : et qui in tecto, non descendat tollere aliquid de domo sua : et qui in agro, non revertatur tollere tunicam suam.

Vae autem praegnantibus et nutrientibus in illis diebus. Orate autem, ut non fiat fuga vestra in hieme vel sabbato. Erit enim tunc tribulatio magna, qualis non fuit ab initio mundi usque modo, neque fiet. Et nisi breviati fuissent dies illi, non fieret salva omnis caro : sed propter electos breviabuntur dies illi.

Tunc si quis vobis dixerit : Ecce, hic est Christus, aut illic : nolite credere. Surgent enim pseudochristi et pseudoprophetae, et dabunt signa magna et prodigia, ita ut in errorem inducantur (si fieri potest) etiam electi.

Ecce, praedixi vobis. Si ergo dixerint vobis : Ecce, in deserto est, nolite exire : ecce, in penetralibus, nolite credere. Sicut enim fulgur exit ab Oriente et paret usque in Occidentem : ita erit et adventus Filii Hominis. Ubicumque fuerit corpus, illic congregabuntur et aquilae.

Statim autem post tribulationem dierum illorum sol obscurabitur, et luna non dabit lumen suum, et stellae cadent de caelo, et virtutes caelorum commovebuntur : et tunc parebit signum Filii Hominis in caelo : et tunc plangent omnes tribus terrae : et videbunt Filium Hominis venientem in nubibus caeli cum virtute multa et majestate.

Et mittet Angelos suos cum tuba et voce magna : et congregabunt electos ejus a quatuor ventis, a summis caelorum usque ad terminos eorum. Ab arbore autem fici discite parabolam : Dum jam ramus ejus tener tuerit et folia nata, scitis, quia prope est aestas : ita et vos cum videritis haec omnia, scitote, quia prope est in januis.

Amen, dico vobis, quia non praeteribit generatio haec, donec omnia haec fiant. Caelum et terra transibunt, verba autem mea non praeteribunt.

 

English translation

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “When you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, he who reads, let him understand, then they who are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains, and he who is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house, and he who is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat.”

“And woe to those who are with child, and those who give suckle, in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath, for there shall be then great tribulation, such as has not been found since the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be, and unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days shall be shortened.”

“Then if any man shall say to you, ‘Lo, here is Christ, or there.’ do not believe him, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show great signs and wonders, in so much as to deceive (if possible) even the elect.”

“Behold, I have told it to you beforehand, if they therefore shall say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the desert, do not go out; behold, He is in the closets, do not believe it. For as lightning comes out of the east, and appears even into the west, so shall also be the coming of the Son of Man. Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.”

“And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.”

“And He shall send His Angels with a trumpet and a great voice and they shall gather together His elects from the four winds, from the farthest part of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them. And from the fig tree learn a parable, when the branch thereof is now tender, and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see all these things, may you know that it is nigh even at the doors.”

“Amen, I say to you, that this generation shall not pass until all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Gradual and Alleluia

Liturgical Colour : Green

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 have delivered us, o Lord, from those who afflicted us, and have put them to shame those who hated 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. Lord, hear my prayer. Alleluia.

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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Epistle

Liturgical Colour : Green

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

Colossians 1 : 9-14

Fratres : Non cessamus pro vobis orantes et postulantes, ut impleamini agnitione voluntatis Dei, in omni sapientia et intellectu spiritali : ut ambuletis digne Deo per omnia placentes : in omni opere bono fructificantes, et crescentes in scientia Dei : in omni virtute confortati secundum potentiam claritatis ejus in omni patientia, et longanimitate cum gaudio, gratias agentes Deo Patri, qui dignos nos fecit in partem sortis sanctorum in lumine : qui eripuit nos de potestate tenebrarum, et transtulit in regnum Filii dilectionis suae, in quo habemus redemptionem per sanguinem Ejus, remissionem peccatorum.

 

English translation

Brethren, we cease not to pray for you, and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of the will of God, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to the power of His glory, in all patience and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to God the Father, Who had made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, Who had delivered us from the power of darkness and had translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His Blood, the remission of sins.

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(Usus Antiquior) Twenty-Fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 24 November 2019 : Introit and Collect

Liturgical Colour : Green

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 capitivitatem 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

Excita, quaesumus, Domine, Tuorum fidelium voluntates : ut, divini operis fructum propensius exsequentes; pietatis Tuae remedia majora percipiant. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

 

English translation

Stir up, we beseech You, o Lord, the wills of Your faithful, that, by more earnestly following after the fruit of the divine work, they may the more abundantly partake of Your mercies. 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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Saturday, 23 November 2019 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr, and St. Columban, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Abbots or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all reminded by God through His words in the Scriptures not to put our trust in any worldly things or dependencies, but instead put our whole trust in the Lord our God alone. If we place our trust in the world, all the glories, power and wealth it can give us, then in the end, what we will face is just disappointment and regret as our Scripture passages today should remind us of the truth.

In our first reading today, we heard the story of the Greek Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes in continuation of the narrative of this week from the Book of the Maccabees. King Antiochus IV was the same king who ordered all the people in his whole Empire including the descendants of Israel in Judea to abandon their laws and customs, their faith and worship of God for the pagan worship of the Greek gods, and enforced Greek customs and ways on them.

And for that purpose and end, the king persecuted many of those who remained faithful to their dedication and faith in God, and those who refused to abandon their faith were put to great suffering and many even met death in martyrdom. That was the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt in which the Maccabees, the sons of Mattathias, one of the faithful Jew, rose up against the king in revolt, seeking to free themselves from his tyranny.

In today’s first reading then, we heard of the great campaign carried out by king Antiochus IV as he went to the land of Persia and Media to reclaim parts of the kingdom which once belonged to his predecessors but had been lost in the past decades. We can see from all these that king Antiochus IV was a stubborn and ambitious man, who sought above all the glory of the world, power and majesty above everything else that he was willing to go against God.

Yet, as we have heard and witnessed from history, for all of his pursuits and aims for greatness, king Antiochus IV failed in all of his efforts, as not only that his religious policies and oppressions led to rebellions particularly in the lands of the Jewish people, but he also failed terribly in his efforts to reclaim the lost lands of his predecessors and his plans to gain the wealth and taxes from those lands. And he ended up dying and meeting his end in regret and sorrow.

This is then related to what we have also heard from the Gospels today, in which we heard of the exchange and debate between the Lord Jesus and the group called the Sadducees. The Sadducees were one of the major and very influential groups at the time of Jesus, in contrast to the Pharisees. While the Pharisees were those who were very spiritual and particular of the commandments and the Law of God, the Sadducees on the other hand were like the ‘secular’ party, who did not believe in many of the tenets of the Law.

The Sadducees did not believe in Angels and spiritual things, and neither did they believe in the resurrection from the dead. To them, the life in this world as they enjoyed was the ideal and death was nothing more or less than the end of all the joy and happiness. This fits the personality of the Sadducees perfectly as they were men of this world, those with positions of power and close connections to the king and members of the ruling class.

As they debated and asked the Lord with regards to whether the woman who had seven brothers as husbands had any one of them as her husband in the afterlife, they were in fact thinking in a worldly manner, thinking and wondering if they could retain the possessions, wealth and things in this world as how they have enjoyed it even to the afterlife. They could not bear to part with all of that they have gained and enjoyed in life, just as how king Antiochus IV himself also behaved.

But all of these had led many among us mankind into our downfall as they made us to be greedy and obsessed with all the worldly concerns and things that often distract us, mislead us and bring us further and further away from the path towards God and His salvation. And many of us also failed to realise until it was too late, that none of these things will last forever, and the joy and happiness they provided were merely temporary and not true joy, unlike what God can give to all of us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all instead as Christians seek for the true joy and happiness in God, by learning from the examples of our holy predecessors in faith, the two saints whose feasts we are celebrating on this very day, namely that of Pope St. Clement I and St. Columban the Abbot. Both of them had led holy and wonderful lives committed to God, which we ourselves can imitate and follow in our own lives. All of us should look up to the examples of these two holy men for inspiration.

Pope St. Clement I was one of the earliest successors of St. Peter as the Vicar of Christ and the Pope of the Church, remembered for his great zeal and faith, for his tireless dedication to build and maintain the Church through difficult years of persecution and struggles. He was known for his many letters and Epistles to the various parts of the Church through which he reminded the faithful to keep their faith strongly in God and to persevere through the challenges and trials that they had to face.

And like the other early Church fathers and the Apostles, Pope St. Clement I had to suffer persecution as well, as it was told that he was arrested and put into exile, and he was also put into hard labour as part of his imprisonment and suffering. In the end, Pope St. Clement I was martyred, but he met his death with joy, unlike king Antiochus IV who met it with regret and the Sadducees who feared it, because Pope St. Clement I knew that God was with him, and he would receive the gift of eternal life and glory from Him.

Meanwhile, St. Columban the Abbot was a famous and pious Irish missionary who was a great missionary and abbot, who helped to strengthen the foundations of the Church and also monastic practices of the Church of his time, as he helped in the establishment of many monasteries and places that eventually attracted many monks and people who wanted to serve the Lord through prayer. St. Columban was remembered for his great dedication to God, his enduring love and faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all look upon the examples which these two holy men had set for us. Let us all follow in their footsteps and grow in our own faith and love for God. May the Lord continue to guide us through life, and may He help us to remain faithful to Him and to love Him with ever greater devotion from now on so that we may look beyond earthly things and desires, and seek only His eternal kingdom and glory. May God bless us all and our good works for His sake, now and always. Amen.