Month: July 2020

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Thursday, 16 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Our Lady of Mount Carmel)

Matthew 11 : 28-30

At that time, Jesus said to the people, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For My yoke is easy; and My burden is light.”

Alternative reading (Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Matthew 12 : 46-50

At that time, while Jesus was talking to the people, His mother and His brothers wanted to speak to Him, and they waited outside. So someone said to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside; they want to speak with You.”

Jesus answered, “Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?” Then He pointed to His disciples and said, “Look! Here are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

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Thursday, 16 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Our Lady of Mount Carmel)

Psalm 101 : 13-14ab and 15, 16-18, 19-21

But You, o YHVH, You sit forever; Your Name endures through all generations. Arise, have mercy on Zion. For Your servants cherish her stones, and are moved to pity by her dust.

O YHVH, the nations will revere Your Name, and the kings of the earth Your glory, when YHVH will rebuild Zion and appear in all His splendour. For He will answer the prayer of the needy and will not despise their plea.

Let this be written for future ages, “YHVH will be praised by a people He will form.” From His holy height in heaven, YHVH has looked on the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners, and free those condemned to death.

Alternative reading (Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Luke 1 : 46-47, 48-49, 50-51, 52-53, 54-55

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit exults in God, my Saviour!

He has looked upon His servant, in her lowliness, and people, forever, will call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, Holy is His Name!

From age to age, His mercy extends to those who live in His presence. He has acted with power and done wonders, and scattered the proud with their plans.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up those who are downtrodden. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.

He held out His hand to Israel, His servant, for He remembered His mercy, even as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.

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Thursday, 16 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Our Lady of Mount Carmel)

Isaiah 26 : 7-9, 12, 16-19

Let the righteous walk in righteousness. You make smooth the path of the just, and we only seek the way of Your laws, o YHVH. Your Name and Your memory are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for You in the night; for You my spirit keeps vigil. When Your judgments come to earth, the world’s inhabitants learn to be upright.

YHVH, please give us peace; for all that we accomplish is Your work. For they sought You in distress, they cried out to You in the time of their punishment. As a woman in travail moans and writhes in pain, so are we now in Your presence. We conceived, we had labour pains, but we gave birth to the wind. We have not brought salvation to the land; the inhabitants of a new world have not been born.

Your dead will live! Their corpses will rise! Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust! For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits.

Alternative reading (Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Zechariah 2 : 14-17

Sing and rejoice, o daughter of Zion, for I am about to come, I shall dwell among you,” says YHVH. “On that day, many nations will join YHVH and be My people, but My dwelling is among you.”

The people of Judah will be for YHVH as His portion in His holy land. He will choose Jerusalem again. Keep still in YHVH’s presence, for He comes, having risen from His holy dwelling.

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Wednesday, 15 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scriptures all of us are brought to put our attention on God and on the matter of putting our trust in Him rather than to put our trust in worldly strength and powers. Through our Scripture passages today we are all reminded of how all power, glory, fame and matters of this world are illusory and nothing compared to God’s power and might.

In our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Isaiah we heard a very interesting narrative made from the perspective of the king of Assyria, which at that time was a rising superpower. The king of Assyria, which based on historical timeline and evidence is likely to refer to king Sennacherib, had continued the conquests of his predecessors, enlarging the Assyrian Empire and conquered more and more nations.

Earlier on, Assyria was the one that brought down both the kingdoms of northern Israel and also Aram-Damascus. And if we happen to remember yesterday’s first reading passage, also from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard of the plotting by both the kings of Israel and Aram-Damascus to conquer the kingdom of Judah, and God reassured His people in Judah that He would foil the plans of those who plotted harm and evil for His faithful.

That was why Assyria then came, sweeping through the land and the enemies of the faithful were crushed. But then, as mentioned in our first reading today, in the style of monologue, the king of Assyria showed his great pride and hubris, and wanting to go beyond what God had granted him to do. He raised up his mighty army, and went up against Jerusalem and Judah, with the intent to conquer all of them.

And by reading through the account from the Second Book of Kings, this king, Sennacherib, went on to blaspheme against God and spoke in hubris, thinking that for all the power he had, he had no one and nothing to account to, and could do as whatever he liked. This was when the Lord through His prophet Isaiah, strengthened His people and reassured them, revealing to them yet again that He would intervene on their behalf.

Therefore, a great destruction was wrought by God on the Assyrian army, and vast numbers, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men perished according to the Scriptures. And the king of Assyria had to return to his homeland in shame, failing to conquer Jerusalem and Judah and losing such a large army. And not only that, soon after, two of his sons plotted against him and murdered him in attempt to seize power.

Thus, God reminded us all that no power in this world is meaningful in the end, as everything will happen as the Lord wills it. And hubris and pride, as showed by the Assyrian king, will lead us to nowhere else but destruction and failure. The Lord wants us to get rid from ourselves the taint of pride and ambition, the corruption of greed and unhealthy desire and obsessions in this life. And this is why we should look upon the examples of our good and holy predecessors, like that of St. Bonaventure, whose feast we celebrate today.

St. Bonaventure was truly a dedicated and holy servant of God who was remembered for his great piety and dedication to the reform of the Church and the faith in the community. He was a great writer and a great theologian who spent a long time trying to reform both the Church and the community of the faithful, as part of the Franciscan Order. His contributions to the Church and the Franciscan Order helped to make the Franciscans to be renowned for their faith and intellectual depth, reforming the order further to help in their ministry to the faithful.

St. Bonaventure also devoted himself to the Church and helped in the administration of the Church. By his effort in ensuring the smooth election of the Pope at the time, he was made the Cardinal Bishop of Albano, and in his role, in addition to his commitment to the Franciscan Order, St. Bonaventure helped to renew and rejuvenate the faith of many among the faithful, restoring the faith to many among the people. Yet, despite his many positions, titles and responsibilities, St. Bonaventure remained deeply humble in his person.

By his many wise and intellectual writings on broad topics on the faith, St. Bonaventure was made a Doctor of the Church, but more importantly, he inspired many others to follow in his footsteps and be even more faithful to God. Are we able and willing to follow in the footsteps of St. Bonaventure, too, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all devote ourselves to God and make good use of whatever gifts, abilities and talents that the Lord had granted us for His greater glory.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen our resolve and our dedication in serving Him, and may He empower each and every one of us to be ever more faithful and to be great inspirations and guides for one another in the way of faith. Let us all also be humble and virtuous like St. Bonaventure, and do not allow the pride of our hearts and our ambition and greed to ruin us as what happened to the Assyrian king, Sennacherib. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 11 : 25-27

At that time, Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise You; because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to simple people. Yes, Father, this was Your gracious will.”

“Everything has been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

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Wednesday, 15 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 93 : 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15

They crush Your people, o YHVH, they oppress Your inheritance. They murder the widow and the lonely; they massacre the helpless.

“YHVH does not see,” they say, “The God of Jacob does not care.” Remember this, you stupid people; when will you understand, you fools!

He Who made the ear, will He not hear? He Who formed the eye, will He not see? He Who rebukes nations, will He not punish them?

YHVH will not reject His people, nor will He forsake His heritage. Justice will return to the just; and the upright will follow, in its wake.

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Wednesday, 15 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 10 : 5-7, 13-16

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger, the staff of My fury! Against a godless nation I send him, against a people who provoke My wrath I dispatch him, to plunder and pillage, to tread them down like mud in the streets. But the mind of his king is far from this, his heart harbours other thoughts; what he wants is to destroy, to make an end of all nations.

For the King says : “By my own strength I have done this and by my own wisdom, for I am clever. I have moved the frontiers of people, I have plundered treasures, I have brought inhabitants down to the dust, I have toppled kings from their thrones. As one reaches into a nest, so my hands have reached into nations’ wealth. As one gathers deserted eggs, so have I gathered the riches of the earth. No one flapped a wing or opened its mouth to chirp a protest.”

Does the ax claim more credit than the man who wields it? Does the saw magnify itself more than the one who uses it? This would be like a rod wielding the man who lifts it up; will those not made of wood, be controlled by the cudgel? This is why YHVH Sabaoth, is ready to send a wasting sickness upon the king’s sturdy warriors. Beneath his plenty, a flame will burn like a consuming fire.

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Tuesday, 14 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us heard of the account from the Book of the prophet Isaiah relating to us the moment when the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Aram-Damascus were allied together to attack the kingdom of Judah in the south. By their larger population and territory, power and combined might, it might seem certain that they would rise up and destroy the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem.

But the Lord was with His people, and as the king in Judah and the people were then still mostly adherent to the ways of the Lord, obeyed His Law and followed His prophets during the reigns of king Hezekiah and some other righteous kings of Judah, God still stood by His people against the plots of their enemies, those who worshipped the pagan gods and disobeyed God’s will at whim. The Lord would not let His people fall, and He protected them, while speaking of the destruction that would happen to both Israel and Aram-Damascus at the hands of the Assyrians.

This was the same message of hope and consolation which God would later on also give His people through the prophet Isaiah, at that time when Israel and Aram-Damascus plotted against Judah, and when later on the Assyrians under king Sennacherib came up with a very mighty army to conquer Judah and besiege Jerusalem. When the people of God were in great trouble and in despair, God stood by them and reassured them. And the armies of king Sennacherib were destroyed and the Assyrian king returned to his land in shame.

But at the same time, the Lord also warned His people, as He did when He reassured them in their fight against Israel and Aram-Damascus, and later on for the king Hezekiah of Judah when he took lightly the future threat of the Babylonians. He warned them that should they be unfaithful in the future, they too would experience the consequences of their unfaithfulness, wickedness and sins. This was what happened when the Babylonians came and conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple because then the people had fallen into sin and refused to believe in God.

In our Gospel passage today, peculiarly, we also heard the same warning that the Lord Jesus had spoken against the cities and towns of Galilee, namely Bethsaida, Chorazin and Capernaum. The Lord had performed many works and miracles in those cities and towns, and many of the people there had witnessed His works, miracles and heard His teachings and words. Yet, many among them still refused to believe in Him and in the truth that He had brought to them, hardened their hearts and closed their minds to Him.

They were also representative of the many people, especially many among the Pharisees who frequently opposed the Lord and His works, tailed and confronted Him in many occasions, and these people refused to believe and constantly harassed the Lord and His disciples. Therefore, the Lord’s words and stern warning were addressed to them, as a warning and a kind reminder that all those who persistently refused to believe in God and continued to walk in sin would have their just rewards in judgment by God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all reminded therefore that if we believe in God, and put our trust in Him, then we have that assurance and guarantee of true joy and true satisfaction in Christ. On the other hand, if we are stubborn and constantly and persistently refuse to believe in God, then in the end, we will have no part in Him. God does not want us to suffer that consequences, and this is why He has sent us, again and again, very patiently, many prophets, messengers and helpers to help remind us throughout our lives.

Today, we also have St. Camillus de Lellis as one of our great source of inspiration. And as we celebrate his feast day today, we remember the great piety and dedication by which he has dedicated himself to God. St. Camillus de Lellis was known for his personal piety, great humility in life and ascetic life, and for his great focus on the care for the sick and dying. St. Camillus de Lellis spent much of his life and ministry in this area, establishing the Order of Clerks Regular, Ministers of the Infirm or the Camillans after his name.

Through these efforts, St. Camillus inspired many others to show more care and concern for the sick, those who are suffering, from illness and plague, from warfare injuries and hurts among other things. Through his hard work and the contributions of many others, many of the people were touched by God’s love, and many became stronger in their faith in God. And all of these should be inspiration and good example for us to follow in our own respective life and faith.

May the Lord help us in our journey of faith that each and every one of us may be strengthened and inspired by the dedication shown by St. Camillus de Lellis and innumerable other holy men and women of God. Let us all be righteous in everything we say and do, and strive to be ever closer to God and to be more faithful to Him with every passing moment. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 14 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Matthew 11 : 20-24

At that time, Jesus began to denounce the cities in which He had performed most of His miracles, because the people there did not change their ways.

“Alas for you Chorazin and Bethsaida! If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I assure you, for Tyre and Sidon; it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.”

“And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead! For if the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would still be there today! But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

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Tuesday, 14 July 2020 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Psalm 47 : 2–3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6, 7-8

Great is YHVH, most worthy of praise in the City of God, His holy mountain. Beautifully elevated, it is the joy of all the earth.

Mount Zion, heavenly mountain, the City of the great King. Here, within her lines of defence, God has shown Himself to be a sure fortress.

The kings assembled together, advanced toward the city. But as soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they panicked and took to flight.

Seized with fear, they trembled, like a woman in travail, or like ships of Tarshish, shattered by a strong wind from the east.