Month: July 2024

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Tuesday, 23 July 2024 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people are called and reminded to seek the Lord once again for His ever generous and enduring love and mercy, for everything that He had done for us, in reaching out to us and in being generous in caring for every one of us without exception. He has been willing to extend His mercy to forgive us from all the wickedness and sins we have committed, and He is now calling on each and every one of us to turn away from those wickedness and sins, embracing once again the fullness of His love, and to be filled once again with His grace.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Micah in which the prophet mentioned of the Lord’s great faithfulness and love for His people, all the things that He had done for the sake of His beloved people, those whom He had called and chosen from among the nations. He is their Lord and Shepherd, the One Who would guide them all to the right path, gathering and bringing them from the nations, reaching out to those who have been lost to Him, patiently guiding them all back towards His loving Presence despite all the rebelliousness and the wickedness that they had committed and shown Him. He wanted to love them all once again and gave them the opportunity to repent from all those wicked ways.

The Lord had been very patient with His people if we read up throughout the story of the Old Testament, as He sent to His people many prophets, messengers and guides, and He as their loving Shepherd and Father, has always desired to gather all of His lost children and sheep to Himself. In the meantime, He chastised and punished them all because He wanted all of them to realise the errors of their ways, as well as to discipline them and to keep them all aware of the consequences of their sins. That is why He wanted to show and teach them all the right and worthy path to follow in our lives.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Matthew in which the Lord Jesus told His disciples and all those who were assembled there to listen to Him, that all those who have listened to God’s words and obeyed His will are all like His own mother, brothers and sisters, like that of His own family. This happened at the time when the Lord’s mother, Mary, and His relatives all were waiting for Him just as He was busy ministering to the people and teaching them. This might indeed seem to be such a rude remark for the Lord to make, especially one against His own family members, and especially for His mother.

However, in truth, the Lord wanted to teach and show everyone that in fact, His mother is truly the greatest of examples of this piety and faith, as Mary’s obedience to God’s will and her commitment to love her Son, her virtues and righteousness are all that we exactly need to follow and emulate in our own lives as God’s holy and beloved people. God is reminding us all that every one of us are equal before Him, and through His Son, He has opened for us the surest path and indeed the only way to salvation. If only that we will follow the examples shown by His loving Mother, Mary, who is also our own mother, then we shall be able to follow the path that Christ our Lord and Saviour has shown us. And in addition, there are also many other holy men and women whose lives can be great inspiration for us to follow as well.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Bridget of Sweden, who was known as a great mystic and a holy woman, honoured as one of the great Patron Saints of Europe. She was born into a rich landowning family in medieval era Sweden, and was then married at a relatively young age to a Swedish nobleman, having six of her own children surviving their infancy years. One of them is another Swedish saint, namely St. Catherine of Sweden. This, coupled with the facts and evidences of the holy and devout life carried out by St. Bridget of Sweden in her devotion as a mother, a wife and as a daughter of God, all of these showed us all how St. Bridget is truly a great role model for all of us in all of our lives, in what we all ourselves can do to glorify the Lord by our lives.

St. Bridget lived a truly holy life, and when her husband passed away and she was widowed, she dedicated herself thoroughly to God by becoming a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, comprised of all the laity who sought to emulate the examples and charism of St. Francis of Assisi and his Franciscan Order in dedicating themselves to God and to His people, which St. Bridget carried out most faithfully in her life of prayer and service to those who were poor and sick. In addition, St. Bridget also initiated the idea and started the religious congregation known as the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, or as the Bridgettines after their founder. This order gathered men and women into communities dedicated to serving the Lord and His people, committing themselves to the good of all of God’s beloved.

St. Bridget was also known for her many mystical experiences and visions, which she recorded down, as well as for her pilgrimage to Rome, Jerusalem and Bethlehem which were well recorded and known, and in Rome she was in particular honoured and respected for her great piety and holy life, for her commitment and faith in the Lord. She inspired many others through her life and good examples, and she also committed to help and inspire the much needed reforms of the Church. Through her lifelong commitment and devotion to God, many of us should be inspired and strengthened in our own faith in God, so that we may truly know how we should live our lives worthily in the path that God has shown us all.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of the inspiring examples and the life story of St. Bridget of Sweden, let us all therefore strive to be good and worthy disciples of the Lord in all that we say and do, and that in every parts of our lives, we will always continue to glorify God and be the good role models and inspirations for one another, helping everyone around us to come ever closer to God. Our lives should be truly holy and faithful, filled with virtues and good deeds at all times. May we all continue to dedicate and commit ourselves to God and His path, as how St. Bridget of Sweden and many other holy men and women had done. Amen.

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Tuesday, 23 July 2024 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

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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Tuesday, 23 July 2024 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Psalm 84 : 2-4, 5-6, 7-8

You have favoured Your land, o YHVH; You have brought back the exiles of Jacob. You have forgiven the sin of Your people; You have pardoned their offences. You have withdrawn Your wrath and turned from Your burning rage.

But restore us, God our Saviour; put away, altogether, Your indignation. Will Your anger be ever with us, carried over to all generations?

Will You not give us life anew, that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us, o YHVH, Your unfailing love, and grant us Your saving help.

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Tuesday, 23 July 2024 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Micah 7 : 14-15, 18-20

Shepherd Your people with Your staff, shepherd the flock of Your inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, in the midst of a fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old, in the days when You went out of Egypt. Show us Your wonders.

Who is a God like You, Who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of His inheritance? Who is like You Whose anger does not last? For You delight in merciful forgiveness. Once again You will show us Your loving kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as You have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.

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Monday, 22 July 2024 : Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle of the Apostles (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today marks the occasion of the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, the first of the Apostles of the Lord and one of the holy women that accompanied the Lord Jesus during His ministry, also known as Apostolorum Apostola, or the ‘Apostle of the Apostles’ for her role in witnessing the Resurrection of the Lord, as one of the first to encounter the Risen Lord and then proclaiming that Good News to the others, who themselves would become Apostles. The word and title ‘Apostle’ itself came from the Greek word ‘Apostolos’ which came from the verb that means ‘to send off’ and hence, has the meaning of being someone who has been sent off on a particular mission, and in this sense, St. Mary Magdalene received that great honour because she was indeed sent by the Lord to give the Good News to the other Apostles.

St. Mary Magdalene was one of the women frequently mentioned in the Gospels as one of the close confidants of the Lord, following Him on His missions. In terms of her identity, Apostolic and Church traditions were not clear, as she was sometimes associated with the woman who had been a prostitute or adulterer, but in one occasion in the Gospels, it was mentioned that the Lord had cast out seven demons from St. Mary Magdalene. Regardless of her origin and background, whatever she had done in the past and the sins she might have committed, what truly matters is that after her commitment to follow the Lord and her desire to serve the Lord henceforth, St. Mary Magdalene became a great role model and inspiration for all of us in how we ought to live our lives as Christians.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Song of Songs, also known as the Songs of Solomon in which the author wrote about the one who was seeking for the love of her heart, looking around and finding where this person whom she loved. This was a prefigurement of what happened in our Gospel passage today, in which we heard the account of the moment when St. Mary Magdalene was in the garden where the tomb of the Lord was located at, on the Easter Sunday morning when the Lord was risen from the dead. St. Mary Magdalene was distraught because she could not find the Lord’s Body in the tomb that morning, and she genuinely thought that the Lord’s Body had indeed been stolen by someone, and when the Risen Lord appeared before her therefore, she begged Him to show her where her Master’s body was at, not realising that she was speaking to Him.

The relationship between St. Mary Magdalene and the Lord is sometimes misconstrued as one of romantic nature as popularised not long ago by some incorrigible fiction authors, as it had been in the past. But if we understand deeper the context and the relationship between the Lord and St. Mary Magdalene, we can see how in St. Mary Magdalene we saw a great faith and love that she has for the Lord, Who has shown her the path of righteousness and liberated her from the bondage of the evil ones, and she also dedicated herself thoroughly and completely to His cause henceforth, as she was also one of the few who remained close to the Lord at the moment of His Passion, when He was suffering and being persecuted just before He was crucified. St. Mary Magdalene attended to the Lord when many other disciples fled in fear.

St. Mary Magdalene showed us all that there is hope for each and every one of us, that even those who were great sinners, those possessed by evil spirits and having been corrupted by sin have the potential and the chance to be redeemed through their faith and commitment to God. Like many other great sinners and other ordinary people turned saints, St. Mary Magdalene exemplified what a Christian should be like, in overcoming the temptations of the world, all the allures of sin and evil, embracing God’s call in our lives so that we may truly be able to follow Him wholeheartedly in whatever we do, and that we may be good inspirations and role models ourselves to our fellow brothers and sisters all around us.

Today, as we rejoice and honour the glorious examples and memory of St. Mary Magdalene, virtuous servant of God and our role model, let us all also strive to renew our own respective commitments to God. Each and every one of us have been entrusted with the unique gifts and talents, opportunities and chances for us to make good use of our lives to glorify Him. Now the question is whether we want to allow the Lord to help and guide us in our path, or whether we allow the many temptations of evil and wickedness in our lives to sway and mislead us down the wrong paths in life. If we continue to allow all these distractions and temptations to lead us down the wrong path, eventually we will regret our choice in doing so.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore commit ourselves to refocus our lives and our attention back towards the Lord, distancing ourselves from whatever it is that had distracted and kept us all away from Him. Let us all not be so easily deluded and misguided by the evil one anymore, but commit ourselves with ever greater effort and fervour like what St. Mary Magdalene had done, so that in everything that we do, we will always glorify the Lord, and do what is right and just in the sight of God. Let our lives be good examples and be truly worthy for all of us to be considered and called as the disciples and followers of the Lord. We should always strive and aspire to be ever righteous, just and full of faith and love towards God at all times.

May the Lord, our ever loving and compassionate God continue to bless us all and be with each and every one of us, and may He continue to strengthen each one of us through the examples of His glorious saints, such as St. Mary Magdalene and many others who have given their all and devoted their lives to God. St. Mary Magdalene, holy servant of God, intercede and pray for us all sinners, that God may be moved to forgive us all our sins and that He will continue to love us and to strengthen us in our journey of faith through life, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 22 July 2024 : Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle of the Apostles (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 20 : 1-2, 11-18

Now, on the first day after the Sabbath, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark, and she saw that the stone blocking the tomb had been moved away. She ran to Peter, and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and she said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb; and as she wept, she bent down to look inside. She saw two Angels in white, sitting where the Body of Jesus had been, one at the head, and the other at the feet. They said, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She answered, “Because they have taken my Lord and I do not know where they have put Him.” As she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognise Him. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”

She thought it was the gardener and answered Him, “Lord, if You have taken Him away, tell me where You have put Him, and I will go and remove Him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned, and said to Him, “Rabboni!” – which means Master. Jesus said to her, “Do not touch Me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and say to them : I am ascending to My Father, Who is your Father, to My God, Who is your God.”

So Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, and this is what He said to me.”

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Monday, 22 July 2024 : Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle of the Apostles (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 62 : 2abc, 2d-4, 5-6, 8-9

O God, You are my God, it is You I seek; for You, my body longs and my soul thirsts.

As a dry and weary land without water. Thus have I gazed upon You in the Sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You.

I will praise You as long as I live, lift up my hands and call on Your Name. As with the richest food, my soul will feast; my mouth will praise You with joyful lips.

For You have been my help; I sing in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.

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Monday, 22 July 2024 : Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle of the Apostles (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Song of Songs 3 : 1-4a

On my bed at night I looked for the one I love, I sought him without finding him; I called him and he did not answer. I will rise and go about the city, through the streets and the squares; I will seek the love of my heart…

I sought him without finding him; the watchmen came upon me, those who patrol the city. “Have you seen the love of my heart?” As soon as I left them, I found the love of my heart.

Alternative reading (Second Reading if this Feast is celebrated as a Solemnity)

2 Corinthians 5 : 14-17

Indeed, the love of Christ holds us, and we realise, that, if He died for all, all have died. He died for all, so, that, those who live, may live no longer for themselves, but for Him, Who died, and rose again for them. And so, from now on, we do not regard anyone from a human point of view; and even if we once knew Christ personally, we should now regard Him in another way.

For that same reason, the one who is in Christ is a new creature. For him, the old things have passed away; a new world has come.

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Sunday, 21 July 2024 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are reminded that as His holy and beloved people, that is as those who profess our Christian faith and truth, our obedience and commitment to Him, each and every one of us must always live our lives worthily and commit ourselves to follow the Lord in all things, to do what He has taught us to do, to follow His own examples in everything we do. Each and every one of us as Christians are called to fulfil our respective missions in life, to do what the Lord has entrusted to us to do, He, Who is the Chief and Good Shepherd, so that in all the things that we say and do, we will help to ensure that we inspire and are good role models for our fellow brothers and sisters around us, thus helping and inspiring each other to come ever closer to God.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the Lord first began by chiding His faithless and wicked people, especially all those who have misled them all into the wrong and wicked paths, namely the ‘shepherds’ and guides of the people, referring to the wicked and unfaithful kings of Judah who have disobeyed the Lord and established the worship of pagan gods and idols on the holy sites and places of worship of the Lord, as well as those false prophets who were aplenty, claiming to represent God’s will and speak His words, when they in fact advanced their own ideas, preferences and agenda, desiring to gain things and benefits for themselves rather than to do what is right to the people of God and to truly do God’s will.

The prophet Jeremiah had often spoken against those false prophets and all the wicked practices of the people of Judah and their kings, prophesying about the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, which would indeed happen very soon at that time, when the Babylonians came to conquer the kingdom of Judah, destroying Jerusalem and its Temple. And everything that the prophet Jeremiah had said would indeed come to pass with the Babylonians bringing many of the people of Judah into exile in distant lands away from the lands that they and their ancestors had lived in, a consequence of the rebelliousness and wickedness of their lives and actions before God and men alike.

But at the same time, the Lord also reassured His people of His continued love and generous mercy and forgiveness, as He told them that He would gather them all back and then appoint over them shepherds and guides who would take good care of them all, referring first of all to how they would eventually return to their homeland after many years and decades in exile, and how the Lord would allow and help them to rebuild their lives once again, as they would reestablish their homes and cities, rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem which would once again be the centre of the proper and worthy worship of the Lord. All these things would indeed come to be just as the Lord had decreed and willed them all to be.

In our second reading this Sunday, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Ephesus in which the Apostle spoke of this great love and salvation which God had made available to all of us, His beloved ones, through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Who has come into our midst, to all of us, the beloved children of God, so that by His coming into this world, and by everything that He has willingly done for us, all of us may receive from Him the assurance of eternal life and true happiness with Him. And He did all these by the willing and most selfless sacrifice, all the sufferings that He endured from His Cross, which He brought and carried with Him all the way to Calvary.

Yes, indeed, God had saved us all and shown us all the most perfect and worthy example of His ever enduring love for us by His Son’s Passion, the suffering and all that He experienced, as He offered for us, on our behalf, the most worthy offering and sacrifice of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God, persecuted and slain at the Altar of the Cross at Calvary, on the day of our salvation, that is Good Friday, so that through His offering and sacrifice, all of us may receive the full assurance and guarantee of eternal life and salvation through Him. This is truly the perfect example of God’s ever enduring and generous love for us, which we ought to remember at each and every moments of our lives.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark, we heard of the Lord Jesus Who continued to teach to the people and care for them despite Him and His disciples being physically tired from all the works and missions that they carried out among the people. The disciples had wanted to go off to a secluded place to avoid the crowd so that they all could have a rest after the continuous and ceaseless streams of people coming to the Lord to have Him heal their sick ones or to listen to His teachings and words. But the Lord had pity on the people, who were described in the Gospel as those who were without any shepherd and guidance.

This was in fact a fulfilment of what the Lord had proclaimed earlier on through the prophet Jeremiah and the other prophets, that God would indeed send to His beloved people a new Shepherd, the One Who would gather all of them and show them the path towards Himself, He Who is the Good Shepherd and the Lord of all, none other than Jesus Christ Himself, the Saviour. Through His Son, the Lord gathered everyone back to Himself, calling upon everyone to embrace once again His love and providence, and to follow the path that He Himself has shown us so that we may not be lost again to Him through our disobedience and sins. God wants each and every one of us to be fully reconciled and reunited with Him.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all have heard from the Sacred Scriptures and as we have discussed and discerned them all earlier in their messages, we are all reminded that as God’s most beloved ones, we must always realise just how beloved and precious each and every one of us by God, Who has done everything for us so that we may have the path towards eternal life. Let us all therefore reject all sorts of wickedness and evils in our lives and strive from now on to be ever more committed to God, in all the things that we say and do, in our every interactions with one another. May the Lord be with us always and may He continue to empower and strengthen us all so that we will continue to follow Him and be faithful to Him, ever reminded of the great and ever enduring, most wonderful love that He has for each one of us, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 21 July 2024 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 6 : 30-34

At that time, the Apostles returned and reported to Jesus all they had done and taught. Then He said to them, “Let us go off by ourselves into a remote place and have some rest.” For there were so many people coming and going that the Apostles had no time even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a secluded area by themselves.

But people saw them leaving, and many could guess where they were going. So, from all the towns, they hurried there on foot, arriving ahead of them. As Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.