Easter Octave 2025

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Wednesday, 23 April 2025 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 104 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9

Give thanks to the Lord, call on His Name; make known His works among the nations. Sing to Him, sing His praise, proclaim all His wondrous deeds.

Glory in His holy Name; let those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always.

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.

He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.

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Wednesday, 23 April 2025 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 3 : 1-10

Once when Peter and John were going up to the Temple at three in the afternoon, the hour for prayer, a man crippled from birth was being carried in. Every day they would bring him and put him at the Temple gate called “Beautiful”; there he begged from those who entered the Temple.

When he saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple, he asked for alms. Then Peter with John at his side looked straight at him and said, “Look at us.” So he looked at them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you : In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, walk!”

Then he took the beggar by his right hand and helped him up. At once his feet and ankles became firm, and jumping up he stood on his feet and began to walk. And he went with them into the Temple walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God; they recognised him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were all astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

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Tuesday, 22 April 2025 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as all of us continue to progress through this most joyful season of Easter, we are reminded yet again of the calling which all of us have received from the Lord, to be witnesses of His Resurrection, the bearers of His Good News and Light to all the nations, and as the ones to share and show His love manifested through us and our actions, in each and every moments of our lives. All of us have been called to bear witness to our Christian faith through our faithful actions in life, by our obedience to the Law of God and the commandments that He has taught to us through His Church. We should always be exemplary in how we live our lives so that as good and faithful Christians, we may inspire many more people in their lives and that they may also strive to come closer to God.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles we heard the conclusion of the account of what happened on the day of the Pentecost, fifty days after the Day of the Lord’s Resurrection when the Holy Spirit empowered St. Peter the Apostle and the other Apostles and disciples of the Lord with the courage and the wisdom to speak the truth about the Lord and His Resurrection to the many people assembled in Jerusalem. St. Peter spoke courageously defending their faith before everyone, stating how everything had happened to the Lord Jesus, Who was crucified in Jerusalem after being condemned by the Temple authorities and then, rose from the dead after He had died on the Cross, all of these happened because of the Lord’s desire to bring forth His salvation to all the people of all the nations by the sacrifice of His Son on the Cross.

Therefore, St. Peter spoke at length with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and testifying for what he and the other Apostles had witnessed during their time with the Lord, revealing how God had given all of us mankind a remedy for all of our sins and all of our predicaments, providing for us the path out of the darkness. He has given us the gift and assurance of His salvation which He made evident through the baptism that He has made available to everyone through His Church and disciples. It was at that moment when the Church began manifesting itself to the world, on the day of the Pentecost, with three thousand people having embraced the faith and made themselves to be baptised by the Apostles, marking the moment when the Church became tangible to the world.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the occasion when the Lord Jesus, just Resurrected from the dead, made His appearance to St. Mary Magdalene, the first to whom the Lord made Himself known and seen by His disciples right after He had risen from the dead. She and other women following the Lord had been rushing to the tomb of the Lord on the morning of the Sunday after the Sabbath to put the spices and ointments on the Body of the Lord because they were unable to do so at the moments after His crucifixion as it happened right before the Sabbath. But they were all greeted by the surprising sight of the Tomb being opened and the Body having disappeared from it.

It was when St. Mary Magdalene was distraught in that garden near the Tomb that the Risen Lord appeared to her and made Himself known to her, consoling her and revealing the truth about His death and how He has triumphed over ever death itself, just as He has predicted and told her and the other disciples. The disciples of the Lord came to know of this Good News because St. Mary Magdalene herself and the other women went rushing to them to tell them of the Lord’s Resurrection, and they all then saw the Risen Lord Himself in the flesh, in His glorified and Resurrected Body, proving and showing to them all that He was not merely a Spirit or a ghost. He took food and ate it before them, showing that He was truly alive, in Body and Spirit, and revealing to us what we will ourselves experience at well through our own resurrection.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have discussed and heard earlier from the Scriptures, as well as from what we believe in our Christian faith, all of us believe that one day, all of us shall also share in the glorious resurrection of our Lord, risen in our body and spirit at the time of the Final Judgment, so that we may fully and completely enjoy the fullness of God’s grace and blessings, to enjoy forever the eternity in bliss and true happiness with our Lord Who loves us all, just as He has always intended for us. Sin has put a temporary stop to this and prevented us from achieving this state, while it made us corrupted and defiled because of our disobedience against God, and our inability to resist the many temptations present around us. But God Himself has shown us the path out of this darkness and predicament, opening the path for us to eternal life.

As we continue to pass through this time and season of Easter, all of us are reminded that each and every one of us should always be active in living our lives as good and courageous Christians, in standing up to our faith and beliefs in the Resurrected Christ, in the Son of God made Man, Who has suffered most grieviously for us, and which He had done willingly out of love for us. It is through this Resurrection that we have new hope in the Lord, and how we can keep on going in this world and life amidst all the challenges, difficulties and hardships we may have to endure and encounter in our respective paths. There are a lot of temptations trying to keep us away from God and His salvation, and many among us may be seriously tempted to leave behind the path of the Lord, to choose instead the path of worldliness and evils.

But we must not lose faith in the Lord, and instead we should deepen our faith and trust in Him even more, by developing a truly genuine and healthy relationship between us and God. And how do we do this, brothers and sisters? It is by spending good time in communication with God, through prayer, charity and other works that we do in His Name. Each and every one of us are God’s beloved and holy children, we have been given the assurance from God that we will be with Him and share with Him the joy of the Resurrection when the time comes for us to experience it, if we remain truly faithful in Him, and are righteous and worthy in our deeds and lives. Let us all therefore strive to do our part in being worthy bearers of the truth of God’s Resurrection, His Good News and salvation to the nations. Let us all continue to bear witness to the Lord in wherever we are in our communities, and do our best to serve the Lord at all times.

May our Risen Lord continue to strengthen us in faith and guide us all towards Him, and may He bless us all in everything we do, in our every good efforts and works, for His greater glory, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 22 April 2025 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 20 : 11-18

At that time, 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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Tuesday, 22 April 2025 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 32 : 4-5, 18-19, 20 and 22

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

But the Lord’s eyes are upon those who fear Him, upon those who trust in His loving-kindness to deliver them from death and preserve them from famine.

In hope we wait for the Lord for He is our help and our shield. O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.

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Tuesday, 22 April 2025 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 2 : 36-41

Peter said, “Let Israel then know for sure that God has made Lord and Christ this Jesus Whom you crucified.” When they heard this, they were deeply troubled. And they asked Peter and the other Apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

Peter answered : “Each of you must repent and be baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise of God was made to you and your children, and to all those from afar whom our God may call.”

With many other words Peter gave the message and appealed to them saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who accepted his word were baptised; some three thousand persons were added to their numbers that day.

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Monday, 21 April 2025 : Monday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all continue to rejoice greatly during this Easter Octave and season, we are all reminded that as Christians it is our responsibility and calling for us to proclaim the Lord’s truth and Resurrection, His Good News and everything that He has revealed to us and taught to us through His Church. As Christians, it is imperative that we should always be exemplary and worthy in all and everything that we do in each and every moments of our lives, being inspiration and role models for all those around us, our brethren in faith. It is through our commitment to the Lord by our worthy lives and also our faithful testimony of the Risen Lord that we can truly be called as good and faithful Christians, as we all should be.

In our first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard from the words of the Apostle St. Peter who continued to proclaim about the Risen Lord together with the other Apostles right after the Holy Spirit descended and came down upon them during the time of the Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the Passover and the Lord’s glorious Resurrection from the dead. The Holy Spirit that came down upon the Apostles gave them the courage and strength to speak up the truth and overcome their fears and uncertainties, as they embarked on the mission which the Lord Himself has entrusted to them, that is to proclaim His salvation and Good News to all the people of all the nations. Despite all the threats and oppositions faced by St. Peter and the other Apostles from the chief priests and the other enemies of the Lord, they all proclaimed courageously what the Lord had done for His people.

And this included all the good things that God had done in fulfilling the words of the prophets, in completing the long planned and awaited God’s plans to rescue all of us mankind. St. Peter spoke of how the same Christ, Jesus the Son of God, Who had been sent to the world to save everyone, and had been rejected and persecuted by the Jewish authorities who refused to listen to Him and His truth. And yet, as the Apostles had testified, that the Lord Jesus did not remain in the state of death, but having triumphed over sin and death, conquering those and showing everyone that truly there is hope and life after and beyond death, the Risen Lord has proven the truth and veracity of all of God’s promises, how He would liberate us all from the tyranny of sin and all the forces of evil that have kept us bound and dominated all these while.

This is a reminder to the people of God of just how once He had shown His love to them by leading them all out from their enslavement in the land of Egypt, showing them His might and power as He rained down destruction on the Egyptians and their Pharaoh while keeping His people safe, and finally leading them all out from their slavery through the sea, to the land of freedom and plenty which He has promised to their ancestors and to all of them, the descendants of those faithful people whom God had called and chosen to be His own. Now, through Christ, the Apostles revealed that the Lord has extended this freedom and liberation, not only from the physical slavery as once experienced by the Israelites in Egypt, but even more importantly, liberation from the bondage, shackles and slavery to our sins and evils, to the darkness surrounding and keeping us bound under its tyranny.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist in which we were told of what happened immediately after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, when the Lord appeared before the women who went to the tomb early on Sunday morning, on that day when the Lord gloriously rose from the dead, appearing before all the disciples afterwards and fulfilling everything that He had promised to them about His suffering, death and ultimately how He would rise in glory on the third day after just as everything He said it would be. But the chief priests and the Temple authorities wished to keep this news on the Resurrection which began to rapidly spread at that time, from spreading even more, and as we heard in the Gospel passage, they tried to spread lies and falsehoods to counter the truth about the Resurrection of the Lord.

And why did those Temple authorities and chief priests did so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is likely because they feared the ever growing influence of the Lord that had made them to be jealous and unhappy at the rapid spread of the Lord’s teachings and ways, many of which they disagreed with, as many among them proudly kept on to their way of observing the Law and commandments of God, refusing to listen to the Lord and to believe in His teachings and truth. And that led to them putting false accusations on Him and condemning Him to death, but yet all those did not manage to stop the Lord and His truth. In fact, the Resurrection of the Lord proved all the truth behind everything that He had revealed, leading to those who still refused to believe in Him to scramble and panic in trying to contain the news.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in today’s Gospel and other Scripture passages, we are therefore reminded of the need for all of us to be courageous in standing up for our faith in God and in His truth. If the Apostles at that time had not allowed the Lord to lead and guide them in their paths, and giving them the courage to defend the Lord’s Resurrection, then the truth would have been hidden and buried forever, and few if any would have benefitted from the loving sacrifice of Our Lord, Who has revealed God’s long planned salvation for all of us mankind. We should do our best in our daily living so that by our courageous faith and our desire to proclaim the Lord in all of our daily activities, we may be His faithful and devoted missionaries, not just through words but also genuine actions.

May our Risen Lord therefore continue to help us in our journey of faith and life, in our daily commitment to walk faithfully in this path of a missionary disciple, in doing what the Lord had told us to do, proclaiming His Resurrection and the Good News of His salvation in our daily living, in being good and faithful disciples of our Risen Lord at all times. We should be good role models and inspirations for our fellow brothers and sisters, and in inspiring many others to live lives that are truly worthy of God in all circumstances. May God be with us all, and may He bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 21 April 2025 : Monday within Easter Octave (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 28 : 8-15

At that time, the woman left the tomb at once in fear, yet with great joy, and they ran to tell the news to Jesus’ disciples. Suddenly, He met them on the way and said, “Rejoice!” The women approached Him, embraced His feet and worshipped Him. But Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid! Go and tell My brothers to set out for Galilee; there they will see Me.”

While the women were on their way, the guards returned to the city, and some of them reported to the chief priests all that had happened. The chief priests met with the elders, and decided to give the soldiers a large sum of money, with this instruction, “Say that His disciples came by night while you were asleep, and stole the Body of Jesus. If Pilate comes to know of this, we will explain the situation and keep you out of trouble.”

The soldiers accepted the money and did as they were told. This story has circulated among the Jews until this day.

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Monday, 21 April 2025 : Monday within Easter Octave (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 15 : 1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Keep me safe, o God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “O Lord, my inheritance and my cup, my chosen portion – hold secure my lot.”

I bless the Lord Who counsels me; even at night my inmost self instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; for with Him at my right hand, I will never be shaken.

My heart, therefore, exults, my soul rejoices; my body too will rest assured. For You will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will You suffer Your Holy One to see decay in the land of the dead.

You will show me the path of life, in Your presence the fullness of joy, at Your right hand happiness forever.

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Monday, 21 April 2025 : Monday within Easter Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 2 : 14, 22-33

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and, with a loud voice, addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all foreigners now staying in Jerusalem, listen to what I have to say. Fellow Israelites, listen to what I am going to tell you about Jesus of Nazareth. God accredited Him and through Him did powerful deeds and wonders and signs in your midst, as you well know.”

“You delivered Him to sinners to be crucified and killed, and in this way the purpose of God from all times was fulfilled. But God raised Him to life and released Him from the pain of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in the power of death. David spoke of Him when He said : I saw the Lord before me at all times; He is by my side, that I may not be shaken.”

“Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; my body too will live in hope. Because You will not forsake me in the abode of the dead, nor allow Your Holy One to experience corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life, and Your presence will fill me with joy.”

“Friends, I do not need to prove that the patriarch David died and was buried; his tomb is with us to this day. But he knew that God had sworn to him that One of his descendants would sit upon his throne and, as he was a prophet, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah. So he said that He would not be left in the region of the dead, nor would His Body experience corruption.

This Messiah is Jesus and we are all witnesses that God raised Him to life. He has been exalted at God’s right side and the Father has entrusted the Holy Spirit to Him; this Spirit He has just poured upon us as you now see and hear.