priests

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Wednesday, 9 July 2025 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded of the missions which the Lord had put into our paths and entrusted to each and every one of us, His disciples and followers. Each and every one of us have been put in certain places and given certain opportunities, talents or gifts in order to make good use of them in making it all a blessing for everyone, a grace for all those whom we encounter in life. All of us have been blessed with such great love by the Lord and hence, we should remember to love Him in the same way as well, and love all those who are around us, those who have been entrusted to us, and all those whom we encounter daily.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis in which the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob or Israel, and his brothers were told to us. For the context of the story, in case we forget what happened earlier on before the events depicted in today’s passage, Joseph, one of the youngest sons of Jacob, born from his beloved wife Rachel, was one of his favourite, and was showered with lots of favour from Jacob, to the point that the elder brothers of Joseph became envious of him. There were also occasions when Joseph received dreams from the Lord where in that dream he was given respect and obeisance from his brothers and even his parents. No one knew it then, even Joseph himself, that this was in fact a premonition of things to come, many years and decades later, when everything actually came to happen just as Joseph dreamt of it.

Joseph’s brothers actually plotted to kill him out of jealousy, and they were only prevented from doing so by the eldest brother, Reuben, who wanted to protect Joseph. In the end, they all trapped Joseph and then sold him to a Midianite slaver who brought Joseph to the land of Egypt, where he first ended up as a slave and was even imprisoned, but by God’s grace and help, as He had planned it all from the very beginning, Joseph was rescued from the prison after he helped to interpret the dream of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and made to be the powerful Regent of Egypt, no less than the second most powerful person in the whole kingdom after the Pharaoh himself. And it was this powerful Regent that the brothers of Joseph met him, at that time, when the world was gripped in great famine and sufferings.

It was in fact part of God’s plan for His beloved ones, as through this action and turn of events, which was surely most unexpected for everyone, not only that God turned sufferings into greatness, but in His perfect timing and divine plan, He made everything to be wonderful, reuniting Joseph with his brothers and family in the end, and at the same time, his careful stewardship of Egypt’s resources and food allowed him to help countless people in Egypt and many other places to survive through the great seven years of famine. We can see how God made even wicked things that the brothers of Joseph had done to Joseph into great and wonderful things for so many, all the works of His hands, His wonderful and most loving deeds for us.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus calling and dedicating His most important and closest collaborators, the disciples known as the Twelve, the members of His innermost circle of disciples. And we heard the Twelve being named for us, including the one that would betray Him in the end, Judas Iscariot. These people had been chosen and called by the Lord, from among those whom He had encountered and called, from different and diverse origins, and to them all He entrusted the power and authority to perform miracles and wonders, and to reach out to more and more of the people that He Himself would minister to, so that many more would come to know the Lord and His salvation, His Good News and love.

This is a reminder for all of us that as Christians, all of us have also been called like the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord, and we have been given the unique and diverse gifts and opportunities which God had provided to each one of us so that we may make good use of them in whatever it is that He wants us to do in our respective lives, in our respective capacities in whatever we have encountered daily in life, in all those whom we have met, interacted with and spent time with. All of us ought to bear with us all the courageous and genuine witnessing of our Christian faith in all that we say and do, in our every interactions with one another, in our love that we show to those who are dear to us, and in our care for our fellow brothers and sisters, our neighbours around us.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions in martyrdom, the Holy Martyrs of China, commemorating all those faithful holy men and women who had courageously stood up for their faith and defended their commitment to God without fear and willing to suffer and die as faithful disciples and followers of Christ, particularly against terrible and harsh repressions and persecutions against them and the Church. St. Augustine Zhao Rong himself was born during the middle of the eighteenth century in China, and was one of the Christian converts during a time when the Imperial Chinese government and state was highly suspicious of Christians and the missionaries, and which carried out sporadic persecutions against them and the faithful.

St. Augustine Zhao Rong wanted to become a priest and he received training to be such, and in such extraordinary circumstances, only five years after his baptism, he was ordained as a priest, becoming one of the first local Chinese to be ordained a priest, and he spent many years in service to the people of God and to the works of mission of the Church in various places. Then, according to the historic tradition, under the Emperor Jiaqing in the early nineteenth century, more persecutions were carried out against Christians, and St. Augustine Zhao Rong was one of those who were arrested, and then tortured and eventually martyred for their faith. There were many other Christian faithful, both the missionaries and the converts who gave up their lives in their faithful commitment and obedience to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be renewed and strengthened in faith, and let us all continue to do our best to live our lives each day with the strong desire to glorify God by our lives, knowing that God is always with us, providing for us at every steps of our journey in life. And through the inspiration provided to us by the courage and faith of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his fellow companions in martyrdom, let us all continue to be faithful in all things and at all times. Amen.

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Wednesday, 9 July 2025 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Matthew 10 : 1-7

At that time, Jesus called His Twelve disciples to Him, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out, and to heal every disease and sickness.

These are the names of the Twelve Apostles : first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray Him.

Jesus sent these Twelve on mission, with the instruction : “Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan town. Go, instead, to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go, and proclaim this message : The kingdom of Heaven is near.”

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Wednesday, 9 July 2025 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 32 : 2-3, 10-11, 18-19

Give thanks to YHVH on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises. Amid loud shouts of joy, sing to Him a new song and play the ten-stringed harp.

YHVH frustrates the plans of the nations and brings to nothing the peoples’ designs. But His plan stands forever, and His heart’s design, through all generations.

But YHVH’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.

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Wednesday, 9 July 2025 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Genesis 41 : 55-57 and Genesis 42 : 5-7a, 17-24a

When the land of Egypt began to suffer from the famine, the people came to Pharaoh for bread. But Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do as he tells you.” When the famine had spread throughout the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians for the famine was indeed severe over the land.

As the famine had worsened throughout the whole world, people came from other countries to buy grain from Joseph. So the sons of Israel were among those going to buy grain, for there was famine in Canaan. It was Joseph, as governor of the land, who sold the grain to all the people. When his brothers arrived they bowed before him, with their faces to the ground.

Joseph recognised his brothers but did not make himself known and so he put them in prison for three days. On the third day Joseph said to them, “I will help you save yourselves, for I am a man who fears God. If you are sincere, let one of your brothers remain prisoner in the house of the guard where you now are, and the rest of you take the grain to save your families from famine. Then you will bring back your youngest brother; so the truth of what you say will be proved and your lives spared.”

They did as they were ordered and said among themselves, “Alas! We are guilty because of the way we treated our brother when he pleaded with us for mercy, but we did not listen. That is why this trouble has come upon us.” Reuben answered them, “Did I tell you not to sin against the boy. But you did not listen and now we are brought to account for his blood.”

Now they did not know that Joseph understood them as there was an interpreter between them. As for Joseph, he withdrew and wept.

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Saturday, 5 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the Lord’s providence for His people, His love and care for all those whom He loves, and all those whom He has called and chosen to be His own. And we also have to put our trust in what He has provided for us, and taught us all to do, even if things may not go the way that we commonly think or expect, as we must also remember that God’s ways are truly above and beyond our ways, and often times we may not be aware of this fact especially if we assume that what we know of is what the Lord wants from us. Rather, the Lord inspires us and tells us through His revelations, through what He has brought us via His Son, and the Holy Spirit, of what He truly wants from us, the path that He wants us to follow Him through.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the moment when Isaac, the son of Abraham was already ageing, and his two sons, the elder Esau and the younger Jacob, were vying for their father’s attention and blessing, the blessing which they coveted as whoever that Isaac blessed would become the one to inherit the blessing of God, which had been given to Abraham, and then to Isaac, and then to whoever it is that Isaac blessed, as the one whom God would choose and make to be a great nation. Isaac was favouring Esau the elder son, while Rebekah, Isaac’s wife was favouring their younger son, Jacob. There was also another context of what was not explicitly mentioned in the Scriptures, that Esau was also involved in relationship with Canaanite woman, while the preference of Abraham and his family was that they ought to take a wife from their own people, which Jacob eventually did.

Therefore, through the events that we heard today, while it might seem to be strange why God was party to this trickery which Jacob employed with the support of his mother, Rebekah, in tricking Isaac into thinking that he was his elder brother and therefore received the blessings which his father had intended to give to Esau, we must understand the bigger picture, knowing that what God desires and seeks may not be what is customary and usual, and also unlike what we may expect and desire ourselves. And that was how God in His mysterious will and design chose Jacob, the younger son over Esau, the older son, as it is also in accordance to His greater schemes and designs. This is also understood in the manner how Jacob was more interested in the spiritual blessings from Jacob, while Esau was looking for a more earthly and physical blessings, in the manner of possessions rather than true blessing that matters.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus telling the disciples of St. John the Baptist who came to Him asking Him about why He and His disciples did not fast in the manner that they themselves and the Pharisees had been fasting, which was following the customs and practices of the Jews at the time in their interpretation of the Law of God as revealed through Moses. Contextually we must also understand and appreciate the fact that the way how the Law of God had been interpreted by those same Pharisees and the people of God had been gradually veering away from what the Lord had intended for His Law and ways to be used by them.

For example, the Pharisees in particular were so engrossed in the manner how the Law ought to be practiced that they often ended up forgetting and overlooking why the Law was given and entrusted to us in the first place, which is to help us to orientate ourselves in this world and to show us all how we can love God and love one another, and that is why He gave the Law and taught His people through Moses that they all might know how they could live in a manner that was more pleasing and worthy of God. But over the centuries since the Law was revealed to them, the people passing down the Law, the rules and regulations began to change and alter them to suit their desires and wants, and began to make amendments and having different interpretations on those laws and rules.

As a result, many among those Pharisees were practicing their faith in the wrong manner and with the wrong intentions. Many among them, as the Lord Jesus Himself criticised them for, paraded their faith and pious actions before everyone, and such as the matter of fasting, they made sure that everyone knew that they fasted, in their practices and in wearing of sackcloths. Such a public show of faith and piety, while not necessarily wrong, but with the improper focus and attention led to them being engrossed with their own self-importance and self-righteousness, and with their ego, pride and desire, in fact distanced them further from the Lord instead of making them truly righteous and worthy of Him.

That is why the Lord told those disciples of St. John the Baptist that His ways are greater and better than the ways which the Pharisees and those disciples of St. John the Baptist themselves had followed. He used the parable of the new and old cloth, and also the old and new wine and wineskins to highlight this, showing how the incompatibility between the new and old cloth, and also the new wineskin with old wine, and vice versa, are just like the incompatibility of what the Lord truly wanted from His people with what those same people, like the Pharisees and the disciples of St. John the Baptist had done. Therefore, in order to be truly faithful to the Lord, one ought to listen to the Lord and follow Him in everything which He had told them all to do in their lives, instead of opposing Him and refusing to follow Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Anthony Zaccaria, a holy man of God and priest whose faith and dedication to the Lord should be an inspiration for all of us to follow in our own lives as well. St. Anthony Zaccaria was born in Italy during the Renaissance era, and he was inspired and called to the priesthood after studying to be a physician, eventually continuing to explore his calling in tending to the poor and the sick in his community. He eventually founded the congregation known as the Barnabites, and was also known for his popularisation of the forty-hours devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, through which he helped to deepen the faith and spirituality among many of the people of his time. Through his tireless efforts and works, St. Anthony Zaccaria had indeed done many wonderful deeds for the good of the Lord, and showed us what it truly means for us to be a follower of Christ, in doing His will and not in following the ways of the world.

May the Lord continue to inspire and strengthen us all in our resolve to live our lives faithfully as Christians from now, especially inspired by the examples of the great saints, particularly that of St. Anthony Zaccaria whose memory we venerate today, and may He nudge us all to commit to a good and worthy life in Him if we have not done so yet. May He give us the strength and courage to carry out our Christian faith most faithfully and genuinely in our every actions, in our every interactions with one another, in our every single contributions, even in the smallest and seemingly least important actions and works. May He bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 5 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Matthew 9 : 14-17

At that time, the disciples of John came to Jesus with the question, “How is it, that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not Your disciples?”

Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast.”

“No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat. In the same way, you do not put new wine into old wine skins. If you do, the wine skins will burst and the wine will be spilt. No, you put new wine into fresh skins; then both are preserved.”

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Saturday, 5 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Psalm 134 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! Praise the Name of YHVH. O servants of YHVH, praise Him, you, who serve in the house of YHVH, in the courts of the house of our God.

Praise YHVH, for He is good; praise His Name, for it is beautiful; for YHVH has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His possession.

I know that YHVH is great, that our YHVH is above all gods. Whatever YHVH pleases, He does – in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in their depths.

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Saturday, 5 July 2025 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Genesis 27 : 1-5, 15-29

When Isaac was old and his eyes so weak that he could no longer see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he answered. Isaac continued, “You see I am old and I do not know when I shall die; so take your weapons, your bow and arrow, go out into the country and hunt some game for me. Then prepare some of the savoury food I like and bring it to me so that I may eat and give you my blessing before I die.”

Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went into the country to hunt game and bring it back, she took the best clothes of her elder son Esau that she had in the house and put them on Jacob, her younger son. With the goatskin she covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck, and she handed to him the bread and food she had prepared.

He went to his father and said, “Father!” He answered, “Yes, my son, who is it?” And Jacob said to his father, “It is Esau, your firstborn; I have done what you told me to do. Come, sit up and eat my game so that you may give me your blessing.” Isaac said, “How quick you have been my son!” Jacob said, “YHVH, your God, guided me.”

Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near and let me feel you, my son, and know that it is you, Esau my son, or not.” When Jacob drew near to Isaac, his father felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognise him, for his hands were hairy like the hands of Esau his brother and so he blessed him.

He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacob answered, “I am.” Isaac said, “Bring me some of your game, my son, so that I may eat and give you my blessing.” So Jacob brought it to him and he ate. And he brought him wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So Jacob came near and kissed him.

Isaac then caught the smell of his clothes and blessed him, saying, “The smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. May God give you the dew of heaven; and of the richness of the earth; and abundance of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down before you. Be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone that curses you and blessed be everyone that blesses you!”

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Thursday, 19 June 2025 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Philip Minh, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded of the need for all of us to be firmly rooted in faith and to be truly committed to God, so that we do not easily fall into the false paths due to the temptations of worldly vices and falsehoods spread by those who seek our downfall and destruction. Each and every one of us as Christians are always called to remain vigilant against all those false teachings and to remain rooted firmly in God, and the best way for us all to do this is by doing what the Lord Jesus had taught us, His disciples to do, that is to pray to our Heavenly Father and to constantly communicate with Him so that we may truly realise what He wants us all to do in our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful people of God in the region of Corinth, warning them of the temptations of Satan and all those seeking to mislead them all into the wrong paths, mentioning how there were others who taught differently from the way that St. Paul had already taught to the faithful there. This highlighted the reality of the earliest days of the Church, in those days when there was not yet any united doctrine or organised Church organisation in the manner that we are all familiar with these days. There were still preachers and charismatic teachers of the faith going around then spreading the teachings that might not have been in accordance to what the Lord had revealed to His Apostles and the Church.

That in itself might not have been wicked or negative in intention, as some of those preachers, one of which was the charismatic Jewish preacher named Apollos, or St. Apollos was in fact a believer of Christ, and yet, he had not yet received the full instruction of faith and the Holy Spirit yet, and hence, that was why what he taught and spoke to the people were somewhat different from what St. Paul and the other Apostles had taught and spoken to the faithful. However, there were indeed many other false teachers and preachers, whose heretical ideas and thoughts brought harm to the souls of many of the faithful, many of whom were ensnared by those wrong and perverted teachings and ways, leading to quite a number among them to be swayed by the tempting words and falsehoods.

This was what St. Paul had told the faithful in Corinth in order to remind and warn them so that they do not end up falling into temptations and all the falsehoods present all around them in the world. He was also sharing how while he was not among the members of the Twelve, which he probably jokingly mentioned as being ‘super-Apostles’, being those who were closest to the Lord and were present during His ministry unlike that of St. Paul, but whatever he had taught the faithful in Corinth and elsewhere, all that he had laboured for, all that he had shared to them were all the same as what the rest of the Apostles had taught as well. Essentially, he was telling them all that what he and the other Apostles have brought to them were the authentic and genuine expressions and details of their Christian faith, and they should remain rooted in that teaching, and not in the falsehoods.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Jesus telling His disciples of how they ought to pray to their Father, not in the manner of the pagans and all those who usually use a lot of words in their prayers, a lot of actions and gestures, and yet, they did not truly pray in the right sense. That was why the Lord Jesus taught the disciples on how they ought to pray to their Father in Heaven, just as Jesus Himself frequently spent time in prayer and silent time with the Father. And that was how God wants us all to pray as well, in spending good, quality and committed time with Him as much as we are able to, in communicating actively with Him, in listening to Him just as we also speak to Him, as how we should in a proper communication.

In communicating with the Lord through prayer, all of us are taught and reminded by Our Lord Jesus Himself that first of all, we should not seek to impose on the Lord what we want, unlike how we normally conduct our prayers. If we do so, then we may end up not praying in the right manner. And this is what we all need to realise, as first of all we have to realise that the Lord is all holy and powerful, and we ought to thank Him first for every blessings that He has bestowed on us each day, even when we may not even realise it at all. Every breath we take and every moment that we are alive, each one of these are reminders for us of just how blessed we all are, and how fortunate for us to have the Lord our God, Who truly loves us all and Who has always been so generous with us.

And that is why we should always be grateful and thankful to God, and remember to ask Him to show us all His kindness and mercy, in giving us all that we need. The Lord knows all that we need, and we do not really actually need to tell Him what is in our hearts and minds, as God Who is all-knowing knows everything that we are, and all that are in our hearts and minds. Yet, at the same time, He also wants us all to call on Him, to come and ask Him for His Divine favours, and most importantly, He wants us to communicate with Him and to trust in Him instead of doing things with our own strength and power. Truly, with God, everything is possible and we can indeed do all things in Him Who strengthens and supports us. And this is why we need a good, prayerful relationship with God at all times.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Philip Minh and his companions in martyrdom, the Holy Martyrs of Vietnam. At that time, the Christian faith had just begun to spread to the land and region of Vietnam through the works of missionaries, particularly those from France, belonging mostly to the Society of the Paris Foreign Mission, also known as the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris. These foreign missionaries went to distant lands to proclaim the Good News of the Lord and the Christian faith, and in this particular case, they came with the French to serve as missionaries to the land of Vietnam. However, due to their links with the French and their ulterior motives in coming to Vietnam, therefore the Christian missionaries and also the local converts were seen with great suspicion by the Vietnamese government then.

Gradually, persecutions continued to increase against the Christian missionaries and the local converts alike, as Christianity was seen as a foreign influence and possibly dangerous supporters of the French colonial power, and hence ought to be removed and eliminated. St. Philip Minh was one of these Catholic converts, who went to join the seminary in College General in Penang for a few years before he was ordained as a priest, with the intention of continuing the work of mission in Vietnam, to proclaim the Good News of God to more and more of his fellow countrymen. However, the Vietnam that he returned to had become even more hostile to the Christian faith, and eventually, he himself was seized and arrested, and martyred for his faith together with many other missionaries and fellow converts over the many decades of persecution.

Yet, despite all these sufferings and hardships, those Catholics who were persecuted for their faith, just as their predecessors in the early Church had suffered, remained firmly faithful to the Lord, and they remained strong in their conviction to follow Him because they have strong connection and attunement to God, which is what we are again being reminded of today. Let us all therefore continue to deepen our prayer life and to spend all the time to glorify Him through our every words, actions and deeds, in continuing to communicate with our loving God and Father at all times. May the Lord continue to love each and every one of us, and may all of us grow ever stronger in our love and faith in Him. Amen.

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Thursday, 19 June 2025 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Philip Minh, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 6 : 7-15

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “When you pray, do not use a lot of words, as the pagans do; for they believe that, the more they say, the more chance they have of being heard. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need, even before you ask Him.”

“This, then, is how you should pray : Our Father in heaven, holy be Your Name, Your kingdom, come, Your will be done on earth, as in heaven. Give us today, our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who are in debt to us. Do not bring us to the test, but deliver us from the evil one.”

“If you forgive others their wrongdoings, your Father in heaven will also forgive yours. If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive you.”