Saints

by

Friday, 21 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Genesis 11 : 1-9

The whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved from east, they found a plain in the country of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them in fire.” They used brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. They said also, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching heaven; so that we may become a great people and not be scattered over the face of the earth!”

YHVH came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of man were building, and YHVH said, “They are one people and they have one language. If they carry this through, nothing they decide to do from now on will be impossible. Come! Let Us go down and confuse their language so that they will no longer understand each other.”

So YHVH scattered them over all the earth and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there YHVH confused the language of the whole earth and from there YHVH scattered them over the whole face of the earth.

by

Monday, 17 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened from the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for us to keep our faith in God and to do what is right according to the Law and commandments of God. We should not allow ourselves to be easily tempted and distracted by the various desires of the world around us, all the jealousy and pride in our hearts, all of which can easily lead us down the path towards our downfall. That was what the Scripture readings today had highlighted and warned us with, reminding us that we should be vigilant lest the evil one may tempt us with the allures of worldly glory and ambitions that make us to forget what is the most important thing in our lives, that is our foundation and centrality of our faith in God.

In our first reading today, we heard of the words from the Book of Genesis in which the moments after the downfall of mankind into sin and their exile from the Gardens of Eden were told to us. We heard the well-known story of the interactions between the two sons of Adam and Eve, namely Cain and Abel, both of whom were born to Eve after both her and Adam had been cast out of the Gardens of Eden for their disobedience and sin against God. And as we heard, Cain became jealous at Abel because his offerings of the first harvests of the land had been rejected by God while the offerings of Abel, the offering of the unblemished lambs that he shepherded was accepted by God. This led to the seeds of jealousy and anger to be sown in Cain’s heart and mind.

However, Cain in truth disobeyed the Lord’s commandments, when the Lord had cursed the earth that time because of the sins our ancestors committed. And by offering the fruits of the land, he was not offering what the Lord asked of him, and hence, it was for this disobedience and refusal to obey God that Cain’s offering had been rejected. Yet, Cain did not humble himself or admit his mistakes, and instead, he allowed himself to be swayed by the temptations of his pride and ego, and in his growing jealousy and anger, he raised his own hands against his brother, his own flesh and blood. This resulted in the murder of Abel, which Cain initially denied and tried to evade when the Lord came and questioned him about the deed. But eventually, he admitted the wicked deed because the Lord knew everything, and he was punished for his sins.

This is an important reminder for us all that if we give in to our ego, greed and other worldly desires we have, it is easy for us to end up being led down this slippery path of sin, and as Cain had done, we may even commit heinous things that is truly unbecoming for us all as Christians, in how we even cause hurt, pain and sufferings for others, like how Cain murdered his own brother out of his jealousy and anger. This is a reminder for all of us that we should always strive to keep ourselves and our hearts, our minds and indeed our whole beings free from the corruptions and temptations of sin. If we allow sin to direct our lives’ paths and directions, then we may end up losing our way to the darkness, and we may never attain the salvation and eternal life in God, to our eternal regret.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which the Lord Jesus encountered some arguments with the Pharisees who were arguing with Him and disagreed with Him on some matters. They were asking for Him to show them miraculous and heavenly signs, but the irony and truth is that they had all actually seen plenty of those signs and wonders which they asked for. After all those Pharisees had often followed the Lord and His disciples wherever they went, and they always shadowed Him throughout His ministry and works, and no doubt they had seen many of His miracles and wonders, which were more than enough proof for them for the signs that they kept on asking from the Lord.

Then why did those Pharisees continue to ask the Lord for such signs? And why did they not believe in the Lord and His works, His miracles and signs? Shouldn’t the Pharisees be the first ones to believe in the Lord because they were the ones supposedly the most knowledgeable and best to understand the Law and the Prophets? But that was exactly where this superiority and knowledge became their undoing, because this led them to pride and ego, arrogance and hubris, thinking that they were better than others, knowing and understanding the Law of God and the prophets better than everyone, and they therefore refused to reconcile what they had seen, heard and witnessed with their knowledge of the Law of God and the prophets. They kept on thinking that the Lord Jesus was a fraud and a false Messiah, and hence, despite His many signs and wonders, they kept on doubting Him and trying to discredit Him before the people.

This is hence the important reminder yet again for all of us as Christians that we should not allow ourselves to be easily swayed by worldly desires and ambitions, all of the things which can mislead us into the path of rebellion against God and then into eternal damnation. We must instead resist those temptations and strive to be humble before God, realising our imperfections and shortcomings, and ask Him for His guidance, help and encouragement constantly in our daily battle and struggle with sin and evil. We must not let ourselves be dragged into the path towards damnation simply because we are unable to resist the many temptations of the world around us, and we should also be good role models and inspirations for others, in how we live our lives as Christians.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order. These seven Holy Founders of the Servites, namely Bonfilius, Alexis, Manettus, Amideus, Hugh, Sostene and Buonagiunta, all of whom were men from the city of Florence that were called by the Lord and they all bound themselves in strong and lasting spiritual friendship that eventually became the foundation of the Servite Order, in their strong faith in the Lord as well as in the intense devotion which they all had for the Blessed Mother of God. All of them led holy and devout lives, committed wholly to God, and they all became great source of inspiration for their fellow men and women, many of whom were drawn to follow their examples as well. They led a life that is truly centred on God and resisting the temptations of the world, something that is really admirable.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all have discussed earlier on from the readings of the Scriptures and the message that those words of the Lord presented to us, and also inspired by the good examples and the life of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order, as well as our many other holy predecessors, let us all therefore commit ourselves from now on to a new life and existence that is truly attuned to the Lord, focusing not on ourselves and on our own personal ambitions and desires, but instead being focused as always on the Lord Himself, so that in everything that we do, we will always seek the greater glory of God and not our own. May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen us all in our resolve and faith, in our commitment to follow Him, now and always. Amen.

by

Monday, 17 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Mark 8 : 11-13

At that time, the Pharisees came and started to argue with Jesus. Hoping to embarrass Him, they asked for some heavenly sign. Then His Spirit was moved. He gave a deep sigh and said, “Why do the people of this present time ask for a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this people.”

Then He left them, got into the boat again and went to the other side of the lake.

by

Monday, 17 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Psalm 49 : 1 and 8, 16bc-17, 20-21

The God of gods, the Lord has spoken, He summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Not for your sacrifices do I reprove you, for your burnt offerings are ever before Me.

What right have you to mouth My laws, or to talk about My covenant? You hate My commands and cast My words behind you.

You speak ill of your brother, and slander your own mother’s son. Because I was silent while you did these things, you thought I was like you. But now I rebuke you and make this charge against you.

by

Monday, 17 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Genesis 4 : 1-15, 25

Adam had intercourse with Eve his wife; she became pregnant and gave birth to a child. She named him Cain, for she said, “I have got a man with help from YHVH.” She later gave birth to Abel, his brother. Abel was a shepherd and kept flocks, and Cain tilled the soil.

It happened after a time that Cain brought fruits of the soil as an offering to YHVH. Abel for his part brought the firstborn of his flock, and some fat as well. Now YHVH was well pleased with Abel and his offering, but towards Cain and his offering He showed no pleasure. This made Cain very angry and downcast.

Then YHVH said to Cain, “Why are you angry and downcast? If you do right, why do you not look up? But if you are not doing what is right, sin is lurking at the door. It is striving to get you, but you must control it.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go to the fields.” Once there, Cain turned on his brother Abel and killed him. YHVH said to Cain, “Where is your brother, Abel?” He answered, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

YHVH asked, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. Now be cursed and driven from the ground that has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood that your hand had shed. When you till the soil, it will no longer yield you its produce. You will be a fugitive wandering on the earth.”

Cain said to YHVH, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. See! Today You drive me from this land. I must hide from You and be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth, and it will so happen that whoever meets me will kill me.” YHVH said to him, “Well then, whoever kills Cain, will suffer vengeance seven times.” And YHVH put a mark on Cain to prevent anyone who met him from killing him.

Adam again had intercourse with his wife and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth; for she said, “YHVH has given me another child in place of Abel since Cain killed him.”

by

Friday, 14 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the downfall of mankind into sin, reminding us all how sin has led us into this wretched existence in this corrupted world, filled with sin and evil. But at the same time, we are being reminded also of our true nature which God had made and intended us all to be, a pure and holy existence in His Presence as He has meant us all to enjoy. At the same time, we should put our trust in the Lord, and allowing Him to heal us all from our afflictions, our corruptions of sin and evil, allowing us to be whole once again, to be enlightened once again by God’s grace and love, by His light and truth. God is the only One Who can do this for us, and we have to keep this always in mind.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the moment when Satan, in the form of a snake, came upon our ancestors in the Gardens of Eden. At that time, everything had been created all good and perfect by God, and our ancestors, Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, had also been created perfect, all wonderful and good, in the image and likeness of God Himself, all meant to enjoy forever the fullness of God’s love and grace. However, our inability to resist the temptations of sin, of worldly desires, ambitions and pride, had all led to us succumbing to the sweet lies and falsehoods of Satan, who used all those to lead us all down the path of ruin, and therefore brought us into the corruption of sin.

Satan played upon our curiosity and desire for knowledge, and also our indulgence in pleasure to seek for what we have been told not to seek the pursuit of power, glory and knowledge that Satan has offered us by tempting our ancestors to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and which he has continued to tempt us with as he offered us all sorts of worldly goods and ambitions, and all other things meant to shake our faith and trust in the Lord, in trying to make us to embrace the path of disobedience and sin instead. That is why we are reminded of this today so that we will always be vigilant and we will not allow Satan and all of the other forces of evil to tempt us into the path towards our downfall and destruction.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the works of the Lord Jesus as He came into the region of Decapolis beyond the Jordan River, where He encountered a man who was deaf and mute, and He healed this man miraculously by putting His hands into the man’s ears and tongue, declaring ‘Ephphata’ or ‘be opened’! as mentioned in the Gospel. Through this action, God showed all the people, His disciples and followers that He is truly the Lord and Master of all things, even over diseases, sickness and all other conditions, and He is also the Messiah or Saviour which God has promised His people through the prophets, as those prophets spoke of how the Messiah would make the blind to see once again, the deaf to be able to hear again, the mute to be able to speak again and more great and wonderful things.

It is a reminder to all of us how God is the only One Who can liberate us all from our bondage to sin. Ever since our ancestors listened to Satan and disobeyed God, as we heard from our first reading passage today, they had allowed sin to enter into our hearts and corrupt us all, corrupting our human nature and through that making us all to be unworthy of God and the glorious inheritance that God has always meant for us to share and enjoy in. The corruption of sin has corrupted our human existence and led us all to concupiscence, that is our inherent human nature to be tempted and to fall into sin. But God did not give up on us, and He has always loved us all throughout, desiring for us to be reconciled and reunited to Himself, and hence, He provided for us the means to do so.

It is by sending unto us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ Himself, Our Lord and Saviour, that God has opened for us all the sure and straight path towards eternal life and salvation. He has given us all His beloved Son, Who willingly took up upon Himself the human flesh, nature and existence so that He can break us all free from the tyranny and dominion of sin and death. And it was by His perfect and humble obedience to the will of His heavenly Father that Christ, as the New Adam, together with His mother Mary, the New Eve, opposed the past disobedience of Adam and Eve, rejected Satan and all of his falsehoods, and by offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice and offering, breaking His own Most Precious Body and pouring out His Most Precious Blood that brings about our healing and redemption. There is no other means by which we all can be saved.

That is why all of us are reminded that we should always put our faith and trust in the Lord, and we should not allow the temptations of evil to lead us astray anymore in our lives. Through the Lord Jesus, our Saviour, all of us have been liberated from the chains and dominion of sin, and hence, we should embrace this freedom which we have earned from the Lord, the grace that He has given us all, and strive therefore to live a truly holy and worthy lives, following Him ever more wholeheartedly in each and every moments of our lives. And one way of doing this is by doing whatever the Lord has commanded us to do, to live a life truly devoted to Him and to be exemplary in our everyday living, becoming good and worthy examples for our fellow brothers and sisters, to be missionary and evangelising in all things as many of our holy predecessors had done.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who are the Patron Saints of Europe, and also great missionaries in their efforts to evangelise to the people of Central and Eastern Europe. St. Cyril and St. Methodius were brothers who were born in the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium in the early ninth century, and they were appointed as missionaries by the Byzantine Emperor and the Church in Constantinople to evangelise among the Slavs and the Khazars, the pagans who were inhabiting the regions to the north of the Empire. They were the ones to come up with the Glagolitic alphabet, which eventually became the Cyrillic alphabet still in use in many Slavic countries to this day.

They achieved much success in proclaiming the Good News of God to the pagan nations, and were also involved in other missionary works, including inter-Church mission to Rome and many other good works. Through their efforts, many of those people they visited and ministered became Christians, bringing God’s salvation to countless more souls. They did encounter difficulties and challenges during their ministry, including conflicts with the Latin and the Western Church during their evangelising work among the pagans, enduring the political conflicts between the Western and Eastern Christendom that happened at that time, but all these did not dissuade them from continuing to do their works and to carry on the missions entrusted to them faithfully to the very end of their lives.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore strive to follow in the footsteps of St. Cyril and St. Methodius and do our best in all things, so that by our dedication and commitment to God, we may always be shining beacons of His light and truth, becoming the manifestation of His love and mercy, His kindness and compassion to all those whom we encounter daily in life. Hopefully many more people may come to believe in the Lord and be saved through us, and through everything that we do in our everyday living. May God be with us always, and may He bless us in all of our good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Friday, 14 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 7 : 31-37

At that time, again Jesus set out : from the country of Tyre He passed through Sidon and, skirting the sea of Galilee, He came to the territory of Decapolis. There, a deaf man, who also had difficulty in speaking, was brought to Him. They asked Jesus to lay His hand upon him.

Jesus took him apart from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears, and touched his tongue with spittle. Then, looking up to heaven, He said with a deep sigh, “Ephphata!” that is, “Be opened!”

And immediately, his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly. Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about it; but the more He insisted, the more they proclaimed it. The people were completely astonished and said, “He has done all things well; He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.”

by

Friday, 14 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 31 : 1-2, 5, 6, 7

Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is wiped away. Blessed are those in whom YHVH sees no guilt and in whose spirit is found no deceit.

Then I made known to You my sin and uncovered before You my fault, saying to myself, “To YHVH I will now confess my wrong.” And You, You forgave my sin; You removed my guilt.

So let the faithful ones pray to You in time of distress; the overflowing waters will not reach them.

You are my Refuge; You protect me from distress and surround me with songs of deliverance.

by

Friday, 14 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Genesis 3 : 1-8

Now the serpent was the most crafty of all the wild creatures that YHVH God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say : You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden God said : You must not eat, and you must not touch it or you will die.”

The serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, but God knows that the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the fruit was good to eat, and pleasant to the eyes, and ideal for gaining knowledge. She took its fruit and ate it and gave some to her husband who was with her. He ate it.

Then their eyes were opened and both of them knew they were naked. So they sewed leaves of a fig tree together and made themselves loincloths. They heard the voice of YHVH God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day, and they, the man and his wife, hid from YHVH God among the trees of the garden.

by

Tuesday, 11 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Our Lady of Lourdes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we heard from the Scripture passages today, all of us are reminded that God is our Lord and Master, and we have to keep in mind that we should not allow all sorts of worldly matters, desires and distractions to lead us away from the true path towards God and His grace. We must always put our faith and trust in God, and resist the many temptations present around us that may try to lead us astray down the wrong path, and we must also resist the pull of our pride, ego, ambition and desire in this life, and instead, strive to be humble and to be willing to listen to the Lord calling upon us and allow Him to patiently lead us down the path of righteousness and grace. We must always remember that God desires our salvation, and He has done everything He could to rescue us all and to bring us ever closer to Him.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis in which the account of the Creation of the world and the whole Universe continued to be told to us as initiated in yesterday’s first reading. Today, we heard the second half of this story of Creation, culminating in how God created us all mankind as the pinnacle of His Creation, creating us in His own image and likeness. It was a reminder for all of us how everything that exists around us, and including our own existence in this world, are all due to the works of the Lord, and without Him, we are nothing and we would not even have existed at all. And God created all of us in His likeness and image as ultimately, He sees us all as His own children, His adopted sons and daughters, and He intended for all of us to be the ones to enjoy everything that He has created, and to forever be in His grace and loving Presence.

However, as we all know it well, we have not been faithful and obedient to God. Instead, we chose to rebel against Him and follow the advice of the devil instead, listening to his lies and allowing his falsehoods to lead us into the wrong path, taking up the forbidden fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and hence, in our desire to become like God, we ended up falling into this world of suffering and death. But God, in His most wonderful and patient love for each one of us did not give up on us. Instead, He continued to reach out to us and provided us with the help necessary for us to find our way back to Him, and He opened His arms, welcoming us back with His mercy and kindness, desiring to be reconciled and reunited with us.

And that was why He sent unto us all His own Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Divine Word of God Incarnate. It was through His Word that God has created this world and Universe, and the same Word of God, the Divine Logos has become incarnate in the flesh, becoming one of the Creation through the assumption of the flesh and our human existence, but without shedding His infinite and timeless existence from the beginning, co-Eternal and consubstantial with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Through this act of supreme love, God has made Himself tangible and approachable to all of us, to show us all His sincere desire in loving us all and in wanting to guide us and help us to return to the path of virtue and grace, so that more and more may come to be saved and be spared the fate of eternal damnation.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the confrontation between the Lord Jesus, the same Son of God, with those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who had been criticising Him and His disciples regarding their ways of observing the Law of God. According to those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who safeguarded and kept the Law and commandments of God passed down from the time of Moses, the Law and the precepts of the Law must be kept and observed very strictly, and not only that, but they had even added on many details and rituals that ended up deviating from the true purpose and intention of the Law and those precepts themselves. For example, the one that the Lord mentioned regarding the washing of the vessels and the hands before eating, which those Pharisees and teachers of the Law zealously guarded, requiring everyone to wash their hands following certain strict steps and practices, like washing all the way to the elbow, or otherwise they would be considered unclean.

The Lord was criticising and rebuking them over this obsession on the details and rules of the Law, which ended up distracting those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law from the true purpose and intention of those rules in the first place. They were meant to help the people of God lead a good, hygienic way of life, in the midst of the community of the people in the context of the Exodus, when many of them were living in close quarters, and diseases would easily spread without such good practices. However, those rules were never meant to become burden and obstacles for the people of God, or becoming tools of discrimination and differentiation, which those Pharisees and teachers of the Law often practiced. This is due to the pride and the importance that they attached to the ‘correct’ way of practicing the Law, and considering themselves better and more superior than others who did not follow the Law the same way they did.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is in fact an important reminder for us all not to be easily swayed by the temptations of worldly desires, which many of those Pharisees had succumbed to, and many of them refused to listen to the Lord and to reason because they allowed themselves to be deluded by their own pride and ego which caused them to close their minds and hearts to Him. They depended instead on their intellect, their knowledge and their sense of superiority, in thinking that they were better than others simply because they were more holy, more dedicated and more pious than those they deemed to be less than worthy because they did not observe the Law of God as stringently and piously as they had done. It was all these prideful attitudes which in fact led them astray and prevented them from coming closer to God, and we should avoid adopting the same attitude in our own lives.

Today, the Church also celebrates the occasion of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the famous apparition of the Blessed Mother of God, Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes at the site in southern France to St. Bernadette Soubirous, shortly after the declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the then Pope Pius IX. Mary, the Mother of God appeared to the simple peasant girl, St. Bernadette in the grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes over a few occasions, in which she told to her many things about herself and the message that she wanted her to proclaim to the world, proving her authenticity and identity whenever she was asked of it. St. Bernadette initially faced a lot of hurdles and skepticism from her own parents and from the local bishop and clergy, but she insisted to continue meeting the apparation of Our Lady regardless.

After several rounds of investigations into the apparition and the growing popularity of the apparition and the devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, after about two years, the Church finally gave its assent to the authenticity and support the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes as legitimate and authentic, and from that point onwards, pilgrimages to the shrine of Lourdes became very popular among the faithful throughout the world. A great shrine, the Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes now stands at the site where Our Lady once appeared to St. Bernadette almost two centuries ago, with the Grotto at Massabielle, at the heart of the shrine frequented by millions of pilgrims seeking for healing and help for their sickness, and the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes is well-known for its many miraculous healings, where many sick pilgrims had been healed from their ailments after visits to the shrine.

This devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes is yet another reminder for us of the greatness of God’s love for us, that He even also sent His mother to us, to help us all and to guide us all to Him. After all, it is the Lord Himself Who has entrusted His mother to us to be our own loving Mother from His Cross as He was hanging there at the moment of His Passion. Through His mother, the Lord wants us all to realise our shortcomings and flaws, our faults and weaknesses, and by coming towards Him through His mother, the Lord hopes that all of us may be healed by our faith and trust in Him, and also be inspired by the good examples and the faith which Mary herself has shown in her life. Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes is a great role model and example for us all to follow, and we should do our best to follow her examples in our own life and actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore today let us all remind ourselves of God’s great and most generous love for us, all the things that He has done for our sake. Let us not take His love for granted and let us continue to thank Him for all that He has lovingly provided for us, and for the help He has shown us through His Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Lourdes, who is also our Mother. May the Lord also have mercy on the sick and those who are suffering from various diseases and ailments, and let us all continue to pray for them all, so that God may continue to journey with them all and show them all His mercy and compassion. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for all of us sinners, your sons and daughters, so that we may come to realise the depth of our sinfulness and evils, and that we may come to repent and turn away from those wickedness, and find our way to your beloved Son, Our Lord and Saviour. Amen.