Saints

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Tuesday, 11 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (Gospel Reading)

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

Mark 7 : 1-13

One day the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, and with them were some teachers of the Law who had just come from Jerusalem. They noticed that some of His disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.

Now the Pharisees, and in fact all the Jews never eat without washing their hands, for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they eat anything, when they come from the market, without first washing themselves. And there are many other traditions they observe; for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots and plates.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?” Jesus answered, “You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied of you when he wrote : This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. The worship they offer Me is worthless, for what they teach are only human rules. You even put aside the commandment of God to hold fast to human tradition.”

And Jesus commented, “You have a fine way of disregarding the commandments of God in order to enforce your own traditions! For example, Moses said : Do your duty to your father and your mother, and : Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death. But according to you, someone could say to his father or mother, ‘I already declared Corban (which means “offered to God”) what you could have expected from me.'”

“In this case you no longer require him to do anything for his father or mother, and so you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed on. And you do many other things like that.”

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

John 2 : 1-11

At that time, three days after Jesus called Nathanael, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the wedding with His disciples. When all the wine provided for the celebration had been served, and they had run out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, what concern is that to you and Me? My hour has not yet come.” However His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Nearby were six stone water jars, set there for ritual washing as practiced by the Jews; each jar could hold twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. Then Jesus said, “Now draw some out and take it to the steward.” So they did. The steward tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing from where it had come; for only the servants who had drawn the water knew. So, he called the bridegroom to tell him, “Everyone serves the best wine first, and when people have drunk enough, he serves that which is ordinary. Instead you have kept the best wine until the end.”

This miraculous sign was the first, and Jesus performed it at Cana in Galilee. In this way He let His glory appear, and His disciples believed in Him.

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

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

Psalm 8 : 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

When I observe the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars You set in their place – what is man that You be mindful of him, the Son of Man that You should care for Him?

Yet You made Him a little lower than the Angels; You crowned Him with glory and honour and gave Him the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet.

Sheep and oxen without number and even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea and all that swim the paths of the ocean.

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

Judith 13 : 18bcde, 19

My daughter, may the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who has led you to behead the leader of our enemies.

Never will people forget the confidence you have shown; they will always remember the power of God.

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Tuesday, 11 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (First Reading)

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

Genesis 1 : 20 – Genesis 2 : 4a

God said, “Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth under the ceiling of the sky.” God created the great monsters of the sea and all living animals, those that teem in the waters, according to their kind, and every winged bird, according to its kind. God saw that it was good. God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the waters of the sea, and let the birds increase on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning : the fifth day.

God said, “Let the earth produce living animals according to their kind : cattle, creatures that move along the ground, wild animals according to their kind. So it was. God created the wild animals according to their kind, and everything that creeps along the ground according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, to Our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals, and over all creeping things that crawl along the ground.” So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God said, “I have given you every seed bearing plants which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning : the sixth day. That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work He had done.

And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day He rested from all the work He had done in His creation. These are the successive steps in the creation of the heavens and the earth.

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes)

Isaiah 66 : 10-14c

Rejoice for Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Be glad with her, rejoice with her, all you who were in grief over her, that you may suck of the milk from her comforting breasts, that you may drink deeply from the abundance of her glory.

For this is what YHVH says : I will send her peace, overflowing like a river;  and the nations’ wealth, rushing like a torrent towards her. And you will be nursed and carried in her arms and fondled upon her lap. As a son comforted by his mother, so will I comfort you. At the sight of this, your heart will rejoice; like grass, your bones will flourish.

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Monday, 10 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Lord contained in the Sacred Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the love of God which has been given to us, in His Creation of this whole world and universe, of everything present around us, our world and all the good things in it. Ultimately, we also recall our own gift of life, the most wonderful gift of this life which we have received from the Lord Himself through His Spirit, the Spirit of Life, giving us all the life that we are now experiencing and which we have gained by the great love that God has for each and every one of us. It was God’s love that made everything possible for us, even our lives and existence, for without His love, none of us would have existed and lived.

In our first reading today, we heard the account from the beginning of the Book of Genesis where the account of the Creation of the Universe was told to us, detailing how God created all things at the moment of Creation in the beginning of time, making all things to be as they exist to this day. We heard the first half of these events of Creation, as God created what we are all familiar with, beginning with Light, and then the world itself, and all the celestial bodies and structures, showing to us that God is truly the Lord and Master of all the whole Universe. Of course some would debate on whether God really created the world and the whole Universe in just seven days, but in truth, the Scriptures never truly said that God finish the Creation in seven literal days.

One possible point of view is that, from the perspective of the storyteller and from those inspired by the Lord to write this account, the event took place over seven days, while the actual event might have spanned millennia and even millions of years, thus reconciling the view of how the Universe exists according to scientific beliefs and evidences and our Christian faith in the Creation of the Universe. After all, there are many things that Science and our understanding of this world and universe cannot explain, as we are limited in our capabilities to comprehend things that are truly beyond our imagination and ability to understand the true and full reality of this world and Universe around us. This is something that we have to keep in mind, just as we all also realise the nature of our own mortality, how our lives are all belonging to God, and have been given to us by God.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the works of the Lord at the Lake of Galilee or the Lake of Gennesaret where He called His first disciples, the fishermen Simon, Andrew, James and John. It was there that many people came flocking to Him, seeking for Him to heal their sick ones, or their own infirmities. It was told to us how He patiently cared for all of them, curing them and helping all those who had been downtrodden and afflicted. Through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who became incarnate in the flesh and appearing before us as the Son of Man, God made Himself approachable and tangible in His love, with Christ as the perfect manifestation of His love in this world amongst us all.

From what we have heard today in this Gospel passage, we are being reminded yet again of the great love which the Lord has for each and every one of us, His most generous love and kindness, that He has manifested Himself in His own Creation, embracing our own human flesh and existence that He had once brought into reality through His Word, so that by this incarnation all of us may come to share in the joy and love of Our Creator, and interact with Him personally in a most tangible way. And not only that, as we all know, the Lord has come into our midst so that He might gather all of us back to Him, all of His scattered lost sheep, as our loving Good Shepherd and loving Father, Who desires that each one of us come back to Him and repent from our sins and transgressions.

And He did all these through His Son, Jesus Christ, by Whom He has manifested His love as mentioned, and through Whose most loving and selfless sacrifice on the Cross He has united all of our sufferings to Himself, and bore the brunt of our many sins upon His own shoulders so that by His wounds and death, all of us might be brought into salvation, as through the outpouring of His Most Precious Blood, He has cleansed all the taints and corruptions that sin had afflicted upon us. God created all of His Creation, this whole Universe all perfect and good without blemish, and by our disobedience against God, we have allowed sin to enter into our midst, corrupting this perfect existence that is our beings. But God Who truly loves all of us has provided us with the perfect means to be free from this corruption, which He had done through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Scholastica, who was known as the twin sister of the other well-known man of God, St. Benedict of Nursia. St. Scholastica was born with his brother in a wealthy Roman family in Nursia in Italy, and as she grew up, like that of his brother who embraced the calling to religious and consecrated life, St. Scholastica also embraced the same call, establishing a community of religious women mirroring what her brother had done in establishing a community for men seeking a contemplative and prayerful life in God. Both of them lived their lives with great love and devotion to God, becoming great role models and inspirations to everyone around them. St. Scholastica eventually passed away before St. Benedict, and according to St. Benedict’s own account, he saw the soul of his sister ascending into Heaven, back to God’s loving Presence.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as God’s beloved people, those whom He has created out of love, let us all realise how fortunate all of us have been to be loved in such a great manner by God, our Creator, and we ought to show Him our gratitude by loving Him in the same manner that He has loved us all first. We should also always strive to live our lives worthily and virtuously, filled with God’s grace and love, His truth and justice. We must not allow sin and darkness to corrupt us and lead us down the path towards ruin and destruction, but we ought to resist those temptations, keeping in mind that each one of us are meant to live and exist in the state of grace, as God has created us all, pure and blameless, free from the corruption of sin.

May the Lord our loving God, Father and Creator continue to be with us always, and may He empower each one of us to walk ever more faithfully in His Presence from now on, doing our best to take good care of everything that He has created, this world and everyone around us. May all of us, as His disciples and followers, be good examples and inspirations for one another so that we may help lead more and more souls towards the salvation in God. May God bless us always, our every good deeds and endeavours, all for His greater glory. Amen.

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Monday, 10 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 6 : 53-56

At that time, having crossed the lake, Jesus and His disciples came ashore at Gennesaret, where they tied up the boat. As soon as they landed, people recognised Jesus, and ran to spread the news throughout the countryside.

Wherever He was, they brought to Him the sick lying on their mats; and wherever He went, to villages, towns or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace, and begged Him to let them touch just the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were cured.

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Monday, 10 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 103 : 1-2a, 5-6, 10 and 12, 24 and 35c

Bless the Lord my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour; o Lord, my God, how great You are! You are wrapped in light as with a garment.

You set the earth on its foundations, and never will it be shaken. You covered it with the ocean like a garment, and waters spread over the mountains.

You make springs gush forth in valleys winding among mountains and hills. Birds build their nests close by and sing among the branches of trees.

How varied o Lord, are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all – the earth full of Your creatures. Bless the Lord, my soul!

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Monday, 10 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Genesis 1 : 1-19

In the beginning, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth had no form and was void; darkness was over the deep and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘Day’ and the darkness ‘Night’. There was evening and there was morning : the first day.

God said, “Let there be a firm ceiling between the waters and let it separate waters from waters.” So God made the ceiling and separated the waters below it from the waters above it. And so it was. God called the firm ceiling ‘Sky’. There was evening and there was morning : the second day.

God said, “Let the waters below the sky be gathered in one place and let dry land appear. And so it was. God called the dry land ‘Earth’, and the waters gathered together he called ‘Seas’. God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants, fruit trees bearing fruit with seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And so it was. The earth produced vegetation : plants bearing seed according to their kind and trees producing fruit which has seed, according to their kind. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning : the third day.

God said, “Let there be lights in the ceiling of the sky to separate day from night and to serve as signs for the seasons, days and years; and let these lights in the sky shine above the earth.” And so it was. God therefore made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the smaller light to govern the night; and God made the stars as well. God placed them in the ceiling of the sky to give light on the earth and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning : the fourth day.

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Saturday, 8 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints or Holy Virgins or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the love of God which has been revealed to us so generously and wonderfully through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God Who has embraced our humanity and existence in the flesh, becoming our Shepherd and Guide, as our Good Shepherd, the One to gather each and every one of us, the lost sheep of the Lord’s flock. Each one of us are reminded of how precious all of us are to the Lord, our loving God and Father, and how much He wants us all to be reconciled to Him, which He gave us the best help and means through the giving of His own Son to be our Saviour. This is why as we reflect upon these words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we should do our best to follow the leads of our loving Good Shepherd.

In our first reading today, taken from the continuation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author of this Epistle to the Hebrews spoke about the love and the great, wonderful things which God had done for their sake through the sacrifice and offerings of Christ, the Good Shepherd, and our High Priest, for our salvation. The author had been spending a lot of time throughout the Epistle to convince and strengthen the faith of the believers from among the Jewish community by going through with them the true nature and the identity of Jesus Christ, the One Who had been prophesied by the prophets, the Son of God Who had been incarnate in the flesh, coming into our midst to give unto us the sure hope of God’s salvation, which He had done by laying down His own life, to suffer and die for us all, the sheep of the Lord’s flock.

Like in the parable of the Good Shepherd, the Lord Himself told us all that He will always be going forth to seek us, the lost sheep of God, who have been scattered in this world because of our disobedience and sins. He does not want us all to be lost forever to Him, and He opened the path for us to seek Him, to embrace His love and mercy, to call on us all to return back once again to God’s Holy Presence, leaving behind our sinful existence and actions, embracing instead the holiness and virtues of the Lord in all things. We have been scattered and lost from Him because we have allowed our sins to tempt and pull us away from the Lord, and the Lord did everything that He could to reach out to us and to bring us all back to His loving embrace, to forgive us our many sins.

Then, in our Gospel passage today taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard the story of how the Lord and His disciples ministered to the people of God, and how the Lord had pity on all those who had come to seek Him and to listen to His words. He saw them all as sheep which were without a shepherd, scattered and lost, and thus, as mentioned, Him being our Good Shepherd, He gathered all of them and showed them all His most wonderful and patient love, ministering to them and caring for them, teaching them even though He Himself, in His humanity, must have felt so tired and exhausted after all the endless works that He had performed with His disciples. And yet, He kept pushing on and showed His continued love to us, because He truly loves each and every one of us, without exception.

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Jerome Emiliani, also known as Gerolamo Emiliani, an Italian humanitarian and holy man of God, known as the founder of the Somaschi Fathers, gathering together like-minded individuals who shared in his desire to reach out to the less fortunate in the community of the people of God, caring for the need of the poor, the sick and all those who were less privileged and less fortunate. He was born in Venice in the early sixteenth century, and he ran away in his teenage years to join the military. After having been in the military for a while, becoming even the governor of a fortress in the region of northern Italy, he was taken prisoner, during which time, he had a change of heart, realising the guidance of God through Mary, His blessed Mother, to whom he committed himself and gave thanks for his escape and liberation from the imprisonment.

Henceafter, St. Jerome no longer focused on himself or on any sorts of worldly ambitions and desires. Instead, he began caring for the needs of those around him, showing care and concern for those who are suffering, from famine and from diseases, and all those who have been abandoned by the community, the orphans and others who have not experienced the love of others, and who have been neglected by their fellow men and women. He ministered to their needs and as mentioned, inspired many others to follow his examples, establishing charitable institutions and other organisations for the benefit of those poor and the needy who are lacking in basic needs and many others like prostitutes and those who have been ostracised and condemned by the people in their own community. He initiated the community of the Congregation of Regular Clerics at Somasca, which eventually became the Somaschi Fathers.

The other saint we also celebrate today is St. Josephine Bakhita, who was a slave woman from the region of the present day Sudan in northern part of Africa. St. Josephine Bakhita was kidnapped from her family in her early youth and was sold as a slave, passing from masters to masters, enduring all sorts of physical and other abuses, before eventually ending up in the service of the Italian Vice-Consul in the region. During that time, conflicts were happening in the area, and the Italian Vice-Consul decided to relocate back to Italy together with his family. St. Josephine Bakhita was brought to Italy in this manner, leaving behind the land of her past slavery. She was handed over to the Vice-Consul’s friend, another Italian, who wanted to bring her back to Sudan as he was considering relocating there completely. St. Josephine Bakhita resisted and firmly refused to return to that land.

At that time, she was already beginning her period of catechumenate, having been left in the care of the Canossian sisters, with whom she would later on spend the rest of her life serving as a member. Eventually, the matter was settled by the Italian courts, with the support of the Church for St. Josephine Bakhita, which ruled that she had never legally been a slave due to the rules implemented before her birth. Thus, St. Josephine Bakhita was finally a freewoman, and she chose to stay on with the Canossian Sisters for the remaining more than four decades of her life, ministering to the Canossian sisters and the community, living a holy and devout life, which became great inspiration for many others around her, both in the Canossian community and beyond. Many people came to pay last respects to her when she finally passed away in 1947 after years of being sick.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be reminded always of God’s love for us, the love that our loving Shepherd, Father and Creator has for all of us. And let us all therefore respond to Him with the same love, devotion and commitment, one that has also been shown by our many holy predecessors, particularly from the examples of St. Jerome Emiliani and St. Josephine Bakhita that we had just discussed. Let us all be inspired by them and do our best in our own respective areas and communities, to be truly dedicated to God and His cause, and to show His love to our fellow brothers and sisters around us, so that hopefully, many more people may come to believe in God through us and our good examples. May God be with us all in our every missions, good works and endeavours, and may St. Jerome Emiliani and St. Josephine Bakhita continue to intercede for us all sinners. Amen.

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Saturday, 8 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints or Holy Virgins or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

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, “Go off by yourselves to 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 a long teaching session with them.

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Saturday, 8 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints or Holy Virgins or Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Psalm 22 : 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He restores my soul.

He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake. Although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me : Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.