Sunday

by

(Usus Antiquior) Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 30 July 2023 : Offertory, Secret Prayer of the Priest, Communion and Post-Communion Prayer

Liturgical Colour : Green

Offertory

Psalm 18 : 9, 10, 11, 12

Justitiae Domini rectae, laetificantes corda, et judicia ejus dulciora super mel et favum : nam et servus Tuus custodiat ea.

English translation

The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts, and His judgments sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, for Your servant keeps them.

Secret Prayer of the Priest

Concede nobis, quaesumus, Domine, haec digne frequentare mysteria : quia, quoties hujus hostiae commemoratio celebratur, opus nostrae redemptionis exercetur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

Grant us, we beseech You, o Lord, worthily to frequent these mysteries, for as often as the commemoration of this victim is celebrated, the work of our redemption is performed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Communion

John 6 : 57

Qui manducat Meam Carnem et bibit Meum Sanguinem, in Me manet et Ego in eo, dicit Dominus.

English translation

He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood, abides in Me, and I in Him, says the Lord.

Post-Communion Prayer

Tui nobis, quaesumus, Domine, communio sacramenti, et purificationem conferat, et tribuat unitatem. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

Let the communion of Your sacrament, we beseech You, o Lord, both cleanse us from sin and make us of one mind and one heart in Your service. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

by

(Usus Antiquior) Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 30 July 2023 : Holy Gospel

Liturgical Colour : Green

Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke

Luke 19 : 4-47

In illo tempore : Cum appropinquaret Jesus Jerusalem, videns civitatem, flevit super illam, dicens : Quia si cognovisses et tu, et quidem in hac die tua, quae ad pacem tibi, nunc autem abscondita sunt ab oculis tuis.

Quia venient dies in te : et circumdabunt te : et coangustabunt te undique : et ad terram prosternent te, et filios tuos, qui in te sunt, et non relinquent in te lapidem super lapidem : eo quod non cognoveris tempus visitationis tuae.

Et ingressus in templum, coepit ejicere vendentes in illo et ementes, dicens illis : Scriptum est : Quia domus mea domus orationis est. Vos autem fecistis illam speluncam latronum. Et erat docens cotidie in templo.

English translation

At that time, when Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, seeing the city, He wept over it saying, “If you had also known, and that in this your day, the things that are to your peace but now they are hidden from your eyes.”

“For the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and encompass you round, and straighten you on every side, and beat you flat to the ground, and your children who are in you, and they shall not leave in you a stone upon a stone, because you have not known the time of your visitation.”

And entering into the Temple, He began to cast out those who had sold therein, and those who bought from them, saying to them, “It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” And He was teaching daily in the Temple.

by

(Usus Antiquior) Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 30 July 2023 : Gradual and Alleluia

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 8 : 2 and Psalm 58 : 2

Domine, Dominus noster, quam admirabile est Nomen Tuum in universa terra!

Response : Quoniam elevata est magnificentia Tua super caelos.

Alleluja, Alleluja.

Response : Eripe me de inimicis meis, Deus meus : et ab insurgentibus in me libera me. Alleluja.

English translation

O Lord our Lord, how admirable is Your Name in the whole earth.

Response : For Your magnificence is elevated above the heavens.

Alleluia, Alleluia.

Response : Deliver me from my enemies, o my God, and defend me from those who rise up against me. Alleluia.

by

(Usus Antiquior) Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 30 July 2023 : Epistle

Liturgical Colour : Green

Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

1 Corinthians 10 : 6-13

Fratres : Non simus concupiscentes malorum, sicut et illi concupierunt. Neque idololatrae efficiamini, sicut quidam ex ipsis : quemadmodum scriptum est : Sedit populus manducare et bibere, et surrexerunt ludere. Neque fornicemur, sicut quidam ex ipsis fornicati sunt, et ceciderunt una die viginti tria milia.

Neque tentemus Christum, sicut quidam eorum tentaverunt, et a serpentibus perierunt. Neque murmuraveritis, sicut quidam eorum murmuraverunt, et perierunt ab exterminatore.

Haec autem omnia in figura contingebant illis : scripta sunt autem ad correptionem nostram, in quos fines saeculorum devenerunt. Itaque qui se existimat stare, videat ne cadat. Tentatio vos non apprehendat, nisi humana : fidelis autem Deus est, qui non patietur vos tentari supra id, quod potestis, sed faciet etiam cum tentatione proventum, ut possitis sustinere.

English translation

Brethren, let us not covet evil things, as they also coveted. Neither should you become idolaters, as some of them, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither should you murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

Now all these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he who thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human, and God is faithful, He Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.

by

(Usus Antiquior) Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 30 July 2023 : Introit and Collect

Liturgical Colour : Green

Introit

Psalm 53 : 6-7

Ecce, Deus adjuvat me, et Dominus susceptor est animae meae : averte mala inimicis meis, et in veritate Tua disperde illos, protector meus, Domine.

Deus, in Nomine Tuo salvum me fac : et in virtute Tua libera me.

Response : Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper : et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

Behold, God is my Helper, and the Lord is the Protector of my soul. Turn back the evils upon my enemies, and cut them off in Your truth, o Lord, my Protector.

Save me, o God, by Your Name, and deliver me in Your strength.

Response : Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Collect

Pateant aures misericordiae Tuae, Domine, precibus supplicantium : et, ut petentibus desiderata concedas; fac eos quae Tibi sunt placita, postulare. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

Let the ears of Your mercy, o Lord, be open to the prayers of Your suppliants, and that You may grant their desires to those who seek, make them to ask only for those things that please You. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

by

Sunday, 23 July 2023 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us heard the messages from the Sacred Scriptures in which we are all reminded to be receptive to the gifts of the Lord’s truth and to this faith which we have received from the Lord, giving us His wonderful Wisdom and other gifts, the gift of His love and kindness, compassion and all the blessings and graces of the Spirit of God. Each one of us have been entrusted with the gifts of faith, as diverse and varied as they are, so that we may make good use of them to do the good works of God and to carry out whatever the Lord has entrusted to us to do with our lives, in being His true disciples and followers in this world, and not just merely paying lip service to Him only. All of us have been shown the path of righteousness and virtue by the Lord Himself, and we should indeed do our best to make good use of those gifts.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Wisdom, we heard the author of the Book of Wisdom speaking about the greatness, power, strength and justice of God, which God has revealed to His people, in order to lead and guide all of them to Himself. All of us as God’s people, as the members of His Body, the Church, all share in this same truth and knowledge of the Wisdom of God, of His providence and grace, and all of us have been provided with the rich guidance and the way which God wants us all to walk in, the path of His justice and righteousness, as we are constantly being reminded day after day to do the will of God, obey His Law and commandments, to do what He has taught us through His Church, through the Pope, the bishops and the priests, who have passed down unto us the teachings and the wisdom of God from the Lord Himself.

And He has also given us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit that has descended upon all of us, which St. Paul elaborated in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Rome, which we heard in our second reading today. St. Paul spoke of the works of the Holy Spirit in all of us, who have received the Holy Spirit through the Church of God, by the laying of hands from the Apostles and their successors, and passed to us through the grace of the Sacrament of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist, the Sacraments of Initiation, by which the Lord Himself has dwelled in us in the Flesh and the Spirit, as we become the Temples of God’s Most Holy Presence, our beings having been empowered and made strong by the Lord Himself, Who gave us His strength and wisdom, His grace and love, everything that He has lovingly provided and promised for us from the very beginning.

That is why as we listened and remembered what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, as the Lord elaborated and highlighted what the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God is like, using many parables and comparisons, all of us must carefully discern and think of how the Kingdom of God itself has been manifested in this world, not as like any of the earthly realms and the physical kingdoms of this world. Instead, the Kingdom of God is already existing and present in this world, in all of us, the faithful people of God, the Church of God and the Communion in the One Body of Christ. All of us as the visible Body of Christ, the Holy Communion of all the believers, are the visible Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the Kingdom of God, the preview of the everlasting and most glorious Kingdom in which we shall spend an eternity with our loving God and King.

If we recall what we heard in our previous Sunday’s Gospel passage, regarding the parable of the sower, then we must have recalled how the Lord related to His disciples the fates awaiting each of the different seeds that were spread and fell on four different places. Those seeds represent the word of God, the will of God and His truth, which have been given to all of us, most generously and freely, and yet, many of us have failed to allow those seeds to grow well in our beings, as we spent a lot of time on following many different earthly and worldly pursuits, being tempted and misguided by the many attachments we have upon this world’s pleasures and goodness. That is why the seeds of faith and love for God often failed to germinate and grow in our hearts and minds, as we have not provided good and favourable conditions for the development of this faith.

Today, as we then listened to the words of the Gospel passage, in which the Lord told the people and His disciples of yet another parable related to the parable of the sower, in which the master and lord of the land sowed good seeds, only for the enemy to discreetly sow the bad seeds of weeds in order to sabotage and destroy the master’s harvest. As the Lord explained the meaning of this parable, He highlighted how both the wheat and the weeds were allowed to grow until the time of the harvest, when those wheat will be harvested and kept, while the weeds will be destroyed and burnt. This is a reference to the just and the wicked living and existing together, and how in each one of us there are indeed both good and evil things. Now, what is important is that we must realise that, nothing evil can come to the Presence of God, Who is all good and perfect, and hence, if we have done what is evil and sinful, and we have not atoned for them, or be forgiven from them, then our lot may likely be in the eternal fire and suffering.

On the other hand, all of us are also reminded of the great potential that each and every one of us have, in doing what is good, right and just in the sight and presence of the Lord. As the other parable which the Lord used was the yeast hidden in three measures of flour, which will let the dough to rise if the right conditions are provided. All those who were then familiar with the making of bread would have known that if yeast was not added, or if the dough was not sealed properly in an airtight place, or if water was not added, and if the right temperature was not used in the process, the dough would not rise and the proper bread could not be made. This is similar to what we have heard in the parable of the sower in which if the right conditions are not provided, then the seeds cannot germinate into good and healthy plants.

This reminds us that all of us must therefore live our lives in this world worthily and faithfully, as Christians, that is as those who believe in God and in His truth. All of us must do this so that we can nurture our faith and love for God, and so that we may provide the optimum conditions necessary for our faith in the Lord to develop and for our lives to be truly worthy of Him. This is what each and every one of is have been called to do, that is to sanctify our lives and to devote our works, actions and efforts in life to be truly exemplary and faithful in all things. Through us, the whole body of the faithful, the Church of God, we can make the Kingdom of God to be manifest in this world, and the way to do that, is for us to commit ourselves thoroughly to the path that God has shown us, and strive to be great and holy in our way of living our daily lives.

Let us all therefore make good use of the many gifts and blessings that God has granted and blessed us with, all the wonders that He has given us. Each and every one of us should do our part in living a most faithful and exemplary life, filled with genuine and living, vibrant and missionary faith. May all of us become the great beacons of God’s light and truth, His love and salvation, that we may be the bearers of His Good News, His love and grace into this world. May God bless us all in our every good efforts, actions and endeavours, and may He lead us all into the glory and joy of eternal life. Amen.

by

Sunday, 23 July 2023 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 13 : 24-43

At that time, Jesus told the people another parable, “The kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a man, who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep, his enemy came, and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also appeared. Then, the servants of the owner came, and said to him, ‘Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?'”

“He answered them, ‘This is the work of an enemy.’ They asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ He told them, ‘No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let them grow together, until harvest; and, at harvest time, I will say to the workers : Pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn.'”

Jesus offered them another parable : “The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is smaller than all other seeds, but once it is fully grown, it is bigger than any garden plant; like a tree, the birds come and rest in its branches.”

He told them another parable, “The kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast that a woman took, and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole mass of dough began to rise.”

Jesus taught all these things to the crowds by means of parables; He did not say anything to them without using a parable. This fulfilled what was spoken by the Prophet : I will speak in parables. I will proclaim things kept secret since the beginning of the world.

Then He sent the crowds away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” Jesus answered them, “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed are the people of the kingdom; the weeds are those who follow the evil one. The enemy who sows the weeds is the devil; the harvest is the end of time, and the workers are the Angels.”

“Just as the weeds are pulled up and burnt in the fire, so will it be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send His Angels, and they will weed out His kingdom all that is scandalous and all who do evil. And these will be thrown into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just will shine, like the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears, then hear.”

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Matthew 13 : 24-30

At that time, Jesus told the people another parable, “The kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a man, who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep, his enemy came, and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also appeared. Then, the servants of the owner came, and said to him, ‘Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?'”

“He answered them, ‘This is the work of an enemy.’ They asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ He told them, ‘No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let them grow together, until harvest; and, at harvest time, I will say to the workers : Pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn.'”

by

Sunday, 23 July 2023 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Romans 8 : 26-27

Likewise, the Spirit helps is in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes for us, without words, as if with groans. And He, Who sees inner secrets, knows the desires of the Spirit, for He asks for the holy ones, what is pleasing to God.

by

Sunday, 23 July 2023 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 85 : 5-6, 9-10, 15-16a

You are good and forgiving, o YHVH, caring for those who call on You. Listen, o YHVH, to my prayer, hear the voice of my pleading.

All the nations You have made will come; they will worship before You, o YHVH, and bring glory to Your Name. For You are great, and wonderful are Your deeds; You alone, are God.

But You, o YHVH God, are merciful, slow to anger, loving and faithful. Turn to me, take pity on me.

by

Sunday, 23 July 2023 : Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Wisdom 12 : 13, 16-19

For there is no other god besides You, One Who cares for everyone, who could ask You to justify Your judgments. Your strength is the source of Your justice and because You are the Lord of all, You can be merciful to everyone.

To those who doubt Your sovereign power You show Your strength and You confound the insolence of those who ignore it. But You, the Lord of strength, judge with prudence and govern us with great patience, because You are able to do anything at the time You want.

In this way You have taught Your people that a righteous person must love his human fellows; You have also given Your people cause for hope by prompting them to repent of their sin.