Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 8-9, 10 and 14
Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.
Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.
The ways of the Lord are love and faithfulness for those who keep His covenant and precepts. The Lord gives advice to those who revere Him and makes His covenant known to them.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Jeremiah 33 : 14-16
The days are coming when I shall fulfil the promise that I made in favour of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause to sprout the Shoot of righteousness from David’s line; He will practice justice and righteousness in the land.
In those days Judah will experience salvation and Jerusalem will live in safety. He will be called YHVH-Our-Righteousness.
Liturgical Colour : Violet
Offertory
Psalm 24 : 1-3
Ad Te levavi animam meam : Deus meus, in Te confido, non erubescam : neque irrideant me inimici mei : etenim universi, qui Te exspectant, non confundentur.
English translation
To You, o Lord, have I lifted up my soul : in You, o my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies laugh at me, for none of them who wait on You shall be confounded.
Secret Prayer of the Priest
Haec sacra nos, Domine, potenti virtute mundatos ad suum faciant puriores venire principium. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
Cleansing us by their mighty power, may these Holy Mysteries, o Lord, make us become more pure before You Who are their Author. 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
Psalm 84 : 13
Dominus dabit benignitatem : et terra nostra dabit fructum suum.
English translation
The Lord will give goodness, and our earth shall yield her fruit.
Post-Communion Prayer
Suscipiamus, Domine, misericordiam Tuam in medio templi Tui : ut reparationis nostrae ventura sollemnia congruis honoribus praecedamus. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
May we receive Your mercy, o Lord, in the midst of Your Temple, that with due reverence we may prepare for the coming festival of our redemption. 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.
Liturgical Colour : Violet
Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke
Luke 21 : 25-33
In illo tempore : Dixit Jesus discipulis Suis : Erunt signa in sole et luna et stellis, et in terris pressura gentium prae confusione sonitus maris et fluctuum : arescentibus hominibus prae timore et exspectatione, quae supervenient universo orbi.
Nam virtutes caelorum movebuntur. Et tunc videbunt Filium Hominis venientem in nube cum potestate magna et majestate. His autem fieri incipientibus, respicite et levate capita vestra : quoniam appropinquat redemptio vestra.
Et dixit illis similitudinem : Videte ficulneam et omnes arbores : cum producunt jam ex se fructum, scitis, quoniam prope est aestas. Ita et vos, cum videritis haec fieri, scitote, quoniam prope est regnum Dei. Amen, dico vobis, quia non praeteribit generatio haec, donec omnia fiant. Caelum et terra transibunt : verba autem mea non transibunt.
English translation
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves, men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world.”
“For the powers of heaven shall be moved, and then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand.”
And He spoke to them a similitude, “See the fig tree, and all the trees, when they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh; so you also, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen, I say to you, this generation shall not pass away, till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”
Liturgical Colour : Violet
Psalm 24 : 3-4 and Psalm 84 : 8
Universi, qui Te exspectant, non confundentur, Domine.
Response : Vias Tuas, Domine, notas fac mihi : et semitas Tuas edoce me.
Alleluja, Alleluja.
Response : Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam Tuam : et salutare Tuum da nobis. Alleluja.
English translation
None of those who wait on You shall be confounded.
Response : Show, o Lord, Your ways to me, and teach me Your paths.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Response : Show us, o Lord, Your mercy, and grant us Your salvation. Alleluia.
Liturgical Colour : Violet
Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Romanos – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Romans
Romans 13 : 11-14
Fratres : Scientes, quia hora est jam nos de somno surgere. Nunc enim propior est nostra salus, quam cum credidimus. Nox praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit. Abjiciamus ergo opera tenebrarum, et induamur arma lucis.
Sicut in die honeste ambulemus : non in comessationibus et ebrietatibus, non in cubilibus et impudicitiis, non in contentione et aemulatione : sed induimini Dominum Jesum Christum.
English translation
Brethren, knowing the time, that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is past, and the day is at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light.
Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy, but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Liturgical Colour : Violet
Introit
Psalm 24 : 1-3 and 4
Ad Te levavi animam meam : Deus meus, in Te confido, non erubescam : neque irrideant me inimici mei : etenim universi, qui Te exspectant, non confundentur.
Vias Tuas, Domine, demonstra mihi : et semitas Tuas edoce me.
Response : Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper : et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
To You, o Lord, have I lifted up my soul : in You, o my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies laugh at me, for none of them who wait on You shall be confounded.
Show, o Lord, Your ways to me, and teach me Your paths.
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
Excita, quaesumus, Domine, potentiam Tuam, et veni : ut ab imminentibus peccatorum nostrorum periculis, Te mereamur protegente eripi, Te liberante salvari. Qui Vivis et regnas in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
Bestir, o Lord, Your might, we pray to You, and come, that, defended by You, we may deserve rescue from approaching dangers brought on by our sins, and being set free by You, obtain our salvation. You Who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, on this last day of our current liturgical year, we are all again reminded as we have constantly been for the rest of this week of the coming of the Lord and His salvation at the very end of time. We are reminded not to be complacent and idle in how we live our lives in this world so that we do not end up being caught unprepared and unaware at the coming of the Lord’s judgment and time of reckoning.
As we listened from our first reading today taken from the Book of the prophet Daniel, we heard of the conclusion of this week’s apocalyptic readings from the Book of Daniel, detailing the heavenly vision of Daniel regarding the end of times and the coming of God’s salvation. Daniel had seen how the faithful people of God will face sufferings, trials and challenges just as he himself and his other compatriots in faith had also suffered for their continued faith in God during their exile in Babylon.
The Lord showed Daniel the vision of the ones who will persecute the faithful, the great beasts in his vision that brought suffering and will cause great harm to the people of God. As I mentioned in the earlier days this week, the same kind of vision was also given in even greater detail to St. John the Apostle which he recorded in his Revelations. Through what we have heard from both sources, those great beasts of the end times actually are references to the forces of Satan, the great enemy of all the faithful, that are trying to bring about our destruction by various means.
Those beasts are also metaphorical representations of the great kingdoms and states that were the ones and are going to be the ones in our own future that brought about and will bring about great persecution of the faithful. We certainly knew of how the Jewish authorities and later on the Romans persecuted the Christians, their leaders and the faithful in so many occasions, and then followed by so many other occasions throughout history, the countless martyrs that were created from many episodes of continued persecutions of the faithful and the Church.
Even to our very own present day, many of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters are still being persecuted daily and are denied the opportunity to practice their faith freely and openly. Many had to go into hiding and keep their faith secretly much in the same way as how the early Christians had to hide from the authorities amidst many brutal persecutions against them. And even in other places, even perhaps in our own communities, where Christians are not persecuted per se, we can see growing break with the fundamental Christian truths and how more and more people who are holding on to the truth of God are being ridiculed, ostracised and sidelined.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as we heard from our Gospel passage today in which the Lord reminded all of His disciples to guard themselves from drunkenness and also complacency and always to be ready for anything that comes our way, then we are all reminded to be active in living our lives as Christians and to be courageous in keeping our faith alive and present in our daily lives. The Lord has provided and blessed us with many things, with His truth, wisdom and guidance, and so we should make good use of the many opportunities that He has given to us.
As we come to the end of this current liturgical year and begin the new one with the season of Advent, let us all ask ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ, are we ready to live our lives in a new way, according to the path that the Lord has shown us? And are we ready to change ourselves for the better and no longer subject ourselves to the temptations of worldliness and our wicked desires? Let us ponder these carefully in our hearts and discern how we are to live our lives as good and dedicated Christians from now on.
As we enter into this new season of Advent beginning tomorrow, let us all prepare our hearts and minds, our whole being to welcome the Lord and to be ready to celebrate Christmas worthily. Let us no longer be idle and complacent, but be ever ready to welcome the Lord wholeheartedly into our houses, into our hearts and into ourselves. May God be with us all and may He bless all of us in our every endeavours, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Luke 21 : 34-36
At that time, Jesus said to the people, “Be on your guard : do not immerse yourselves in a life of pleasure, drunkenness and worldly cares, lest that day catch you unaware, like a trap! For, like a snare, will that day come upon all the inhabitants of the earth. But watch at all times and pray, that you may be able to escape all that is going to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Daniel 3 : 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87
All people on earth, praise and exalt Him forever.
Israel, praise and exalt Him forever.
Priests of the Lord, praise and exalt Him forever.
Servants of the Lord, praise and exalt Him forever.
Spirits and souls of the just, praise and exalt Him forever.
Those who are holy and humble of heart, praise and exalt Him forever.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 