Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 24 : 4bc-5, 6-7, 8-9
O YHVH, make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour; I hope in You all day long.
Remember Your compassion, o YHVH, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.
Good and upright, YHVH teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Ezekiel 18 : 25-28
But you say : YHVH’s way is not just! Why, Israel! Is My position wrong? Is it not rather that yours is wrong? If the righteous man turns from his righteous deeds, and sins, then he dies, because of his sins.
And if the wicked man does what is good and right, after turning from the sins he committed, he will save his life. He will live and not die, because he has opened his eyes; and turned from the sins he had committed.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Offertory
Daniel 9 : 17, 18, 19
Oravi Deum meum ego Daniel, dicens : Exaudi, Domine, preces servi Tui : illumina faciem Tuam super sanctuarium Tuum : et propitius intende populum istum, super quem invocatum est Nomen Tuum, Deus.
English translation
I, Daniel, prayed to my God, saying, “Hear, o Lord, the prayers of Your servant, show Your face upon Your sanctuary, and favourably look down upon this people upon whom Your Name is invoked, o God.”
Secret Prayer of the Priest
Majestatem Tuam, Domine, suppliciter deprecamur : ut haec sancta, quae gerimus, et a praeteritis nos dilectis exuant et futuris. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
We implore Your majesty, o Lord, that the holy mysteries which we are celebrating may free us of past and save us from future sins. 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 75 : 12-13
Vovete et reddite Domino, Deo vestro, omnes, qui in circuitu Ejus affertis munera : terribili, et ei qui aufert spiritum principum : terribili apud omnes reges terrae.
English translation
Vow all of you, and pay to the Lord your God, all you who round about Him bringing presents, to Him who is terrible, even to Him Who takes away the spirit of princes, to the terrible with all the kings of the earth.
Post-Communion Prayer
Sanctificationibus Tuis, omnipotens Deus, et vitia nostra curentur, et remedia nobis aeterna proveniant. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
By Your grace, o Almighty God, let our wicked propensities be cured and everlasting remedies be forthcoming. 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 : Green
Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Matthaeum – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew
Matthew 22 : 34-46
In illo tempore : Accesserunt ad Jesum pharisaei : et interrogavit eum unus ex eis legis doctor, tentans eum : Magister, quod est mandatum magnum in lege? Ait illi Jesus : Diliges Dominum, Deum tuum, ex toto corde tuo et in tota anima tua et in tota mente tua. Hoc est maximum et primum mandatum.
Secundum autem simile est huic : Diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum. In his duobus mandatis universa lex pendet et prophetae. Congregatis autem pharisaeis, interrogavit eos Jesus, dicens : Quid vobis videtur de Christo? Cujus Filius est? Dicunt ei : David.
Ait illis : Quomodo ergo David in spiritu vocat eum Dominum, dicens : Dixit Dominus Domino meo, sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum? Si ergo David vocat eum Dominum, quomodo Filius ejus est? Et nemo poterat ei respondere verbum : neque ausus fuit quisquam ex illa die eum amplius interrogare.
English translation
At that time, the Pharisees came to Jesus, and one of them, a doctor of the Law, asked Him, tempting Him, “Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.”
“And the second is like this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the prophets.” And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, “What do you think of Christ, whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “David.”
He said to them, “How then did David, in spirit, called Him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit on My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool?’ If David then called Him Lord, how is He his Son?” And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither did any man, from that day forth, asked Him any more questions.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 32 : 12, 6 and Psalm 101 : 2
Beata gens, cujus est Dominus Deus eorum : populus, quem elegit Dominus in hereditatem sibi.
Response : Verbo Domini caeli firmati sunt : et spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum.
Alleluja, Alleluja.
Response : Domine, exaudi orationem meam, et clamor meus ad Te perveniat. Alleluja.
English translation
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He had chosen for His inheritance.
Response : By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of His mouth.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Response : O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to You. Alleluia.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Ephesios – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians
Ephesians 4 : 1-6
Fratres : Obsecro vos ego vinctus in Domino, ut digne ambuletis vocatione, qua vocati estis, cum omni humilitate et mansuetudine, cum patientia, supportantes invicem in caritate, solliciti servare unitatem spiritus in vinculo pacis. Unum corpus et unus spiritus, sicut vocati estis in una spe vocationis vestrae.
Unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptisma. Unus Deus et Pater omnium, qui est super omnes et per omnia et in omnibus nobis. Qui est benedictus in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
Brethren, I, a prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthily of the vocation in which you are called. With all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in us all, Who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Introit
Psalm 118 : 137, 124, 1
Justus es, Domine, et rectum judicium Tuum : fac cum servo Tuo secundum misericordiam Tuam.
Beati immaculati in via : qui ambulant in lege Domini.
Response : Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper : et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
English translation
You are just, o Lord, and Your judgment is right; deal with Your servant according to Your mercy.
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the Lord.
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
Da, quaesumus, Domine, populo Tuo diabolica vitare contagia : et Te solum Deum pura mente sectari. 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 Your people, we beseech You, o Lord, to shun the defilements of the devil, and with pure hearts to follow You, the only God. 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 : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scriptures speaking to us first of all from the prophet Zechariah who spoke about God’s dwelling amongst His people, for they are His people and He is their God. Many people would come to seek God and to be His people, and He would be their God.
Then in the Gospel today we heard Jesus our Lord speaking about the betrayal that would happen to Him, as His own disciple would betray Him to the chief priests, namely Judas Iscariot. Yet the disciples failed to understand this, even after Jesus had repeated the same prediction a few times. That is because they were not able to open their hearts and minds to welcome God’s truth into them.
In our world today there are still a lot of people who have not yet known God or understood His truths and teachings. And in fact, within the Church itself, for various reasons, there are still many of the faithful who have not possessed an adequate understanding of the faith, who do not live the faith as how it should have been lived.
That is why, there is a need for all of us Christians to be closely attached to the Word of God, through which we gained the knowledge of our faith, by the guidance from the Church, that we may better appreciate and understand what our faith is really about, and what is required from us all as Christians. And this Word of God, is the Holy Scriptures, God’s very own words as passed down to us through His prophets and messengers.
It is through the Scriptures that all of us read about the history of our salvation, beginning from the time when mankind first fell into sin and darkness, and then how God had, in numerous occasions, intervened for the sake of humanity, saving them from their distress, among them include the saving of Noah from the Great Flood that destroyed all the wicked men, and His salvation of the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt.
And we can know all these because of our exposure and regular immersion with the texts from the Holy Scriptures. It is apt and fitting today that we also celebrate the feast of St. Jerome, one of the great Church fathers, an ascetic and pious man, who was remembered especially for his translation of the Greek Septuagint Bible into the Latin Vulgate Bible, giving more people access to the wealth of messages and knowledge contained within the Book of the Word of God.
All of us need to ask ourselves, and reflect on how much effort we have put into ensuring that we constantly and regularly make the effort to read and understand the Holy Scriptures. Certainly, many of us had not done what we should have done, and as expected from us, because many of us would have found it even a waste of time and meaningless for us to read the Bible, less so to understand its passages.
Yet, without understanding the Scriptures, it will be difficult for us as Christians to understand what it is that God wants us to do in our lives. Consequently, we will end up getting more and more distant and separated from God, and then lose our way in this journey of life, easily falling into the traps that Satan and his allies have prepared for us, that we may end up facing our downfall through sin.
Let us all therefore follow the examples of St. Jerome, who devoted himself thoroughly to the Lord, in studying His will and commandments, and even unto translating the entire Scriptures for the benefit for the people of God. Let us all spend more and more time dedicating ourselves to read the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, with the guidance of the Church and adhering to the teachings of the Church, that we may draw ever closer to the Lord.
May God be with us all, and may He continue to allow the faith in us to grow and deepen as we spend more and more time in dedication to Him. May the Word of God be our guide and inspiration in life. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 9 : 43b-45
At that time, while all were amazed at everything Jesus did, He said to His disciples, “Listen, and remember what I tell you now : The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men.” But the disciples did not understand this saying; something prevented them from grasping what He meant, and they were afraid to ask Him about it.
Liturgical Colour : White
Jeremiah 31 : 10, 11-12ab, 13
Hear the word of YHVH, o nations, proclaim it on distant coast lands : He Who scattered Israel will gather them and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.
For YHVH has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of his conqueror. They shall come shouting for joy, while ascending Zion; they will come streaming to YHVH’s blessings.
Maidens will make merry and dance, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness, I will give them comfort and joy for sorrow.
