27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Wednesday, 7 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 1 : 12-14

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olives, which is a fifteen minute walk away. On entering the city they went to the room upstairs where they were staying. Present there were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alpheus; Simon the Zealot and Judas son of James.

All of these, together, gave themselves to constant prayer. With them were some women, and also Mary, the mother of Jesus, and His brothers.

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Tuesday, 6 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bruno, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are reminded of the call to holiness and to be converted to God’s truth. We are called to follow in the footsteps of St. Paul in his conversion to the Christian faith and how he dedicated himself to serve the Lord with all of his heart after early on he was a fanatical opponent of the Christian faith. And in the Gospel passage today, we heard of the interaction between the Lord and the sisters Mary and Martha, and how God reminded us to choose the ‘better part’.

Beginning with our first reading today, we heard St. Paul recounting his own conversion experience, and how he abandoned his past disobedience against God, his misguided fanatic zeal in hunting down the early Christian converts especially among the Jewish people. That was how this great enemy of Christians and the Church became almost overnight, the greatest defender and champion of the faithful. St. Paul had a choice when God called him on the way to Damascus, on whether he wanted to continue in his past way of life, or if he wanted instead to embrace God’s call and transform himself.

Had St. Paul remained in his past life, as a prominent young Pharisee and also a Roman citizen, he was bound to have a very good life and could have possibly been a very influential member of the Sanhedrin and the ruling elite of the Jewish people, and would also likely be quite influential among the Romans and the Gentiles. Certainly for sure, his life would not have been so difficult and challenging as how he had suffered and laboured so much for the Lord’s sake. Yet, this was the path that St. Paul had chosen in the end, and he committed himself to it wholeheartedly.

St. Paul chose the ‘better path’, entrusting himself to God despite having to let go of his comfortable and influential old life, a life that would have guaranteed worldly safety and satisfaction, a life without much difficulty and hassles. But he chose to leave these comforts and assurances behind, for the better assurance in God. Although he endured a lot of trials and sufferings for the many decades after, but in the end, as he has faithfully committed himself to the very end, he was sure of the Lord’s promise and the eternal glory he would receive with many other faithful ones.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard about the two sisters, Mary and Martha, who were close friends of the Lord with their brother, Lazarus, whom the Lord raised from the dead. And when the Lord Jesus came by their house, we saw the difference between the reaction of Mary and Martha in welcoming the Lord to their place. While Martha was very busy doing all she could to prepare the place well for the Lord’s coming, Mary was sitting by the side of the Lord, spending time with Him and listening to Him.

Martha certainly had good intentions, and she did what she thought was the best to welcome the Lord and be hospitable to Him. However, in her excessive preoccupation and desire to serve the Lord in the way she thought best, she had forgotten about what was most important, just like St. Paul earlier, when as Saul, he persecuted the Christians out of misplaced zeal in trying to protect the interpretation of the faith according to the Pharisees, which was then threatened by the Lord and His revelations and teachings.

Both Martha and Saul were trying to do what they could in their own way to serve God, but when they tried to do so on their own, and becoming swallowed by the intensity, by their emotions and desires, they ended up losing sight and focus on what they really ought to focus their attention on. As they pursued their intentions, they were distracted by the temptations of pride and the desire in their hearts, the pride of their achievements and the desire to be acclaimed and praised for their efforts. For Martha, it was likely to be praised for her hospitality, while Saul wanted attention and achievement in destroying the Christians.

But as we have heard, these were the wrong paths, which Martha was reminded by the Lord, and Saul was called from, and in the end, Martha realised that what was important, was not how meticulous her preparations and plans were, but spending time with God Who has come to her place to spend His time with her. Similarly, Saul came to realise that his path had been wrong, and from the moment of his conversion, he chose to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and devote all of his energy and efforts to glorify God from then on.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all reminded today to reflect on the path which we should take in life, in serving God wholeheartedly as we should, and in keeping to the Lord’s path faithfully even when we may encounter difficulties, trials and challenges along the journey. We must realise that while the path that God has showed us may seem to be less promising, more challenging and difficult, but in truth, it is the ‘better part’ and the path that we all should choose, for in the Lord alone lies our hope and true joy.

Today, all of us also celebrate the feast of St. Bruno, a dedicated servant of God, who was remembered as a great priest and intellectual, who committed his efforts to lead more and more among the faithful towards God. And St. Bruno was also known for rejecting the position of bishop, which could have easily been his, if he had chosen to do so. However, St. Bruno chose to walk down this more tedious path, living a holy existence and life, gathering some others to live in a prayerful community, away from the distractions of the world.

St. Bruno chose to walk down this path in responding to the call that the Lord has made to him, calling him to a life of holiness, to be a great witness and example to all the faithful, on what it truly means to be a follower of Christ. St. Bruno is a humble person, who spent his days and moments in doing everything to glorify God through prayer and virtue, and which is something that we can be inspired from and follow as well. Through all that we have heard today, we are presented with the choice, do we want to follow the Lord and take His ‘better part’ or do we want to indulge in worldly desires and pleasures, and seek for worldly satisfaction instead?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are called to live our lives virtuously as Christians from now on. And we are called to be holy and virtuous in all things, and most importantly, centre our focus and attention on the Lord, as the centre and heart of our very existence. Are we willing and able to reject the allures of pride and greed, the temptations of worldly pleasures and corruptions, and rediscover our true and genuine faith? Let us all discern this carefully as we commit ourselves ever more faithfully to the path that the Lord has shown us and guided us through.

May the Lord continue to bless us and guide us in our journey, that all of us may draw ever closer to Him, and inspire one another to stay together and remain true to our Christian calling in our respective lives and in our various communities, devoting ourselves wholeheartedly to God, from now on, in all things, in all of our words, actions and deeds. Amen.

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Tuesday, 6 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bruno, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Luke 10 : 38-42

At that time, as Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He entered a village, and a woman called Martha welcomed Him to her house. She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet to listen to His words. Martha, meanwhile, was busy with all the serving, and finally she said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the work? Tell her to help me!”

But the Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you worry and are troubled about many things, whereas only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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Tuesday, 6 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bruno, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Psalm 138 : 1-3, 13-14, 15

O YHVH, You know me : You have scrutinised me. You know when I sit and when I rise; beforehand, You discern my thoughts. You observe my activities and times of rest; You are familiar with all my ways.

It was You Who formed my inmost part and knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank You for these wonders You have done, and my heart praises You, for Your marvellous deeds.

Even my bones were known to You when I was being formed in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth.

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Tuesday, 6 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bruno, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Galatians 1 : 13-24

You have heard of my previous activity in the Jewish community; I furiously persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. For I was more devoted to the Jewish religion than many fellow Jews of my age, and I defended the traditions of my ancestors more fanatically.

But one day, God called me, out of His great love, He, Who had chosen me from my mother’s womb; and He was pleased to reveal, in me, His son, that I might make Him known among the pagan nations. Then, I did not seek human advice nor did I go up to Jerusalem, to those who were Apostles before me. I immediately went to Arabia, and from there, I returned, again, to Damascus.

Later, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other Apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. On writing this to you, I affirm before God that I am not lying. After that, I went to Syria and Cilicia. The churches of Christ in Judea did not know me personally; they had only heard of me : “He, who once persecuted us, is now preaching the faith he tried to uproot.” And they praised God because of me.

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Monday, 5 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Mary Faustina Kowalska, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard first of all from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Galatia in Asia Minor, addressing them on the matter of the true Gospel and revelations of our Lord. Then, we also heard from our Gospel passage today, the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan, in which a Samaritan helped a Jew who was wounded, while a priest and a Levite passed by without helping.

In our first reading today, we heard of the frustrations shared by St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Galatia regarding how many among them followed the false teachings and different doctrines held by those who turned the true teachings of the faith to suit their own purposes. Even from this very early time in the history of the Church, there had been division and confusion sowed by the devil and all of those opposed to the good works of God, trying to mislead the faithful to the wrong paths.

That was why St. Paul spoke sternly against all those who misinterpreted the Gospels and the Scriptures, the words of God and His truth for their own purposes, and sowed divisions and confusions among the Christian communities. He said that the truth of God is unchanging and also should have been faithfully kept as it was revealed, and anyone who preached otherwise, had committed sin against God and against His people. St. Paul warned the people in such a way to keep themselves guarded against those who would claim that the Lord had spoken to them and reveal to them a new truth that is contrary to what the Lord had revealed through His Church.

This is truly prescient as in time, many people came to claim to have knowledge of a better truth, or used the truth to mislead the people, leading to heresies that divided the Church and caused confusion among the faithful. All these happened long after St. Paul had encountered the same troubles during his missionary efforts and journeys. But despite all of these, because of the efforts and reminders that St. Paul mentioned, the Church had remained faithful to the truth of Christ, and preserved the same truth despite all the heresies and divisions that had occurred in the past two millennia.

And part of this truth is what is espoused in our Gospel passage today, in the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan. In that parable, the Lord used it to highlight His points, especially to the teacher of the Law and others present at the time who were trying to test Him and placed upon Him the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ when the Lord reminded them that the Law of God is about loving God with all of one’s heart and also loving one another, our fellow neighbours.

The Lord used the example of a Samaritan, as Samaritans at the time were often reviled and hated by the people in Judea, especially by the religious establishment and the elites of the society. The Samaritans were seen as pagans and foreigners, as wicked people who have strayed away from the teachings and Law of God. The Samaritans themselves were in fact descended from the people who once inhabited the land of Israel, with the people who were brought in by the Assyrians and others to inhabit the land after many of the Israelites of the northern kingdom were brought to exile in Assyria and other lands.

As such, they were deemed as impure, as foreigners, and as those who were unworthy of God. And as a result, they were shunned and tensions often existed between the Samaritans and the Jews, with both of them disagreeing on the matter of worship of God. But as the parable of the Lord showed, it served to dispel the notion that the Samaritans were worse as human beings, and in fact, from the example of the Good Samaritan, it showed that while the priest and Levite, themselves highly respected within the Jewish community, had ignored the plight of the man beset by robbers, the Samaritan stooped down to help, and not only help, but even went the extra mile in helping him.

The victim who was a Jew, was abandoned by his own people, and worse still, by those who were highly respected and deemed within the community as righteous and pious. Instead, it was a Samaritan, often hated and shunned, who was there to help, to reach out to the victim, and cared for him with extra efforts, to make sure that he recovered completely, without regards for his own inconvenience, and also without regards or considerations or worries about helping a Jew, something that both the Jews and Samaritans were then loath doing, as neither side wanted anything to do with the other.

This, brothers and sisters in Christ, is what the Lord wanted to remind us as His truth, the teachings of His love, that He wants us all to embrace and accept, and we should embrace the fact that every one of us are beloved by God, no matter what we are, where we came from, what our background and origin is, or what group we belong to, all of us are equally beloved by God. And we must not look down on others or think that others do not deserve God’s love or not worthy of Him.

The Good Samaritan story is both a story that breaks prejudices and biases, as well as a story that highlights to us the calling as Christians to reach out in love to others, especially those who are suffering and in need of help. We should not be like the priest and the Levite, who just passed by without even offering any help at all, or being concerned with the well-being of the man. As Christians we must always be filled with compassion and love for one another, and even to those who despise us and hate us.

That is why, linking to what we have heard in our first reading today, should anyone or any teachings by some state that we must be discriminatory or act in ways that highlight our differences from our fellow men, especially against those who have not believed in God, or those who have lapsed from their faith, these are not true teachings of Christ. Throughout history, there had been those who deemed themselves as being more righteous and more worthy of God, and looking down on those whom they deemed to be inferior or different from them. And these are those who have followed the wrong path and even are misleading the faithful.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should not entertain these false ideas and attitudes that are not in accordance to God’s ways and teachings. And today, we also celebrate the feast of St. Mary Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who was most remembered for her visions of the Divine Mercy of God, from which stemmed the now very popular Devotion to the Divine Mercy.

St. Faustina Kowalska initially faced a lot of opposition for her visions and writings, and it took many, many decades before her writings and experiences as genuine and integral after extensive and intensive research to make sure that they are in accordance to the Church teachings, and not misleading the faithful as what some other false visionaries and teachers had done.

Now, the Devotion to the Divine Mercy of God became a very important reminder of God’s love and mercy, which He has showed us without prejudice or bias just as the Good Samaritan had done. God is ever patient and merciful, and He is calling on all of us to be more Christ-like in our lives and way of life. We can be inspired by St. Faustina’s faith and perseverance through all of these.

Let us all embrace wholeheartedly God’s calling for us to be faithful in life, to be compassionate towards those who are in need, and especially during these difficult times, these challenging moments, let us all spend time and effort to care for those who are not as fortunate as we are. Let us all dedicate ourselves anew, with a new commitment to love and serve the Lord with ever greater devotion from now on. May God bless us all, in our every good efforts and endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 5 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Mary Faustina Kowalska, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Luke 10 : 25-37

At that time, then a teacher of the Law came and began putting Jesus to the test. And he said, “Master, what shall I do to receive eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How do You understand it?” The man answered, “It is written : You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Jesus replied, “What a good answer! Do this and you shall live.” The man wanted to justify his question, so he asked, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus then said, “There was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him and went off, leaving him half-dead.”

“It happened that a priest was going along that road and saw the man, but passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite saw the man, and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan also was going that way; and when he came upon the man, he was moved with compassion. He went over to him, and cleaned his wounds with oil and wine, and wrapped them in bandages. Then he put him on his own mount, and brought him to an inn, where he took care of him.”

“The next day, he had to set off; but he gave two silver coins to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and whatever you spend on him, I will repay when I return.'” Jesus then asked, “Which of these three, do you think, made himself neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The teacher of the Law answered, “The one who had mercy on him.” And Jesus said, “Then go and do the same.”

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Monday, 5 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Mary Faustina Kowalska, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Psalm 110 : 1-2, 7-8, 9 and 10c

Alleluia! I thank YHVH with all my heart in the council of the just, in the assembly. The works of YHVH are great and pondered by all who delight in them.

The works of His hands are faithful and just, trustworthy are all His precepts, ordained to last forever, bearers of truth and uprightness.

He has sent His people deliverance and made with them a Covenant forever. His holy Name is to be revered! To Him belongs everlasting praise.

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Monday, 5 October 2020 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Mary Faustina Kowalska, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Galatians 1 : 6-12

I am surprised at how quickly you have abandoned God, Who called you, according to the grace of Christ, and have gone to another gospel. Indeed, there is no other Gospel, but some people, who are sowing confusion among you, want to turn the Gospel of Christ upside down.

But even if we, ourselves, were giving you another gospel, different from the one we preached to you, or if it were an Angel from heaven, I would say : let God’s curse be on him! As I have said, I now say again : if anyone preaches the Gospel in a way other than you received it, fire that one! Are we to please humans or obey God? Do you think that I try to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel we preached to you is not a human message, nor did I receive it from anyone, I was not taught of it; but it came to me, as a revelation from Christ Jesus.

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Sunday, 4 October 2020 : Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we are called to reflect carefully on the words of the Lord in the Scriptures, as we heard of the Lord speaking to us through the passages relating to us the narrative of a vineyard and how this is a metaphor used to describe our lives in this world and what the Lord expects from us as His followers.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the Lord spoke of His people and comparing them to His vineyard, and spoke of how He had cared very well for the vineyard, tended to it and did everything He could, referring to how He had cared for the Israelites and then the people of Judah up to the time of Isaiah. And yet, despite all these, the people continued to disobey God’s laws and commandments, and chose to embrace wicked ways and worship the pagan gods and idols.

This is why the Lord was displeased at His people who had disregarded His teachings and commandments, and did what were wicked and evil in His sight. That was why God proclaimed through Isaiah what would come to happen to the people who have disobeyed and rebelled against Him, as it would soon come to happen that the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem were to be destroyed by the Babylonians, its people brought into exile and its lands laid dormant for many decades just as the Lord said it would be.

The Lord then reminds us yet again through the Gospel today in which He used the parable of the vineyard and the wicked tenants in order to bring forth His points across to those who were listening to Him, as many of them would have been familiar with the terms He used as many were involved in agriculture and vineyards were common in the region at the time.

Through this parable of the vineyard, again the Lord showed Himself as the owner of the vineyard, which represents the world just as in our first reading it represents the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And all of us are in fact the tenants in the vineyard, working in the vineyard of the Lord. God has called on us to heed His words that we may understand our faults and come to embrace His ways.

It is notable that while in our first reading, the sins of the people of Israel and Judah were represented by the bad and rotten grapes, in the Gospel today we heard the parallel in the wicked tenants that occupied the vineyard and refused to give what they owed the master and owner of the vineyard. All of these happened despite the kindness and patience showed by the owner, just as God had been patient in taking care of His vineyard and patiently hoped for the good grapes, only to gain bad and rotten grapes in the end.

Through the parable, the Lord in fact called on His people to turn away from their sinful ways, their wickedness and rebellion, their refusal to obey the Law and will of God. In the parable, the vineyard owner sent many servants to remind them all to pay their dues to the owner. But those wicked tenants were greedy and haughty, refusing to obey the owner and thinking of their leased property as their own, and therefore, they mistreated those servants sent to them, and in time, even tortured and killed them.

And we heard how the owner then sent his own son to persuade the wicked tenants, hoping that they would at least respect him and listen to him, and turn to the right path. On the contrary, those wicked tenants became even more greedy and haughty, plotting to seize the control over the vineyard by eliminating the son of the owner, the rightful heir of the vineyard so that they could claim their rented lands as their own. Thus, their pride and greed had led them even further down the path of sin.


This parable is in fact a prefigurement and premonition of what was to come. Those servants sent by the owner to remind the wicked tenants were the prophets and messengers, all those whom God had sent to remind us all mankind to turn away from our sins and to be reconciled with Him. Unfortunately, for a long time, our predecessors had refused to listen to God, remained in sin and persecuted those prophets and messengers who had been sent to them to remind them and call them back towards God.

And when the Lord sent His Messiah, the long awaited Saviour, into this world, just as the son of the owner was sent into the vineyard, the people to whom He had been sent to refused to accept Him either, and they persecuted the Messiah and His followers, that is Christ and His believers, the disciples and the Christian faithful. Those who were in power like many among the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the members of the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council rejected the Lord as they were more concerned in maintaining and retaining their prestigious places in the community.

They would choose to reject God and His truth, and instead holding on to their flawed ways and beliefs, in their rigid and unbending, and even hypocritical application and exercise of their authority and Law of God. As a result, many among the followers of Christ suffered in the early days of the Church because of these oppositions against the Lord and His good works. And many more were to suffer from the persecution from the other pagan peoples, from the Greeks and the Romans, many of whom saw the Christian faith as a threat to their own faith and society.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to the words of the Scripture and reflect on its meaning and truth, we are all reminded that all of us as Christians have been entrusted by God with this world as our vineyard, the place of our labour. God has planted the seeds of faith among us, in this world, and by the efforts of our holy and dedicated predecessors, the Apostles and their successors, they had nurtured and allowed those seeds to germinate and grow, and as a result, we see how the Church had persevered and even grown in the past two millennia.

Not even the most brutal and toughest of persecutions, and not even divisions and disagreements, disunity and conflicts, threats from both internal and external sources were able to destroy the Church. The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church has been established by God to be His kingdom in this world, His vineyard in which all of us His faithful and beloved ones are part of and cared for by Him. But we must then now also realise that all these did not happen just overnight, but due to the commitment and hardships endured by our many predecessors, many of whom suffered and were even martyred for their faith.

And remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that through our baptism, just as we have become part of the Church, we have also been entrusted with the same mission that the Lord had entrusted to His Apostles, which at the Great Commission, He said to all of them, ‘Go forth to all the peoples of all the nations, and make them My disciples. Baptise them all in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ And through these words, the Lord had sent us all to be His labourers, the workers in His vineyard, the Church of God in this world.

There are still many out there who are still ignorant of God’s truth and love, and there are many more still even within the Church who have forgotten their faith and became lukewarm in how they lived as Christians, treating their faith as merely a formality. And therefore, through these readings we heard today, as we heard the Lord lamenting the state of His people’s lukewarmness and rejection towards Him, let us all respond to His call, in becoming faithful witnesses of our Christian faith, living as true Christian disciples in every moments of our lives.

Are we willing to pick up our crosses faithfully and be exemplary in how we live our faith, in each and every moments of our lives? This is what we have been called to do, and as we enter into the month of October, we enter into the Month of Mission, which began just a few days ago with the celebration of the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower of Carmel. St. Therese of Lisieux is famous for her ‘Little Way’, in which she said that no amount of effort, no matter how small, is insignificant in the effort for the conversion of souls and the glorification of God.

If we think that we are incapable, not knowledgeable enough in our faith, or that we have not been exemplary in our faith life all these while, then this is where we need to heed the words of St. Therese of Lisieux, in striving to do our best to serve God and to glorify His Name. And we do not need to worry about anything, for truly, as St. Paul said in our second reading today, in his Epistle to the Philippians, that we do not need to be anxious about anything, and instead, we ought to focus our attention to the Lord Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.

And we are all called to be exemplary in faith and life, to fill ourselves with everything that is good and just, shunning sinfulness and the wickedness of this world. Let us all not fall into the temptation of pride and greed, the allures of worldly pleasures and satisfactions, as those wicked tenants had represented to us. Instead, let us all strive to be ever more humble, to be ever more dedicated in faith, each and every days of our lives, to glorify God by our every little deeds and actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all commit ourselves anew from now on, with renewed zeal and spirit, to walk faithfully in God’s path, and to nurture the faith in our communities, in our families and among our circle of friends and in all the encounters we have in life. Let us all be beacons of God’s light, truth and hope in our darkened world today. Especially these days, when there are just so much suffering, pain and injustice in our world, in the midst of the still-raging pandemic which exposed both the best and worst of humanity, we should bear witness to God’s love and show His love to one another in these difficult and trying moments.

Let us reach out to our fellow brethren, especially those who are suffering and less fortunate than us. May the Lord lead our way and help us that we may always be ready to commit our lives at every moments, for the greater glory of God and His people. Let us all be the good labourers in God’s vineyard, that out of this world, more and more great harvest of faith and the salvation of souls may come forth, and that the light and truth of God may return to this darkened world. May God bless us always, in our every good efforts and endeavours, in serving His greater glory. Amen.