acceptance

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Wednesday, 24 July 2013 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charbel Makhluf, Priest (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the parable of the sower, the well-known parable in the Gospel Reading, and also the rebelliousness of Israel during their journey in the desert, in the First Reading today, complaining to the Lord that they had a much better and fulflling life in Egypt in slavery compared to their freedom in the desert.

The parable of the sower tells us that while the Word of God is truly available for all people to witness, to see, and to listen, but ultimately, it is how we as a person take in that Word of God and nurture it, that the Word of God, that is our faith, likened to the seed spread by the sower, can find good soil in our hearts and grow.

As all of you would have guessed, yes, the sower is none other than the Lord Himself, who gave His light to the world through His Son, Jesus Christ, and from Him, the teachings came down upon us through His Apostles and their successors, our bishops and priests, who are also sowers and labourers in the fields of the Lord. We are the soil, the ground on which the seeds land on, and where the seeds will be able to grow, if the conditions are met and suitable, or perish if the conditions are unfavourable for the growth of the seeds.

The seeds that fall on the path, and then eaten by the birds are likened to those of us, whose faith and devotion to the Lord are weak, and therefore, the devil came and took away the seeds of faith from our hearts. He and his angels come like the birds, eating away the seeds of faith God has planted in us, because the seeds did not take root, and therefore, the faith easily became lost. This is what happened if we keep the Lord out of our hearts and the devil may therefore enter and occupy our hearts, corrupting us to do his purpose, that is sin and evil.

The seeds that fall on the rocky ground did not manage to grow long enough before they withered because of the scorching sun, their faith grew quickly like the seeds, because the soil is shallow, just as their faith is shallow, without deep roots to sustain their faith, and their growth. When difficulties and challenges of the world present themselves, with all the temptations of the world, those whose faith is likened to the seeds that fell on the rocky ground, will quickly lose their faith, just as the seeds’ plants withered.

This one particularly most closely represent the situation portrayed in the First Reading today, and the general attitude of the people of Israel during the duration of the Exodus from Egypt. The people of Israel were easily awed and made astonished by the display of the power of God, especially by the plagues and miracles made by Moses in the power of the Lord, against the Egyptians, and during the sojourn of Israel in the desert. Yet, just like the seeds on the rocky ground, which do not manage to have deep roots on the shallow soil, the faith of Israel was indeed shallow and weak.

They were terrified and amazed by miracles and shows of power of God, but their faith did not have strong roots, and when difficulties and trials came, with hunger and the suffering in the desert, they abandoned their faith in God and even tested God, whether He could help them and deliver them from the sufferings they faced. They became angry at the Lord and His servant, Moses, and they made complaints after complaints, even after the Lord had repeatedly made visible His power and authority to the people of Israel.

Their disobedience led to great sins, and the people worshipped pagan gods, beginning from the golden calf that the people had forced Aaron to make when Moses stayed with God on His mountain for forty days and forty nights. They did not give their trust and love for God, and instead believing more in their own power, the power of men. They did not love God but love His miracles. They did not love Him but love the food He provided them. This is a lesson for all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we did not become like them, to dwell in superficial things and the things of this world, satisfying our own desires, but lacking love for God. We have to love God as the first priority in our lives.

Then, let us also be wary of the worries of the world, because like the seeds that fell on thistles, the thistles grew around the plants and killed them. They are those of us who failed to keep up our faith, because they have been bombarded by countless worries and evils of the world, which brought much stress and worry to them, so that they have ended up forgetting the Lord their God. They have been blinded by their worry that they became blind to the Lord, and choked by those worries.

Those worries of the world, of what we are to eat today, of what we are to wear today, to our work or to party, or even what are we going to do today, and where are we going today, should not be our priorities in life. Indeed, that is because these worries will tend to divert our attention, which should be given to the Lord and doing good for the people of God, into thinking solely for our own sake, which breeds strong sense of selfishness. We must be selfless, brothers and sisters, and give ourselves in service to our brothers and sisters in need of love, in need of help.

We must strive to be like the seeds that fall on rich soil, on deep ground, well watered and filled with ample nutrition, that allows the plants to grow to great heights and remain healthy. The same too should happen to us and our faith and love to the Lord. We must nurture our faith at all times, as we journey through this life, and nurture it with good works, with a healthy prayer life, and devotion to the Lord and through the intercession of His saints. If we do so, we will grow stronger in our faith, and the love that is in us will blossom, and many will feel the love of God through us.

Today, we commemorate the feast day of St. Charbel Makhluf, a Maronite monk who passed away just over a century ago. He was a devout and very pious Maronite, who joined the religious order of monkhood, to dedicate himself fully to the Lord in prayer and love. Despite a relatively uneventful life, after his death, he became a source of many miracles, both through his intercessions and his uncorrupted body.

St. Charbel Makhluf is an example for all of us Christians, the children of God, to follow, so that we too can follow his example of holy life dedicated to God and the love that he expressed in his life through his actions, that we nurture the faith that is in us through strong devotion to God and constant prayers, so that we will always keep ourselves attuned to the will of God. That we may bear much fruits, hundredfold and manyfold of what has been planted, what has been given to all of us.

May God bless us, and may He strengthen us in our faith and our love, for Him and our fellow brethren, and inspired by the example and holiness of St. Charbel Makhluf, may we bear fruits, fruits of love and compassion, the blessed fruits of the Holy Spirit, for the good of everyone, and for our salvation. Amen.

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Sunday, 21 July 2013 : 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we heard today of two stories which in both involve receiving the Lord into one’s home and showing their acceptance to the coming of the Lord. Abraham in the first reading welcomed the Lord who passed by his tent, and gave Him a meal and offering. In the Gospel, Martha and Mary, the family of Lazarus, welcomed Jesus the Son of God and Messiah into their house. Both involved hospitality of the hosts and how they react to the coming of the Lord to their humble abodes.

Abraham recognised the Lord and welcomed him into his tent, giving the best he had for the Lord to eat, as an offering of his love and his heart for the Lord. Martha and Mary also welcomed Christ into their home, giving their best to serve Him and made Him at home. But here comes the difference, highlighted in the case between Martha and Mary, in how they give their service to the Lord.

Martha cooked and prepared many food for Jesus, to serve Him good meals and good food, but she ended up being absorbed so much into her preparation and her work, that she forgot what the Lord truly wanted from her. She became engulfed in the world and in her work so much, that she forgot about love, about her own love for God. That is what the Lord truly desired from her, and indeed, from everyone in this world, all of us.

Mary gave her love and full attention to Christ, giving all her heart to Him, that she was truly focused and attentive to all the words that left His mouth, listening to the words of salvation, the Good News. The same had been done by Abraham, giving his obedience and full attention to the Lord, as He came to proclaim the words of His promise, His covenant, proven through the gift of his son, Isaac, through his wife, Sarah.

The same too then is expected of us. We too should give all our minds, our hearts, our being, and with all our strengths, to God and dedicate ourselves fully and entirely to Him. God our Lord is a loving God, and He cares for all of us, until He even gave His own Son, Himself, for the sake of all of us, that we may have life in us, and do not have to suffer our eternal punishment of death, that is our faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not lose our sight on the Lord, our one and true God, the God who created us, God who gave us life, and God who granted us this world that we may live in prosperity and happiness, and most importantly, to follow in His ways, that we can share the happiness that we have in us, with one another, that together, we may be saved, saved from the tyranny of death and evil, and be freed into new life in Christ.

Let us renew our faith and our love for God, dedicating our hearts as true offering for Him. He does not desire our sacrifices and prayers, of endless litanies made without meaning, of gifts made without love, but He desires truly our love, our repentant heart, seeking always for His mercy, the desire, the strong and endless desire to be reunited with the One God who loves us.

In Christ lies salvation and hope, and in Him lies all the fulfillment, in all its perfection, of God’s grand plan to save mankind and all creation, ever since Satan snatched them from Him at the time of creation, by his lies to Adam and Eve, the first mankind. The grand plan had been in motion for countless years and a long time, ever since creation, through Abraham, whom God promised that salvation for mankind would come through him and his descendants, and ultimately was perfectly fufilled in Jesus, the descendant of Abraham, of Adam and Eve, and the descendant of David, who inherited his kingdom, and made it into an everlasting kingdom of God.

Christ gave Himself up for our sake, that all of us can share in His glory upon His glorious resurrection, and that we will receive life eternal as we are brought to our rightful places in heaven, at the side of the Lord, God who cares for us and gave it all for our sake. It will not be easy to follow Christ, as we will be rejected as the world had rejected the Lord. What is important is that we do not go astray from our path, and remain faithful to Christ our Lord, through our actions, our deeds, and our words.

Let us not be distracted by the world and its offers of pleasure and sin, and not to forget the Lord and His love and kindness. Let us be focused on the Lord and offer Him our greatest love, out of our sincere and repentant heart, just as what Abraham and Mary had done, that the Lord will always be in our minds, our hearts at all times, and therefore we too, will always remain in the Lord.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, open our hearts, open our minds, and let the Lord to come into us, dwell within us, as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Temple of God’s residence. We receive the Lord regularly in the Eucharist, and we accept Him into our hearts. That is why it is important that we remain focused at all times on the Lord, so that we will not be led astray by the temptations of this world.

Keep the Lord’s commandments of love, and practice our faith with devotion, loving our God with all our strength, in worship and praise, in the Mass, and in our daily lives, and love our brethren, especially those with great needs, through our actions, our service to the less fortunate, and through our deeds that bring happiness and love to those who lie in sorrow and those who are unloved.

Be strong, brothers and sisters, and may the blessing of the Lord our God, God who came down for our sake, for our salvation, the Lord of Abraham, the God of our fathers, be with us, and remain within us, giving us His love and light, to be shared among all the nations. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 21 July 2013 : 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Luke 10 : 38-42

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, don’t you 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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Saturday, 20 July 2013 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ! Christ had delivered us from the hands of the devil and bring us to the land of the living, that is new life in Him, and the hope of eternal life together with the saints and the angels of the Lord, for eternity. He had come, He had been victorious, and He had conquered, a glorious king triumphant over His enemies, that is Satan and his followers, his fallen angels.

He did not let His people to live forever in suffering and oppression, as He once rescued the people of Israel, the people He had first chosen among the nations, from the oppression and tyranny of the Egyptians. So the same He had done too, for all of us, all mankind, without exception, to free us all from the tyranny of the true evil, that is Satan and all sins.

He sent forth His Son to be our hope, our rescuer, and our Redeemer. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born as a humble man, had died on the cross for all of us, that through His death, and ultimately, His glorious resurrection, He broke forever the yoke of sin on all of us. Our debts of sin were paid by the ultimate price of His Most Precious Body and Blood, which He offered freely on the cross for all of us, God’s beloved children.

To those who follow the ways of the Lord, and those who repented their sins and turned back to face the Lord their God, with all their hearts, with all their strength and power, and in the true spirit of repentance in sincerity, the Lord will reward them with forgiveness, love, and His eternal embrace. He will welcome them into His kingdom and bring all of them into the land of eternal happiness, just as He had once promised the people of Israel and Abraham, their father, that they will inherit the land of prosperity, of flowing milk and honey.

But those who ignored His call and His mercy, and those who disobeyed Him will receive what is their due, that is punishment for sins and death, a fate that awaited all of us, because of our rebellion against God through sin, but which our Saviour, Jesus Christ had voided for all of us through His sacrifice on the cross, but a fate that will not be voided for those who reject Christ and persecute His people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not harden our hearts the way that Pharaoh had done in his refusal to let the people of Israel go free from their slavery. Let us rather open our hearts to God’s love and His Holy Spirit, so that the Spirit will come into us and dwell within us, transforming us from the children of darkness and sin, into children of God, that is of love and light. He is a loving God and a merciful Lord, who will forgive us from our faults and rebellion, but only if we would open our hearts. He is a just God, and One who hates all evil and sin, and therefore, if we harden our hearts and close them against Him, there will be only one sentence that awaits us, which is death, eternal damnation in hell.

Today, brothers and sisters, we commemorate the feast day of St. Apollinaris, a bishop of the early Roman Empire, one of the early leaders of the Church, who was martyred in his ministry and kept his faith to the Lord till the end faithfully. St. Apollinaris with great zeal preached the Good News of the Lord throughout many parts of the then Roman Empire, across the Mediterranean Sea, not unlike what St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles had done just decades before St. Apollinaris did.

St. Apollinaris persevered with great courage and faith, despite numerous difficulties he received along his mission and his preaching. Many opposed him, not least the pagan priests and rulers, who viewed his teachings as a threat to their influences in the society, and who also viewed him as both a rival and a rebel to the Imperial authority.

Why rebel? Because St. Apollinaris preached the Word of God in Christ Jesus, that is the Saviour of the world, in the belief in the One, true and only God, which contradicted directly with the pagan worships at the time, particularly when the contemporary Roman Emperors were increasingly worshipped as divine even when they were still living. As Christians do not worship anyone other than God, they were somewhat seen as traitors by the Romans, for rejecting that the Emperor is divine.

As such, St. Apollinaris, who preached the Gospel and led the early Christians as bishop, the path was really tough, and persecutions and rejections were very common. In the end, even St. Apollinaris, following the Apostles and disciples of Christ before him, was put to death in sacred martyrdom. Following Christ is never easy, brothers and sisters, because we have to carry our own crosses, with Christ, on the long path to salvation. Yet Christ had made the path straight for us, if we believe in Him and remain faithful in Him, that we will not go astray, and remain in the true path towards the Lord and eternal happiness.

The people of Israel too endured suffering in the desert in their journey. Following the Lord is not easy, but in the end, if we remain faithful, the Lord would reward us greatly, with none other than everlasting life and eternal happiness, that our lives of suffering would truly be worth living for the sake of the ultimate reward at the end.

But if we are not faithful, and go astray in our path, then we risk death as our ultimate end. The people of Israel constantly grumbled about their suffering and disobeyed the Lord many times, through Moses, whom they disobeyed so often as their hearts were hardened against the Lord. They did not live to see the Promised Land, and died in the desert as their punishment. So, the lesson is that, all of us should do our best, to remain faithful always and ever loving to the Lord our God. Our Lord who loves us wants our love in return, that we remain in Him just as He remain in all of us, within our hearts.

May the Lord strengthen our faith, and through the example of St. Apollinaris, may we be inspired to always persevere in our mission to bring the Good News to all nations, to the ends of the earth, without fear, and with zeal and fire of the faith in our hearts. St. Apollinaris, pray for us, and may God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 19 July 2013 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the story of salvation, the liberation of the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. They had been brought with great power from the yoke of the Pharaohs into the new journey towards their Promised Land. In his stubborn mind and hardened hearts, the Pharaoh refused to let the people of Israel go repeatedly, valuing them greatly as assets for his great Empire, as the builders of his cities and the labour force for many of his projects. In his ambition, pride, and arrogance, he thought that he could do away with the anger of God, but as history told us, he could not.

God smote Egypt hard with plagues of fire, ice, locusts, darkness, and many others, but their lack of repentance made God to deal with them firmly in a last punishment. A punishment originally crafted by the Pharaoh to be aimed to the Israelites, was overturned by the Lord to be aimed at the people of Egypt instead, and not even Pharaoh was spared. That punishment was the death sentence for all the firstborn sons, first intended for the Israelites, but then changed by the Lord to be the firstborn sons of their Egyptian slave masters.

Those who obeyed His will gave a sacrifice of the blood of the lamb, an unblemished lamb, as a sign of their salvation, and God passed over the houses of the faithful, marked by the blood of the lamb, that none of their firstborn sons were killed by the angel of death passing through the land of Egypt at that night of the first Passover. He showed His mercy and love to the people of Israel and gave them His care.

That covenant God had with His people was renewed, in a new salvation, a new liberation. Just as once the Lord had brought His hand to save His people from slavery in Egypt, and freed them from the yoke of the Pharaohs, He made His move once again, to save mankind, and liberate all of them, without exception, from the yoke of Satan, from the slavery of evil and sin.

For that purpose, He sent none other than Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, to be our Saviour. He sent His own Son, to be born of the Virgin Mary, to be a humble man, one of us, to suffer with us, to be with us, and most importantly, to give Himself up for us, as the Lamb of God. Just as the lamb was sacrificed and its blood became the symbol of salvation for the people of Israel, so had the Lamb of God gave His Blood, the Most Precious Blood, freely for our own salvation. His Blood pouring down from the cross cleanses all of us and made us whole once again.

To those who believe and accepts His Blood, the same happened as what had happened at that First Passover. Those who receive the Most Precious gifts of the Lord, that is His own Body and His own Blood, just as the lamb sacrificed at the First Passover had given its body and blood for the people of Israel, will be saved, because, when we receive the Lord in the Eucharist, we take in the Lord Himself through His Body and Blood in the bread and wine transformed, into ourselves, and in us, the Lord will be able to see an unmistakeable mark, mark that we all belong to Him.

The Lord who sees that we belong to the Lord will then ‘pass over’ us, and we are free, free from death and the fate that awaited us, just as the people of Israel had been passed over by the Lord and His angels of death, because we have received the Lord and accepted Him as our Lord and Saviour. We who put our faith and complete trust in the Lord will not taste death but will be given eternal life. But to those who rejected Him and His free offering of Himself, He will show His wrath and anger, and they will face damnation in hell, and because they rejected Him, they too, will then be rejected.

He is the Lord of the Sabbath and the Lord of all laws, and He had rebuked the Pharisees, who had been trapped in their own petty observances of the law, which included the laws made by men, so that they entirely missed the purpose of the Law that God had given the people of Israel. That Law was meant for the people so that they will love God, and give themselves entirely, with all their hearts, with all their soul, and with all their being, to the Lord, the offering of oneself, which the Lord valued much more than the offering of sacrifices of lambs and goats.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reaffirm our commitment and dedication to the Lord, pouring out to Him our hearts and our sincere love for Him, that He will also bless us with everlasting grace and blessing. Let us follow Him and obey His will always, through both our complete faith in Him, and also through love that we show to our fellow brothers and sisters in this world, particularly those in the greatest need for our help.

Let us not be complacent, brothers and sisters, but use all the opportunities in our power to bring salvation closer to many of those who have yet to manage to listen to the Word of God. Let us be proactive in carrying out our faith, that it will always remain alive and will not be stagnant. Let us reflect life, hope, and love in all the things we say, in all the things we do, and in all our deeds. May God who has liberated us from sin and evil, bring us ever closer into His embrace. Amen.

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Monday, 15 July 2013 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 10 : 34 – Matthew 11 : 1

Do not think that I have come to establish peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Each one will have as enemies those of one’s own family.

Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take up his cross and come after Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Whoever welcomes you welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes Him who sent Me. The one who welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive the reward of a prophet; the one who welcomes a just man, because he is a just man, will receive the reward of a just man. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is My disciple, I assure you, he will not go unrewarded.

When Jesus had finished giving His twelve disciples these instructions, He went on from there to teach and to proclaim His message in their towns.

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Saturday, 13 July 2013 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 10 : 24-33

A student is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. A student should be glad to become  like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If the head of the family has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of the family! So, do not be afraid of them.

There is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. What I am telling you in the dark, you must speak in the light. What you hear in private, proclaim from the housetops.

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but have no power to kill the soul. Rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. For only a few cents you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father knowing. As for you, every hair of your head has been counted. Do not be afraid : you are no less worthy than many sparrows!

Whoever acknowledges Me before others I will acknowledge before My Father in heaven. Whoever rejects Me before others I will reject before My Father in heaven.

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Thursday, 11 July 2013 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the readings about the mission that Christ had entrusted all of us with. The mission that He had given to the apostles before He left this world, that is to spread the Good News of salvation to all mankind, and to all the world. Each and every Christians baptised in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit must uphold this mission and pledge ourselves to its cause, that is the cause of the Lord.

Christ had called all of us to be His disciples, to bring all the people of God back to His loving embrace, to open their eyes and their hearts to God’s divine and everlasting love. The Lord offers His love and His peace freely to all, without exception, even sinners, and especially sinners, because the Lord did come especially for the sake of sinners, those lost sheep lost in the darkness of evil and sin.

Christ gave up His life in sacrifice, as a worthy offering in atonement for all our sins, all of us, without any exceptions. He died for all mankind, past, present, and future so that all may live, and in this new life, be granted eternal life in glory with Him for eternity, as long as we keep to the covenant that He had made with us, a new covenant sealed by His Blood pouring down from the cross.

Our Lord Jesus loves us, brethren, so much that He is willing to suffer all the blows, lashes, and curses, the pain of the nails that pierced his hands and feet, so that all of us do not have to suffer death eternal in hell. For our sins and iniquities the Lamb of God had been slaughtered and sacrificed, innocent and pure as He is, He was made to bear all the sins of the world.

Sadly, as many as those who would accept His call and His words, and followed Him into a new life of purity and holiness, there are even many more who would prefer to remain in their state of sin and darkened life, and preferred the pleasures of the world and Satan to the Lord who loves them. Many would reject Him and reject His messengers and disciples, including all of us who had been called by the Lord to be His apostles in this modern era.

So if Christ is rejected by many, then we will be rejected too, but this does not mean that we should slacken or abandon the mission that has been given to us. Indeed, there are still those who would accept Christ and His Good News, and even among those who have rejected Him and rejected us, there is always still hope, that they will change and receive the Lord. We must remain strong and courageous, and embrace our mission with zeal, devotion, and most importantly, love.

Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Benedict the abbot, also known widely as St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the religious order of St. Benedict, or the Benedictines. He was also an inspiration for our great Pope Emeritus, the beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in choosing his regnal name as Pope, together with Pope Benedict XV, his predecessor and the Pope of peace.

St. Benedict of Nursia lived in the first millenium in the late Roman Empire, and he was the founder of a great religious order, the Benedictines, who imposed on them what is well-known as the Rule of St. Benedict. The rule placed a great emphasis on the balance between piety and religiosity and the need for service and good works, which the Benedictines practiced through their charitable acts and service, and a pious and holy lifestyle, dedicated to the Lord in humility and obedience. And important to the Benedictines are also the concept of peace, the need to seek peace in this world, and to be peaceful in one’s own acts.

St. Benedict strengthened the Christian monasticism that was growing up at his era, and he laid much foundations for the future missionary works of the Church and religious orders that helped to preserve the Traditions of the Faith through the tumultous era of the ending of the Roman Empire and the advent of the Dark Ages. Through St. Benedict, the monastic communities had been strengthened, and therefore, the Church itself had been strengthened.

Inspired by the example of St. Benedict of Nursia and other great missionary saints of the monastic orders, we embark on this new journey of the faith in this modern era of secularism and consumerism, where God increasingly take a lesser importance in people’s minds and lives. It is our duty then, to continue the work of faith, to bring the Lord closer to many people around the world who have yet to receive the Good News of the Lord, or even those who had rejected the message of salvation outright.

There will be rejection for sure, for the world will reject us just as it had once rejected Christ Himself. But we must never give up and we must be courageous, to defend our faith, to defend the Lord, and to bring salvation to many who still live in the darkness of evil and sin. May St. Benedict of Nursia intercede for us, and pray for our sake, that God will send His helpers to aid us in our mission in this world. May St. Benedict also intercede for the sake of our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who is fighting for the Church in prayer and solitude. God bless us all, and God bless His Holy Church! Amen.

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Thursday, 11 July 2013 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 10 : 7-15

Go and proclaim this message : ‘The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons. You received this as a gift, so give it as a gift. Do not carry any gold, silver, or copper in your purses. Do not take a traveller’s bag, or an extra shirt, or sandals, or a staff : workers deserve their living.’

When you come to a town or a village, look for a worthy person, and stay there until you leave. When you enter the house, wish it peace. If the people in the house deserve it, your peace will be on them; if they do not deserve it, your blessing will come back to you.

And if you are not welcomed, and your words are not listened to, leave that house or that town, and shake the dust off your feet. I assure you, it will go easier for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, than it will for the people of that town.

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Monday, 8 July 2013 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 9 : 18-26

While Jesus was speaking to the people, an official of the synagogue came up to Him, bowed before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died, but come and place Your hands on her, and she will live.” Jesus stood up and followed him with His disciples.

Then a woman, who had suffered from a severe bleeding for twelve years, came up from behind and touched the edge of His cloak; for she thought, “If I only touch His cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned, saw her and said, “Courage, My daughter, your faith has saved you.”And from that moment the woman was cured.

When Jesus arrived at the official’s house and saw the flute players and the excited crowd, He said, “Get out of here! The girl is not dead. She is only sleeping!” And they laughed at Him. But once the crowd had been turned out, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up. The news of this spread through the whole area.