Bishop of Milan

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Tuesday, 7 December 2021 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are called to reflect on our lives and actions as we continue to journey through this season of Advent. Today we are all called to seek the Lord, our loving God and our Good Shepherd, Who has always ever showed concern and care for each one of us. He has always reached out to us, seeking to be reconciled with us, and we should recognise His ever present love, compassion and generous mercy.

Today, in our first reading as we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, the prophet spoke of the words of the Lord, offering assurance and the coming of the Lord’s salvation for the people of God. This came in the context of the sufferings that the people had suffered for a long time for their disobedience, and all that they would still suffer, the humiliation and the trials and challenges, for having abandoned God and for having done what were wicked in the sight of God.

But the Lord assured them all through Isaiah that if they all were willing to turn to Him and seek Him, then He will come to gather them all and provide for them, as a Good Shepherd calling forth His sheep, gathering all of them scattered throughout the world and making them part of His one beloved flock. God will make them great and blessed once again, and they will enter into His glorious kingdom and receive the assurance of eternal life and joy with Him.

And all these were fulfilled by the coming of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all and the whole world, Who in our Gospel passage today reiterated the same truth and message, that the Lord indeed, as He often referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd, has come to this world to gather all of the lost sheep, so that the entire flock may become whole yet again. He came to us, in the flesh, to be with us and to help us find our way to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, of the shepherd who was so happy to have found the one lost sheep and went out all the way just to seek that one lost sheep, we should come to know of the truth that God has always ever been so patient with us, and based on what we have earlier heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, truly we should be able to realise and feel the great love that God has shown each and every one of us. He has done so much for us and He is truly willing to welcome us back into His embrace, that we may never be lost from Him again.

However, it is often that we are the ones who had been stubborn and persistent in our refusal to believe in Him, and despite the Lord’s constant attempts to reach out to us, we often spurned His love and compassion, rejected His mercy and generosity in trying to reach out to us and forgive us our sins. That is why it is important for all of us to remind ourselves of just how fortunate and blessed we are to have been beloved in such a way by the Lord, and how all of us should be grateful for this love and generosity we have received.

Today, we should also reflect on the life and the examples of a great saint that can become a truly wonderful inspiration for us on how we should live our lives as Christians. St. Ambrose of Milan, the great and renowned Bishop of Milan is a great role model to all of us, in his piety and dedication to God, as well as in his dedication to his flock and the salvation of souls. He was one of the four original Doctors of the Church and is widely revered throughout the Church for all history and up to this very day.

St. Ambrose was born into a high ranking Roman family and was the Roman governor of what is today the northern region of Italy, the province of Aemilia-Liguria when a particular turn of events brought him to be the Bishop of the important Diocese of Milan. At that time, the divisions within the Church were deep and terrible, as conflicts often arose between the supporters of the Arian heresy and the ones who remained faithful to the true teachings of the Church. The death of the Arian bishop of Milan led to a very heated and protracted election of his successor.

It was amidst all these that as St. Ambrose came to the election as a moderator in his role as the provincial governor that the Holy Spirit inspired the people gathered there, having known of the virtues and faith of this governor, to acclaim him as the next Bishop of Milan. Initially, St. Ambrose was hesitant to take up the office, as back then, although he was already nominally a Christian by faith, but he was not even formally baptised yet, and did not have a proper preparation in theology and many aspects of the Church.

Eventually, he obeyed the calling of God and was baptised, ordained as priest and bishop. As the Bishop of Milan, he adopted an ascetic lifestyle and committed himself to serve the needs of his flock. He helped to heal the divisions in the Church and gradually persuaded many of those who still held on to their heretical Arian beliefs to abandon those beliefs and return to the true faith of the Holy Mother Church. He dedicated much of his time to reform the Church not only within his own Diocese but also in the wider scope of the Universal Church.

He was a mentor, teacher and sponsor for St. Augustine of Hippo, another great and renowned Church father, who was to become another one of the four great original Doctors of the Church. St. Ambrose was also well-remembered for his confrontation with the Roman Emperor, the powerful and mighty Theodosius the Great, for his role in the deaths of many people in the Massacre of Thessalonica, one of the greatest cities of the Empire. St. Ambrose promptly excommunicated the Emperor, with the intention of leading him back towards God and not to give in to worldly corruptions from sin.

The Emperor was repentant, and he publicly denounced and confessed his own sins of having caused such a great dismay in the Church and for having sinned against God, laying aside his regalia and all the splendour of his office, and in the sackcloth of a penitent, he was welcomed back into the Church by St. Ambrose, whose actions and interactions with the Emperor Theodosius the Great reminded all of us of the dangers of sin, and how powerful the allure of sin is, and yet, at the same time, how generous God is with His mercy and compassion, as long as we are willing to embrace His love and mercy.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, from what we have heard today through the Scriptures and the life and works of St. Ambrose, let us all reflect on our own lives. Have we lived our lives worthily as the Lord has commanded us to do? Have we been faithful as Christians, in dedicating ourselves to God? Or have we spent our time in indulging in our desires and in worldly pleasures and corruptions? These are the questions that we need to ask ourselves this Advent, as we recall God’s mercy, love and compassion at the same time.

Are we ready to welcome the Lord into our hearts and into our lives? Are we willing to be humble before Him, admitting our sinfulness and our wicked past, and like the Emperor, cast aside the trappings of our pride and ego, and seek the Lord wholeheartedly and strive to love Him with all of our might from now on? May the Lord be with us all and may He guide us in our journey of faith through this Advent season and through life. Amen.

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Tuesday, 7 December 2021 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 18 : 12-14

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you, when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it, than about the ninety-nine that did not go astray.”

“It is the same with your Father in heaven. Your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to perish.”

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Tuesday, 7 December 2021 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 95 : 1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12a, 12b-13

Sing to YHVH a new song, sing to YHVH, all the earth! Sing to YHVH, praise His Name; proclaim His salvation, day after day.

Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds. Say among the nations, “He will judge the peoples with justice.”

Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them.

Let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before YHVH Who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice, and the peoples, with fairness.

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Tuesday, 7 December 2021 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 40 : 1-11

Be comforted, My people, be strengthened, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, proclaim to her that her time of bondage is at an end, that her guilt has been paid for, that from the hand of YHVH she has received double punishment for all her iniquity.

A voice cries, “In the wilderness prepare the way for YHVH. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up; every mountain and hill will be laid low. The stumbling blocks shall become level and the rugged places smooth. The glory of YHVH will be revealed, and all mortals together will see it; for the mouth of YHVH has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry.” and I say, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of YHVH blows upon it. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will forever stand.”

Go up onto the high mountain, messenger of Good News to Zion, lift up your voice with strength, fear not to cry aloud when you tell Jerusalem and announce to the cities of Judah : Here is your God! Here comes YHVH Sabaoth with might; His strong arm rules for Him; His reward is with Him, and here before Him is His booty. Like a shepherd He tends His flock : He gathers the lambs in His arms, He carries them in His bosom, gently leading those that are with young.

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Saturday, 7 December 2019 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we continue to progress through the season of Advent, we are all reminded both of God’s enduring love for each and every one of us, as well as how at the same time each and every one of us also have the mission and responsibility to fulfil what God has entrusted to us. All of us as Christians have received God’s salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son, and through the Apostles, have been commissioned to go forth to the nations to spread the Good News and to baptise all in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples about how the harvests of the Lord were already abundant and yet, there were not enough workers in the field of the Lord that were available to gather the harvest. This was actually a reference to how the world, mankind of many nations especially the Israelites have been prepared for a long time by the Lord through the prophets and messengers that God has sent to them.

Those faithful servants of the Lord had delivered the messages and the truths from God that they have been entrusted with, and therefore the seeds of faith had been sowed in the people of God of various races, backgrounds and origins. However, the fullness of the truth had not been revealed to them all, and the people only had part of the knowledge of the truth. It was not until the coming of the Messiah that the fullness of truth was revealed to God’s people.

The Lord Jesus, the Saviour of the world Who came as the Lord Himself has promised was born of the House of David and from among the children of Abraham to fulfil what God has promised through His prophets and messengers, and to fulfil what the Lord has made in the Covenant between Him and His people Israel. But through this also, God wanted us all to know that His salvation, love and grace is not just reserved to the Israelites but to every children of mankind.

Yet, as mentioned, there is a lack of workers to gather the rich harvest of the Lord, as the Lord’s rich harvest is available and yet the willingness of those whom God has called to be the ones to bear the works of God has been lacking. God has called and chosen from among the people all those whom He has deemed to be worthy to serve Him and to be His witnesses among the nations. They were His Apostles and the disciples, through whom God called even more from among the nations to be His people.

The Lord reveals His truth to all of us, the truth about His love and His salvation, how He wants all of His people to be saved from certain destruction because of their sins and disobedience. He showed us all the way of the truth, to guide the wayward children of God back to their Father and Creator. This is not an easy task, as the Apostles and their successors had shown us through their lives and works. Throughout the centuries and the long history of the Church, we have seen so many of God’s faithful servants suffering and being rejected by those to whom they had laboured to bring the words and truth of God to.

Yet, they all persevered and worked even harder to complete the missions that God has entrusted to them. The Apostles and their successors and many among our holy predecessors, the many saints and martyrs of the Church responded positively to God’s call to service and allowed God to work through them. And today we honour the memory of St. Ambrose, the renowned Bishop of Milan and a truly prominent Church father and leader of the Church of his contemporary time.

St. Ambrose was once the governor and ruler of the northern Italian provinces of the Roman Empire and was a well-respected and liked leader, who helped to settle issues among the people and had many other accomplishments that made it such that when there was a bitter conflict in the succession to the position of the Bishop of Milan between the Orthodox and Arian parties of the Church, the whole assembly of the faithful agreed by acclamation to choose St. Ambrose as the Bishop of Milan even though he was then still a layman.

Thenceforth, St. Ambrose dedicated his life to the new calling as the shepherd of the faithful in Milan and as one of the most influential Church leaders of his time. St. Ambrose had Emperors of the Roman Empire under his care, especially the then young Emperor, against especially the Arians who wanted to subvert the faithful and the Church to their false and heretical teachings. St. Ambrose stood by his faith and was fearless in his faith and dedication to God.

It was told even that St. Ambrose excommunicated Emperor Theodosius the Great, the last great Emperor of the united Roman Empire, for his premeditated role in the massacre of the city of Thessalonica. Such was the courage and strength of St. Ambrose that the Emperor had to succumb and to agree to a public penance and profession of faith before the assembly of the faithful before he was allowed to return to the Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of the examples set by St. Ambrose, a holy and faithful servant of God, shall we ourselves also follow in his footsteps and serve the Lord faithfully in the same way? Shall we also respond positively and dedicatedly to the call of the Lord to follow Him with all of our hearts and with all of our strength from now on?

May the Lord give us all the strength to follow Him in the path that He has shown us all, and let us all do our very best, giving our wholehearted effort, focus and attention to serve the Lord at all times for His greater glory. Let us all strive to be true Christians in everything we say and do so that through us, God may be glorified and that He may be present in the hearts and minds of many more of those whom God had called to be His beloved people. Amen.

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Saturday, 7 December 2019 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we continue to progress through the season of Advent, we are all reminded both of God’s enduring love for each and every one of us, as well as how at the same time each and every one of us also have the mission and responsibility to fulfil what God has entrusted to us. All of us as Christians have received God’s salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son, and through the Apostles, have been commissioned to go forth to the nations to spread the Good News and to baptise all in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples about how the harvests of the Lord were already abundant and yet, there were not enough workers in the field of the Lord that were available to gather the harvest. This was actually a reference to how the world, mankind of many nations especially the Israelites have been prepared for a long time by the Lord through the prophets and messengers that God has sent to them.

Those faithful servants of the Lord had delivered the messages and the truths from God that they have been entrusted with, and therefore the seeds of faith had been sowed in the people of God of various races, backgrounds and origins. However, the fullness of the truth had not been revealed to them all, and the people only had part of the knowledge of the truth. It was not until the coming of the Messiah that the fullness of truth was revealed to God’s people.

The Lord Jesus, the Saviour of the world Who came as the Lord Himself has promised was born of the House of David and from among the children of Abraham to fulfil what God has promised through His prophets and messengers, and to fulfil what the Lord has made in the Covenant between Him and His people Israel. But through this also, God wanted us all to know that His salvation, love and grace is not just reserved to the Israelites but to every children of mankind.

Yet, as mentioned, there is a lack of workers to gather the rich harvest of the Lord, as the Lord’s rich harvest is available and yet the willingness of those whom God has called to be the ones to bear the works of God has been lacking. God has called and chosen from among the people all those whom He has deemed to be worthy to serve Him and to be His witnesses among the nations. They were His Apostles and the disciples, through whom God called even more from among the nations to be His people.

The Lord reveals His truth to all of us, the truth about His love and His salvation, how He wants all of His people to be saved from certain destruction because of their sins and disobedience. He showed us all the way of the truth, to guide the wayward children of God back to their Father and Creator. This is not an easy task, as the Apostles and their successors had shown us through their lives and works. Throughout the centuries and the long history of the Church, we have seen so many of God’s faithful servants suffering and being rejected by those to whom they had laboured to bring the words and truth of God to.

Yet, they all persevered and worked even harder to complete the missions that God has entrusted to them. The Apostles and their successors and many among our holy predecessors, the many saints and martyrs of the Church responded positively to God’s call to service and allowed God to work through them. And today we honour the memory of St. Ambrose, the renowned Bishop of Milan and a truly prominent Church father and leader of the Church of his contemporary time.

St. Ambrose was once the governor and ruler of the northern Italian provinces of the Roman Empire and was a well-respected and liked leader, who helped to settle issues among the people and had many other accomplishments that made it such that when there was a bitter conflict in the succession to the position of the Bishop of Milan between the Orthodox and Arian parties of the Church, the whole assembly of the faithful agreed by acclamation to choose St. Ambrose as the Bishop of Milan even though he was then still a layman.

Thenceforth, St. Ambrose dedicated his life to the new calling as the shepherd of the faithful in Milan and as one of the most influential Church leaders of his time. St. Ambrose had Emperors of the Roman Empire under his care, especially the then young Emperor, against especially the Arians who wanted to subvert the faithful and the Church to their false and heretical teachings. St. Ambrose stood by his faith and was fearless in his faith and dedication to God.

It was told even that St. Ambrose excommunicated Emperor Theodosius the Great, the last great Emperor of the united Roman Empire, for his premeditated role in the massacre of the city of Thessalonica. Such was the courage and strength of St. Ambrose that the Emperor had to succumb and to agree to a public penance and profession of faith before the assembly of the faithful before he was allowed to return to the Church.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of the examples set by St. Ambrose, a holy and faithful servant of God, shall we ourselves also follow in his footsteps and serve the Lord faithfully in the same way? Shall we also respond positively and dedicatedly to the call of the Lord to follow Him with all of our hearts and with all of our strength from now on?

May the Lord give us all the strength to follow Him in the path that He has shown us all, and let us all do our very best, giving our wholehearted effort, focus and attention to serve the Lord at all times for His greater glory. Let us all strive to be true Christians in everything we say and do so that through us, God may be glorified and that He may be present in the hearts and minds of many more of those whom God had called to be His beloved people. Amen.

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Saturday, 7 December 2019 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Matthew 9 : 35 – Matthew 10 : 1, 6-8

At that time, Jesus went around all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom; and He cured every sickness and disease. When He saw the crowds, He was moved with pity; for they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are only few. Ask the Master of the harvest to send workers to gather His harvest.”

Jesus called His Twelve disciples to Him, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out, and to heal every disease and sickness. Jesus sent these Twelve on mission, with the instruction : “Go, instead, to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. 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. Freely have you received, freely give.”

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Saturday, 7 December 2019 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Psalm 146 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! How good it is to sing to our God, how sweet and befitting, to praise Him! YHVH rebuilds Jerusalem; He gathers the exiles of Israel.

He heals their broken hearts and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of stars; He calls each of them by name.

The Lord is great, and mighty in power; His wisdom is beyond measure. YHVH lifts up the humble, but casts the wicked to the ground.

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Saturday, 7 December 2019 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Isaiah 30 : 19-21, 23-26

O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. When you cry, He will listen; when He hears, He will answer. When the Lord has given you the bread of anguish and the water of distress, He, your Teacher will hide no longer. Your own eyes will see Him, and your ear will listen to His words behind you : “This is the way, walk in it.”

He will then give rain for the seed you sow and make the harvest abundant from the crops you grow. On that day your cattle will graze in wide pastures. Your beasts of burden will eat silage tossed to them with pitchfork and shovel. For on the day of the great slaughter, when fortresses fall, streams of water will flow on every mountain and lofty hill.

The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun seven times greater, like the light of seven days, when YHVH binds up the wounds of His people and heals the bruises inflicted by His blows.

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Monday, 7 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day from our first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard about how God will bless His people who were downtrodden, afflicted, and who had been brought low. God will not abandon His beloved people to the darkness, and He will heal those who have been afflicted and make them whole once again.

We know that the prophet Isaiah lived during turbulent times in the history of the people of God, at the time when the northern kingdom of Israel had just been subjugated and conquered by the Assyrians, and many of its people brought into exile in distant and foreign lands. The same fate would eventually also come to the southern kingdom of Judah, where the people there too would be carted off into exile by their Babylonian conquerors.

Lest these people forgot about their Lord or thought that they had been abandoned and forgotten by their God, the prophet Isaiah reminded them that God Who is ever loving and Who always loves us will always care for them and His beloved ones throughout the ages, and He will succour and bless them accordingly. He shall not allow us who are faithful to be overlooked and forgotten.

And in the Gospel today, we witnessed the perfect manifestation of God’s love which He had spoken and which He had revealed through the prophets. In Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He showed Himself in the fullness of His love, that by healing of the paralytic man, He showed His might and authority, in absolving His beloved ones from their afflictions, both of the body and of the spirit.

For as we witnessed in that Gospel passage, we saw how God made it clear to the dissident Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who refused to listen to the Lord and to His truth, that in Him alone lies the healing and the salvation, and in Him alone lies the authority to forgive sins, that is none other than the disease and affliction of our souls.

And through Jesus, the paralytic could walk again, the blind could see again, the deaf could hear again, the mute could speak again, and most importantly, the sinners were forgiven of their sins and made pure and clean once again. We have to realise that out of all those afflictions, none of those that afflict the body is lasting and can bring us eternal harm, except that of sin.

Did we know that sin is a disease and an affliction upon us? It is a disease that slowly corrupts and destroys our souls, our minds, our hearts and eventually our bodies and our whole beings as well. And ever since mankind first disobeyed the Lord, the sin of disobedience entered into our hearts, and we have sinned ever since, whether be it small or significant sins.

What we have to understand is that in God we can find the healing and the redemption from all of our sins, the healing that will make us whole again and remove from us the taint of darkness that had kept us separated from God. But in order to do this, we have to really commit ourselves to Him, and we have to strive and persevere to lead a worthy life from now on, sinning no more, but devoting ourselves fully to the way of the Lord.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Ambrose, one of the great fathers of the Church, one of the original Doctors of the Church, an important pillar of the Church especially in those areas which were then under the Western Roman Empire. He was the longtime Bishop of Milan, a very devout and courageous servant of God, who did not even fear the secular authorities and the forces of the world as he went about carrying out his mission.

St. Ambrose was once a secular official, a governor of the region which now encompasses the city of Milan and the surrounding areas, until at that time, the Arian and heretical bishop of Milan died, and a successor was required. As both the heretics and the faithful factions of the Church were unable to find a consensus on the candidate suitable, the choice fell to St. Ambrose who was acclaimed by the faithful as the new Bishop of Milan.

St. Ambrose immediately cast himself into the role he had been appointed to, and he championed the cause of the orthodox teachings of the Church, banishing and casting out all of the heretics from the governance and guidance in the Church, and imploring them to repent and to change their ways, and eventually many did repent and be forgiven of their trespasses in espousing heresy against God and His Church.

He even went up against the Empress Justina, who was known to be a follower of the Arian heresy, and implored her to change her ways, and when she refused and tried to depose St. Ambrose, St. Ambrose publicly chastised her in front of the faithful, and he persevered in maintaining the truth in God’s Church. And on another occasion, when the Roman Emperor Theodosius erred by instigating a great massacre of peoples in the city of Thessalonica, St. Ambrose excommunicated the Emperor and would not allow him to receive the Sacraments until he publicly repented for his sins and made a public confession.

In this, as we see the examples of St. Ambrose, we see how God showed His mercy to us through His many good servants, the prophets, the Apostles, the disciples of Christ, our bishops and priests. To the latter, God had, through His Apostles, gave the power and the authority to forgive sins, that through them and their works, they might absolve a people still living in sin and darkness.

But forgiveness does not come without repentance, and this is a fact that we must always remember. We cannot expect the forgiveness for our sins if we do not commit ourselves to change our ways and to devote ourselves to the Lord. The paralytic man was healed, and many other people Jesus had healed, was healed because they desired to be healed and they wanted to make that commitment to not sin anymore and to lead a good life from then on.

Therefore, during this season of Advent, let it be a time for us all to change ourselves, to be a better person, sinning no more but from now on be a faithful and committed disciple and follower of our God. Let us use this time of preparation, to prepare ourselves to celebrate Christmas with true joy and devotion, that we will always put Christ at the centre of everything, at the centre of our focus and celebrations. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.