breath of God

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 26 March 2016 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Psalm after First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 103 : 1-2, 5-6, 10, 12-14, 24 and 35

Bless the Lord, my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour; O Lord, my God, how great You are! You are wrapped in light as with a garment; You stretch out the heavens like a tent.

You set the earth on its foundations, and never will it be shaken. You covered it with the ocean like a garment, and waters spread over the mountains.

You make springs gush forth in valleys winding among mountains and hills.

Birds build their nests close by and sing among the branches of trees. You water the mountains from Your abode and fill the earth with the fruit of Your work. You make grass grow for cattle and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.

How varied o Lord, are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all – the earth full of Your creatures. May sinners vanish from the earth, and may the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, my soul!

 

Alternative Psalm

Psalm 32 : 4-7, 12-13, 20, 22

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

The heavens were created by His word, the breath of His mouth formed their starry host. He gathered the waters of the sea into a heap, and stored the deep in cellars.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield.

O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.

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Tuesday, 21 July 2015 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Exodus 15 : 8-9, 10 and 12, 17

At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up, the surging waters stood firm in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, “I will give chase and overtake, I will divide the spoil and make a feast of it. I shall draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.”

A breath of Yours and the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. You stretched out Your right hand; the earth swallowed them.

You will bring Your people and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place You chose to dwell in, o YHVH, the sanctuary prepared by Your hands.

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Sunday, 15 June 2014 : Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity, Trinity Sunday (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the truth about the Lord our God from the Scripture readings, in which God revealed Himself to be a God of love and justice, who loved His people with all of His heart, showing mercy when we the people sin before Him, and is slow to anger when we commit something wicked in His eyes, and wicked as we are, He was willing to give it all in order to save us, and that was through the sending of His Son Jesus into the world in order to save it.

Today we celebrate this nature of our Lord, who is the Most Holy Trinity, one but three, and three but one. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the most intimate truth and nature of our Lord who loves us. And the three forms the Divine Persons of the One and only God, which is one God in His absolute singularity, but with three equal Divine Persons, the Father as the Creator and loving God, the Son as the Word and the Judge of all creations, and the Holy Spirit as the guide and the source of all life.

The Holy Trinity worked in perfect harmony with each other, in the Lord who made all things possible and existent. The Lord God had been ever-present since before the beginning of time and all things, and though He existed in perfect love and harmony, He wanted to have others to be with Him. Therefore, He created this universe, filled with all of its wonders, through the works of the Trinity who made them all possible.

The Father willed creation into being, and through His Word, the Son, who we know now as Jesus Christ, He spoke the word and creation was made. Then the Holy Spirit filled all things with life and beauty, and make creation to be as wonderful as we behold and see it now. Yet, behind all those beauty and apparent perfections, ever since the beginning of time, after mankind had been created, sin and imperfections had entered creation.

God is indeed loving, merciful and committed to us His beloved creations, and even more so because we are the greatest of His creations, being created in His own image, and He breathed life directly into us. We were the dearest of His creatures, and He called us children, just as we ought to call Him our Father. However, we have been tainted with sin ever since our ancestors disobeyed our loving God, by listening to the deception of the devil instead of the love of God.

Remember, brethren, that while the Lord is loving and forgiving, and slow to anger as described, but the Lord who is also good and perfectly good, will not stand evil or sin to be in His presence. That was why Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, was cast out of the Garden of Eden and could no longer live in the direct presence of God. They were no longer worthy to be in the presence of God because of their sins.

Then why do the prophets and leaders like Moses, Elijah and others did not dare to look up and face the Lord when He came to meet with them and talk with them directly. This was because of the fear that the Lord’s perfection and goodness reflected in His face would indeed be too much for our sinful selves to bear, and thus none dared to look upon Him.

But God, our Lord is loving and forgiving, and He wanted every single one of us His children to be reconciled with Him and be reunited with Him, so much so that He gave us His ultimate gift and love, in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, who was Word, and is Word of God, but incarnated into flesh, the flesh of mankind, and to assume the humble aspect of humanity, fully man and fully divine.

The beginning of the Gospel of St. John clearly explained this occurrence, when the Word became flesh, and when God made Himself completely approachable by His beloved people. Through Jesus mankind saw directly the fullness of God’s eternal love for us, and in His face, we realise that we are truly beloved by Him, for we had been created in His very own image.

Jesus passed down the divine authority from the Lord to His own disciples, to forgive our sins and cleanse our faults, and made that forgiveness and mercy complete and perfect through the offering of His own self on the cross, and by becoming the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, He made us worthy once again for the Lord, for those of us who accepted His sacrifice through our baptism.

When we were baptised, we were sealed with the Most Holy Name of the Sacred Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which signified that we had been marked as the possessions of God, and that from then on, we are part of the Lord’s grace and blessing. But yet, we cannot just remain idle, and instead we must have a living and vibrant faith, one that is inspired by the love of God, and which we use to the fullest, in order to bring goodness to one another, fellow brethren in the Lord.

Today’s celebration of the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity is a constant reminder that God loves us, and very much indeed that no matter how heavy our sins are, He is willing to forgive us, and from there, bring us all back into His embrace. And the mystery of the Holy Trinity is also part of the history of our salvation. The Lord our Father created us, and through His Word and Spirit, He made us be.

Then when we faltered, He promised us salvation through the Messiah, who was none other than the Son, who then took away the sins of the world through His death, and from Him and the Father came the Spirit that rejuvenated mankind and brought the wisdom and understanding of the truth to all of us. The actions of the Trinity were the concrete proof of the love and dedication that God has for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is imperative for us to contemplate and reflect on our own lives and actions, whether we have been faithful and committed to the Lord, just as He had committed Himself to us? Have we been like what we are expected to be since the day of our baptism? We have been empowered by the Spirit and endowed with the gift of love from God, and there is indeed great potential inside each and every one of us.

However, this potential will forever remain just as that, a potential and useless if we do not make use of them and remain idle. We must cooperate and work together with the Lord, in order to benefit our lives and also the lives of those around us. We have to have a living and genuine faith, brethren, and we cannot just pay lip service to the Lord for our faith. Be committed, be dedicated, and let us all do our best to show our love to God, who had loved us first.

May the Most Holy Trinity, who had sealed us through baptism, continue to endow us with grace and blessings, that we may grow stronger in our faith and love for Him, and gain in the end of all things, the gift of everlasting life in heaven. God bless us all, now and forever. Amen!

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Sunday, 8 June 2014 : Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

John 20 : 19-23

On the evening of that day, the first day after the Sabbath, the doors were locked where the disciples were, because of their fear of the Jews. But Jesus came, and stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you!” Then He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples kept looking at the Lord and were full of joy.

Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” After saying this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! Those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”

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Tuesday, 23 July 2013 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious (Psalm)

Exodus 15 : 8-9, 10 and 12, 17

At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up, the surging waters stood firm in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, “I will give chase and overtake, I will divide the spoil and make a feast of it. I shall draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.”

A breath of Yours and the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. You stretched out Your right hand; the earth swallowed them.

You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place You chose to dwell in, o YHVH, the sanctuary prepared by Your hands.

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Thursday, 30 May 2013 : 8th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 32 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Give thanks to Him on the harp and lyre, making melody and chanting praises. Amid loud shouts of joy, sing to Him a new song and play the ten-stringed harp.

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

The heavens were created by His word, the breath of His mouth formed their starry host. He gathered the waters of the sea into a heap, and stored the deep in cellars.

Let the whole earth fear the Lord, let the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and so it was, He commanded, and everything stood firm.

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Thursday, 9 May 2013 : Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Ascension day, a very important day in our faith, because today we celebrate a central tenet of our faith. That is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is resurrected on the third day after dying on the cross for the salvation of all  mankind, but that today, most importantly, we celebrate the glorification of God, in which Christ, who had descended to this world as a humble man, returns to His glory in heaven as the divine God.

For Christ, our Messiah and our Lord, is both fully man and fully divine at the same time, with both of His human and divine nature united indivisibly in a mysterious and holy link that is beyond our best understanding. In Christ, who had been made incarnate to be a lowly human like us through His birth in Mary, His mother, lies our salvation, and our only hope.

Because, Christ, who is the Lamb of God, gave up Himself to be the sacrifice for the sake of our sins, just as God instructed the people of Israel to sacrifice unblemished lambs to erase their sins and their unworthiness before God. Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God is not merely unblemished, but also perfect, and as the only perfect and worthy sacrifice to take away all the sins of the world, once and for all, through the sacrifice He made on Calvary.

We celebrate this every time we celebrate the Mass, in which the bread and the wine that we offer are truly turned into the Precious Body and the Precious Blood of the Lamb, which He Himself had offered to His disciples at His last supper, so that He will continue to live in them, and therefore remain within us, that He will be within us, and therefore belong to Him and the Father. We have all been mark as His own, and we will not be lost, as long as we keep Him ever in our hearts, and invoke Him in all our actions.

He may be no longer with us in physical form, because He was indeed taken up to heaven with His glorious Ascension, when He parted ways from His disciples and left physically this world, but He actually remains with us, within all of us, that we are empowered with His presence. He granted us the Holy Spirit, the Helper, which came to the Apostles at Pentecost, and from them, the Holy Spirit is passed down to us, with the Sacrament of Baptism and strengthened at Confirmation, the fire of the spirit is burning with us, the living symbol of Christ’s presence within each one of us.

This Spirit that we have within each of us will stay dormant if we do not do anything to make use of the gifts that the Spirit had granted within each of us. Yes, all of us have the power and ability to make the difference, in our own lives, and in the lives of many of those who are around us. The Spirit has planted within us the seeds of faith and love, and these seeds will not sprout unless we provide them with ever greater faith and love, that can only be provided through solid and true actions made in the name of the Lord, and reflecting that we truly are God’s children.

If we allow the Holy Spirit to grow within us and use our beings to bring about love and peace in both ourselves and those around us, it will allow us to grow and bear much fruit, fruits of love and blessings, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Christ who was taken up on Ascension will come again as He promised all of us, in His Second Coming, which is coming soon. When He comes again, He will see if we, the plants that He, the seed spreader, had grown to the results that He wants.

If we do not bear any fruit, like that of the barren tree, He would destroy us and curse us, because we have not bear any fruit, despite having been planted with seeds of faith. Just like those who had been given money by the master to be invested, but wasted the money in idleness, and did not invest it to let the value of the money to grow for profits. In this, the love that God had given us had become useless, because love cannot just remain within ourselves, because love is between us and another party, and remember that the Lord Himself had commanded us to love both Himself, and our fellow brethren.

The Lord Himself has told us that to love the least and weakest of our brethren, we have loved Him. That is why to just love the Lord alone, is in fact not sufficient, because this love that we have is not perfect, and can only be made perfect by us also loving our fellow brethren, particularly those who lacks, and those who are weakest and persecuted. Therefore, only in living our faith, and using the gifts that the Holy Spirit has placed in us that we can truly bear fruit and be found worthy when Christ once again comes into this world to judge it.

He will welcome and congratulate us, if we had done what we can to fulfill His wishes and His commandments. He will say to us, “Well done, My faithful servants. Come and take your rightful place at My Kingdom.” But if we do not make use of the chance we have now, and waste it on idleness, or worse, that is to spurn God’s love and Spirit, and indulge instead in the worldly temptations and pleasures and the world of hatred, we would be banished by the Lord from His presence, because we will be found unworthy of Him.

The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ therefore, serves also as a reminder. Indeed, we rejoice in His glorification and ascension in heaven, to take up His rightful place at the right hand of the Father, but as the angels had said to the disciples on that day, that Christ will come again and that time when He comes again, He will judge the world and gather His faithful ones to Himself while banishing those who strayed from His way, together with Satan and his fallen angels, into the eternal damnation that awaits them.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us not be complacent, and let us strive to be always ready for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, which indeed will come soon, and will come at a time when many are at their most unprepared moments. Do not be caught unprepared, and let us make sure that all of us, from now on, put Christ at the very centre of our lives, and reflect Christ in all our thoughts, our words, and our actions, that we show that we belong to Christ and to Him alone.

Love one another and love God with all our hearts, our minds, and our beings. Put our trust completely in Him, and let Him transform us with His Holy Spirit, and bear much fruit in us, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Remember that Christ ascended to heaven, is always within all of us, with all of us serving as the Holy Temples of His Divine Presence. May God be with all of us, always, till the end of time. Amen.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Psalm after First Reading)

Psalm 103 : 1-2, 5-6, 10, 12-14, 24 and 35

Bless the Lord, my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour; O Lord, my God, how great You are! You are wrapped in light as with a garment; You stretch out the heavens like a tent.

You set the earth on its foundations, and never will it be shaken. You covered it with the ocean like a garment, and waters spread over the mountains.

You make springs gush forth in valleys winding among mountains and hills.

Birds build their nests close by and sing among the branches of trees. You water the mountains from Your abode and fill the earth with the fruit of Your work. You make grass grow for cattle and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.

How varied o Lord, are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all – the earth full of Your creatures. May sinners vanish from the earth, and may the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, my soul!

 

Alternative Psalm

 

Psalm 32 : 4-7, 12-13, 20, 22

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

The heavens were created by His word, the breath of His mouth formed their starry host. He gathered the waters of the sea into a heap, and stored the deep in cellars.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield.

O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.