devotion to God

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Saturday, 12 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 7 : 40-53

At that time, many who had been listening to these words of Jesus began to say, “This is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some wondered, “Would the Christ come from Galilee? Does the Scripture not say that the Christ is a descendant of David and from Bethlehem, the city of David?” The crowd was divided over Him. Some wanted to arrest Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

The officers of the Temple went back to the chief priests, who asked them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this Man.” The Pharisees then said, “So you, too, have been led astray! Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in Him? Only these cursed people, who have no knowledge of the Law!”

Yet one of them, Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, spoke out, “Does our Law condemn people without first hearing them and knowing the facts?” They replied, “Do you, too, come from Galilee? Look it up and see for yourself that no prophet is to come from Galilee.”

And they all went home.

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Saturday, 12 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 7 : 2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12

O Lord, my God, in You I take shelter; deliver me and save me from all my pursuers, lest lions tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

Proclaim, o Lord, my righteousness; You see that I am blameless. Bring to an end the power of the wicked, but affirm the just, o righteous God, Searcher of mind and heart.

You cover me as a shield, o God, for You protect the upright. A righteous judge is God, His anger ever awaiting those who refuse to repent.

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Saturday, 12 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 11 : 18-20

YHVH made it known to me and so I know! And You let me see their scheming : “Take care, even your kinsfolk and your own family are false with you and behind your back they freely criticise you. Do not trust them when they approach you in a friendly way.”

“But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me that they were plotting, “Let us feed him with trials and remove him from the land of the living and let his name never be mentioned again.”

“YHVH, God of hosts, You Who judge with justice and know everyone’s heart and intentions, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have entrusted my cause.”

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Friday, 11 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 7 : 1-2, 10, 25-30

After this Jesus went around Galilee; He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews wanted to kill Him. Now the Jewish feast of the Tents was at hand. But after His brothers had gone to the festival, He also went up, not publicly but in secret.

Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is this not the Man they want to kill? And here He is speaking freely, and they do not say a word to Him? Can it be that the rulers know that this is really the Christ? Yet we know where this Man comes from; but when the Christ appears, no one will know where He comes from.”

So Jesus announced in a loud voice in the Temple court where He was teaching, “You say that you know Me and know where I come from! I have not come of Myself; I was sent by the One Who is true, and you do not know Him. I know Him for I come from Him and He sent Me.”

They would have arrested Him, but no one laid hands on Him because His time had not yet come.

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Friday, 11 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Wisdom 2 : 1a, 12-22

Led by mistaken reasons they think, “Life is short and sad and there is no cure for death. Let us set a trap for the Righteous, for He annoys us and opposes our way of life; He reproaches us for our breaches of the Law and accuses us of being false to our upbringing.”

“He claims knowledge of God and calls Himself Son of the Lord. He has become a reproach to our way of thinking; even to meet Him is burdensome to us. He does not live like others and behaves strangely. According to Him we have low standards, so He keeps aloof from us as if we were unclean. He emphasises the happy end of the righteous and boasts of having God as Father.”

“Let us see the truth of what He says and find out what His end will be. If the Righteous is a Son of God, God will defend Him and deliver Him from His adversaries. Let us humble and torture Him to prove His self-control and test His patience. When we have condemned Him to a shameful death, we may test His words.”

This is the way they reason, but they are mistaken, blinded by their malice. They do not know the mysteries of God nor do they hope for the reward of a holy life; they do not believe that the blameless will be recompensed.

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Thursday, 10 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Exodus 32 : 7-14

Then YHVH said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten calf; they have bowed down before it and sacrificed to it and said : ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.'”

And YHVH said to Moses, “I see that these people are a stiff-necked people. Now just leave Me that My anger may blaze against them. I will destroy them, but of you I will make a great nation.”

But Moses calmed the anger of YHVH, his God, and said, “Why, o YHVH, should Your anger burst against Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say : ‘YHVH brought them out with evil intent, for He wanted to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth.'”

“Turn away from the heat of Your anger and do not bring disaster on Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promise You Yourself swore : I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I spoke about I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance.”

YHVH then changed His mind and would not yet harm His people.

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Tuesday, 8 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about God Who brought upon healing on His people, by His love and mercy through which He blessed the sick and those who were with illness, making them whole and healthy once again. God had mercy on them and wanted to bring them to healing and succour, and to remove from them their suffering.

But in order to do so, we ourselves must come to accept God’s offer of love and mercy. We must open ourselves to the outpouring of God’s care and concern for us. After all, if He had come down Himself from heaven, and if He had been willing to sacrifice Himself for our sake, for our liberation and redemption, then we too should show our gratitude and thanks, and devote ourselves to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God will not abandon us to the darkness and to destruction unless we ourselves desire that destruction, either because we refuse to accept His love and mercy, or if we are stubborn in our insistence to follow our own path and desires, in doing what the world wants from us. Satan, the evil one is trying his best to pull us all away from salvation because through his temptations of the world, he tempts us with many things that may prevent us from following our true path to God.

Sin is the chain that keeps us bound into this world, and prevented us from achieving true liberation in God. Sin is the disease and corruption that is eating at our hearts, our minds and our souls, corrupting us from the inside and turning us into wicked beings. And with the sin we have in us, we have been made unworthy to stand before the presence of God and to be with Him.

Why is this so, brethren? That is because while God loves us all perfectly and greatly, but sin has no place before Him, as He is pure good and perfect. And sin is something that is abominable to God, because it was born from disobedience and rebellion against Him. If we want to have a share in His glory, then we have to endeavour to leave behind our sinful ways and abandon all of those wickedness in favour of righteousness.

This means that, as Christians, all of us should be using our time, and especially during this season of Lent to rectify our ways and to repent from all of our sins. This is the best and perfect time for us to be renewed in all our dealings and in all our ways, and this is the moment for us to look for a new opportunity at redemption and forgiveness of sins, the time for us to reflect on our own lives, and if we have strayed from the path towards salvation, this is the time for us to turn back.

In this season of Lent, we are all called to the presence of God, to be humble and to be sorrowful over our sins and past wickedness. We are all called to commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and to show that faith through our own concrete actions and dedications, through which we are to bring ourselves into God’s loving hands, and to be forgiven from our countless trespasses.

Today, we celebrate the feast day of St. John of God, a faithful religious and preacher, a great and dedicated servant of God, who committed his whole life in the service of God and the Gospel, and the spreading of the Good News of the Gospel to the whole world. St. John of God is truly a role model to all of us the faithful, to follow as we make our progress on the path towards salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. John of God was renowned through his extensive service to the poor, the sick and the dying as part of the Knights Hospitallers, what we now know as the Military Order of Malta. He has devoted himself, his whole life and his efforts to serve the least and the last of the society, helping them to get by, and by showing his care and compassion for them, he showed the love of God to mankind.

Many people were inspired by his examples, and rightly, all of us should be inspired by those same examples as well. We should also lead the same exemplary life as those holy men and women had done. They too were once sinners, but what is important is that, they turned away from their sins, and found the path towards the glory of eternal life.

May God help us on our path, and may He bless us in all of our endeavours, so that in everything that we do, we may draw ever closer to the Lord and to His salvation. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 5 : 1-16

At that time, after Jesus healed the sick son of an official, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, there is a pool (called Bethzatha in Hebrew) surrounded by five galleries. In these galleries lay a multitude of sick people : blind, lame and paralysed.

(All were waiting for the water to move, for at times an Angel of the Lord would descend into the pool and stir up the water; and the first person to enter the pool, after this movement of the water, would be healed of whatever disease that he had.)

There was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him, and because He knew how long this man had been lying there, He said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” And the sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; so while I am still on my way, another steps down before me.”

Jesus then said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk!” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his mat and walked. Now that day happened to be the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had just been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and the Law does not allow you to carry your mat.”

He answered them, “The One Who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk!'” They asked him, “Who is the One Who said to you : Take up your mat and walk?” But the sick man had no idea Who it was Who had cured him, for Jesus had slipped away among the crowd that filled the place.

Afterwards Jesus met him in the Temple court and told him, “Now, you are well; do not sin again, lest something worse happen to you.” And the man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus Who had healed him. So the Jews persecuted Jesus because He performed healings like that on the Sabbath.

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Tuesday, 8 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 45 : 2-3, 5-6, 8-9ab

God is our strength and protection, an ever-present help in affliction. We will not fear, therefore, though the earth be shaken and the mountains plunge into the seas.

There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within, the city cannot quake, for God’s help is upon it at the break of day.

For with us is the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, our refuge. Come, see the works of the Lord – the marvellous things He has done in the world.

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Tuesday, 8 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Ezekiel 47 : 1-9, 12

The man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple and I saw water coming out from the threshold of the Temple and flowing eastwards. The Temple faced the east and the water flowed from the south side of the Temple, from the south side of the altar.

He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing the east and there I saw the stream coming from the south side. The man had a measuring cord in his hand. As he went towards the east he measured off a thousand cubits and led me across the water which was up to my ankles.

He measured off another thousand cubits and made me cross the water which came to my knees. He measured off another thousand cubits and we crossed the water which was up to my waist. When he had again measured a thousand cubits, I could not cross the torrent for it had swollen to a depth which was impossible to cross without swimming.

The man then said to me, “Son of man, did you see?” He led me on further and brought me back to the bank of the river. There I saw a number of trees on both sides of the river. He said to me, “This water goes to the east, down to the Arabah, and when it flows into the sea of foul smelling water, the water will become wholesome.”

“Wherever the river flows, swarms of creatures will live in it; fish will be plentiful and the sea water will become fresh. Wherever it flows, life will abound. Near the river on both banks there will be all kinds of fruit trees with foliage that will not wither and fruit that will never fail; each month they will bear a fresh crop because the water comes from the Temple. The fruit will be good to eat and the leaves will be used for healing.”