distractions

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Tuesday, 29 July 2014 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Martha (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of St. Martha, whom we know from the Holy Gospels as both the sister of the dead Lazarus risen to life by Jesus, as well as the one who were very busy with her servings to the Lord even though her sister Mary sat down listening attentively to the Lord speaking and teaching.

St. Martha is one of the holy women mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, and she was one of the very loyal followers of Jesus, who followed Him around as He ministered to the people of God. And it is likely that she together with her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus also followed Jesus through His last moments in life, when He went on His Passion and died on the cross.

But she was not perfect and was not a super woman as we all had noticed, and which I had pointed out just earlier on. She had her imperfections, and she was indeed the same as all of us, who have our own weaknesses in life. But regardless of this, she managed to overcome her weakness and fears, and following God, she found the love of God which had been manifested through none other than Jesus Christ our Lord.

St. Martha reminded us through her examples and her shortcomings that we all often in life are too busy to spend some time with God, and carrying on with our daily routines and businesses, we often forget about God and lose our focus in life. Instead we ended up like St. Martha who ended up losing the perfect opportunity to listen to the word of God just because she was busy serving the Lord and ensuring the food and drinks are all properly served.

At least we have to credit St. Martha that she had a good intention, as she wanted to serve the Lord and be as good a host as she could to this important and amazing visitor, Jesus Christ the Saviour Himself. However, she forgot that in doing all the busy things, she might end up losing the perfect opportunity of encountering the Lord, just as Mary her sister took up the best opportunity for.

And for us who are in this world today, how many of us are even worse than St. Martha? That we forget about the Lord and shunned Him without even any good intentions to welcome Him? Remember that St. Martha believed in Jesus wholeheartedly, and when Lazarus her brother died, she trusted in Jesus and put her faith in Him, that He would have the power to bring her brother back into life.

We live today in a world where daily businesses and occupations with so many various things often interfere in our relationship with God, and not just with God but in fact also in terms of our relationship with one another. We live at a time when faith is often forgotten for the sake of our achievements and obtaining of worldly pleasures. And these things prevent us from finding God in our lives and ultimately can serve as a great obstacle in our attempt to attain salvation in God.

Following the example of St. Martha, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be true disciples of the Lord, and no longer be distracted by our busy activities in life that prevent us from appreciating the Lord who had come personally to save us from certain death in sin. Let us all be truly devoted to God and be focused on Him, that in all of our actions we proclaim the Lord alone and walk faithfully and tenderly in His path.

St. Martha, pray for us all, that our faith may be always strong and that our minds and hearts will be always focused to the Lord, to His laws and precepts. Let us never be separated from Him and be ever devoted. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 July 2014 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded yet again that we need to forsake and abandon sin and all its ways, and embrace the Lord and His ways in our respective lives. And it is also important that we rebuke Satan and all of his attempts to convert us to his rebellious cause, as Israel had once done and repeatedly done during their time in the Promised Land, disobeying their Lord and God.

But we cannot do this alone, brothers and sisters. We need guidance and help, and we cannot face the threat of the evil one and all the forces he had arrayed against us all alone. We need support and strength, which our Lord provides us through none other than our holy priests, and also all those who had committed and surrendered themselves to a life wholly dedicated to God and His people.

Today Jesus called on all of us to consider His words, how that the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. And let us also discern on the words of the prayer He said, that the Lord would send more and more labourers to work and gain the harvest of the faith for the Lord, and for the good of all of us in this world. This is reflecting exactly the reality of the faith, both in that era, and in the era that had come after that, all the way to this modern time.

For the harvest that Jesus mentioned is the world, and all the people who lives in that world. There is indeed rich harvest to be reaped, and there are truly many souls who long and yearn for the word of God and for salvation to grace them. Many are still in the darkness, and many of them even had been baptised in the Church! Yes, brethren, that is the reality of our Church and the reality of our world today.

In the years and decades after the Second Vatican Council, which happened just about fifty years ago, due to gross misinterpretations of the true meaning and purpose of the Council, many had been misled by the errors and this also unfortunately led to a great decline in the vocations to the priesthood, which resulted in less and less priests, especially young priests, available to help with the needs of the many faithful all over the world, which numbers continue to grow unabated.

In our world today, unlike those times in the past, taking up a religious and consecrated life to God is no longer considered an honour, and in our rapidly changing world, there are increasingly more and more benchmarks of life and successes in life. Mankind as a whole are growing more and more attached to the goodness and the pleasures offered by the world, and coupled with the expectations and prejudices of the society, this led to even graver problems with vocations, and therefore, with the well-being of many of the faithful who are not cared of by the dwindling number of priests.

There are those who seek shortcuts by attempting to ‘adjust’ to the demands of the changing world, but they truly failed to understand the gravity and the reality of the matter. They seek to run away from the problem and from the issue, by proposing to take shortcuts that harm the life of the faithful, in particular the priests, their shepherds. I do not need to elaborate further on this issue, on the matter of ordination of women and allowing priests to have a married life. These are not of our faith, brethren, but these are the suggestions of Satan trying to divide us and destroy us.

The misinterpretations of the Second Vatican Council led to the diluting and loss of the true values and morale integrity in the faith within our society and our Church as a whole. More and more people became lost on their way to God, being disturbed and tempted by the ‘better offers’ of Satan in various means through the world. And this in particular affected many young men, who were then led away from their calling to be servants of God. And this also affected some who had decided to follow the Lord, and then reneged on the decision.

These are the hard truths and realities of our faith and our world, brothers and sisters in Christ. We lose out so many good men to the evil one, and he even tried to corrupt those whom God had made His labourers in faith. And through their fall, many too, would end up falling on their way to the Lord, which can then explain the troubles and the great challenges facing us today.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important that we all gather our strength and work together to help one another to overcome those challenges, rediscovering the purity and the truths of our faith, long forsaken by many who chose to reconcile with the ways of the world, and the ways of those who were wayward, over maintaining without fail, the deposit of faith in the Holy Mother Church.

Let us all pray especially for our priests, that in everything they do, and in living their difficult but enriching lives, they may commit to always stay pure and totally dedicated to the Lord, as on the day of their sacred ordination. Let us pray, that there will also be many more vocations to the priesthood, that many more young men would open their hearts to God, and allowing Him to do with them according with His will. Let us pray also for more vocations to the religious life, that all those who are called may respond positively and with confidence, for the sake of God and for the love of His people.

May God bless us all with love, hope and faith, that we may rediscover the zeal of faith that we had lost, in the confusion over the misinterpretations of the Second Vatican Council’s true intentions. God bless our priests too, and may He guide them all the days of their life. Amen.

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Thursday, 3 April 2014 : 4th Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s reading from the Scripture, we found that our Lord and God hates sin and the spirit of disobedience. And this was what we witnessed, as the people of Israel sinned against God. They refused to obey the Lord and believe in Him fully without reservations, even after what they had witnessed in the Ten Plagues and the opening of the Red Sea which paved the way to their liberation from Egypt and their slavery there.

That was why God was angry and wrathful, not just because He despises sin in any form, which the people of Israel clearly committed in their debauchery, with the gold and riches they took from Egypt, engaging in lustful revelries and made for themselves a god out of that gold, the golden calf. God loves all of His children, but He also despises sin.

Yet, this is were we are once again reaffirmed of the love and care which our Lord and God has for us. He loves us even more than He hates our sins, and what is this proof? Moses, the servant of God would know of this love, because he saw what God is like and he knew of His will and His plans for mankind, which would involve coming down by Himself, to be the very One to save His people from eternal damnation.

Yes, that proof of God’s love and eternal commitment to us is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and One of the Holy Trinity, the very Word who came to be incarnate to the flesh, and He is the living and eternal proof of God’s love for all of us without exception. Everyone is equal in the eyes of the Lord and they are all equal in God’s favour, except for sin which keeps us apart from the fullness of His grace.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord gave His best to us all, and He did not even hold back His own Son from our reach. Instead, He gave us the One through whom He can directly reach out to us, and similarly, from us to reach out to Him, our loving God and Father. And in Jesus we found the perfection of mankind in love of God, which we all should aspire to.

Yes, brethren, that is in essence because Jesus came into this world not for some meaningless purposes or without any clear goal. On the contrary, Jesus came into this world and gave Himself and His own life, so that we may be freed from the bonds of sin that kept us away from God, but also so that in His examples, we may be made whole and know what God expects from us, just as Jesus Himself had done.

Jesus was the embodiment of the perfect Man, the One who followed the Lord and obeyed Him in the complete and unadulterated fullness of the Law of God, desiring only to serve the Lord and His people, unlike the people of Jesus’ time, especially the Pharisees, who outwardly were very pious, but in fact were concerned and occupied with their own worldly desires and concerns that they forgot to keep the Lord in themselves.

The key message that we ought to bring out of today’s Scripture readings is that God loves us, and He would stop at nothing to help us and to embrace us, giving us His divine mercy and compassion, through none other than Jesus His Son, that we may have hope. So, just as God has loved us with all of His heart and being, shall we not then do the same?

That is the challenge posed to all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we ought to give ourselves and our own love for God, just as He had loved us first. What we usually did was in fact to spurn this love and opportunity which He had given us, and for many, it was not until too late that they realised how much God actually loved and cared for them, because they were too busy with their own human affairs and the affairs of the world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from now on therefore begin to change our attitude, if our attitude towards God had not been right. Let us all embrace the love God had for us and resolve to love Him back as much as possible. Let us not spurn the great offer which God has given us, in Jesus His Son. In Him only lies the salvation and hope of the world.

May Almighty God bless us, forgive us from our sinfulness, open our hearts that we may ‘see’ His love, understand it, and embrace it to be our own dedication of love, to Him who had loved us first. God be with us all. Amen.

 

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Monday, 23 December 2013 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of Kanty, Priest (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Priests)

Brethren, today we heard again about the one who was to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming, on the coming of St. John the Baptist, the messenger and proclaimer of the coming of God’s kingdom, as its herald. And as we approach Christmas, we come together again to remember what Christmas is truly about. Again I would like to reiterate that Christmas is really about Christ.

In Christmas we are all called to remember again what our faith is truly about, and what Christ had done for us, for the sake of all of us in this world, past, present, and the future. Christ the divine made Himself incarnate into humble man, and that was the true essence of Christmas and the true essence of our faith. For we are all Christians, and with Christ as part of our name, He is inseparable from all the aspects of our faith, as well as our lives.

St. John the Baptist, whose birth was told in the Gospel we read today, is the messenger of God proclaiming the coming of God’s salvation upon mankind. He proclaimed the coming of Jesus our Lord, who came as the Son of Man, born of the Virgin. Yet, despite his proclamations, his revelations, his hard and pious works, as well as the prophecies proclaimed by the numerous prophets of bygone ages, many refused to believe when the Lord came into this world in order to save it.

Just an example, when the Lord Himself was about to be born in Bethlehem, the City of David, how many inns must be there in that city, and yet none of them offered space for the Lord of all creations, who came in the form of the baby of a carpenter. Poor as he looked like, His was the kingdom of the entire universe, destined to be His, as the king of kings.

Yet, rejected Jesus was, and He had no other place to lay His head on, other than an animal’s stable, to be born among the animals in a small and dirty place not fit for human habitation. And yet, there He was born, and the Saviour of this world came. The prophecies of the past, and the calls of the prophets were fulfilled in perfection, and redemption finally came unto the world. And yet, He was rejected and cast out.

Many hardened their hearts against the Lord, just as their ancestors once hardened their hearts against Him during their journey in the desert. They constantly complained about the hardships they went through as they walked through the deserts of Sinai. The same too happened to them, and to us, brothers and sisters!

For this life, this life of ours as we journeyed through this world, is also a desert. And we are all walking this same journey, towards the Lord and His eternal glory, just as the people of Israel once marched through the desert towards the Promised Land of Canaan. Yet we, just like the Israelites, complained that life was easier back in the place of our slavery. The slavery of Israel in Egypt, and for us all, the slavery under sin and the power of death.

We may profess the Lord and profess our faith in Him, but in our dealings and our actions in this world, we actually prefer to deal with the forces of this world, with Satan! Yes, Satan instead of the Lord. We are often no different from those innkeepers who rejected the Lord in Bethlehem, and we are often like those Pharisees and Sadducees who mocked and ridiculed John the Baptist, as well as Lord Jesus Himself throughout their respective ministries.

Today, we celebrate the life of a saint, that is St. John of Kanty, who was a Polish priest living at the time of the early Renaissance Europe. St. John of Kanty was a devoted man, totally devoted to the Lord in great and deep humility and spirituality, and showing his dedication through his actions, by his teachings and his charitable works in the society where he worked at.

St. John of Kanty was also known for his great intellect and learning, and he established many works of faith in his writings, helping many to find their way to the Lord. He truly practiced his faith, and did not let the evils of this world to affect him. To him, only the Lord truly matters, and only the Lord deserved full and undivided attention.

It is often that we all are distracted by the numerous, and indeed, increasingly more and more numerous tempting offers from this world. Yes, all the goods and the amenities, the pleasures and joys that this world can give. What better example can be given than what we experience every Christmas? With evert gadgets and items, all the sales and discounted sales, all the advertisements and promotions. All these merely fuel our distractions, that indeed, Christmas is often no longer Christ-centred. And sadly, it is often that our lives too, as Christians, are also no longer Christ-centred.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we honour St. John of Kanty today, are we able to follow in his footsteps? In committing ourselves wholly and without reservations to the Lord? Are we able to say no to the distractions of this world, and stay truly faithful to God who came to us to save us? Remember that, He loved us so much that He gave us Jesus His own Son, that we may have life and new hope through Him.

May the Lord therefore renew and strengthen our faith, that we too may walk the same path and act in the same way as St. John of Kanty had done. May He guide us on our way, that we will be able to remain faithful to Him and stay on His paths. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 15 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the reading today, particularly that of our first reading today, can be no further from the truth. This is the reality facing mankind today. Our world has grown to be a world where people turned skeptical, especially against anything that they cannot truly prove by their common sense. Men believe the things that they can see and are awed by the achievements that they had made.

Mankind become ensnared in their own selves, and praise their own greatness, through the achievements they had accomplished. Mankind were not satisfied with just believing in God and all of His goodness, because the devil had sown in each one of us, distrust and lack of faith, the seeds of rebellion against God and His will.

They grow merry and indulge themselves in the pleasures of the world. They give no regards to the Lord or to His laws and precepts. They grow only to care for themselves and turned themselves against one another. They grow engrossed in the pleasures that they see and observe in this world, thinking at the same time that they are smarter and wiser than their Creator. Their attachment to the world, became their greatest undoing.

The Lord will punish these people who grew proud and become disrespectful of their Lord and God. This is sadly the things that is happening now in our world. Mankind grew more and more disrespectful of the Lord their Creator, being distracted by the pleasures of this world, and by the beauty of God’s creations themselves. They worshipped these, regarded these as thing of marvel and worthy of praise, and yet do not praise the very One who created them all, in their ignorance.

Take for example, the growing apathy for the faith and for God, which many people attributed to their attachment to ‘science’ and ‘reason’. They argued that they discarded their faith because of the advancement of science, which opened their eyes to reason and therefore, they argued again, opened their eyes and minds to rational thinking. Thus, they grew hostile to any ‘superstitions’ which to them is exemplified by none better than our faith itself.

These people allow their ego and their senses to delude them, into thinking that what is actually real is unreal. God is real, and He is truly present for us, with us, and even within us. Remember that it was Him who gave us life! And yet, because we cannot truly feel Him with our feeble and limited senses, we think of. Him as non-existent, and instead chose the things of creations that He made, as new object of marvel, and even to the point of worship.

Brethren, this was no different from how people in the past, in many different civilisations, and some even until today, worship the natural elements and other things of great wonders to us. They worship the sun, the stars, the moon, the trees, animals, and other natural objects, even this world itself. This is no different from what is happening today.

We may not worship these inanimate objects, the creations of God anymore, but we have done essentially the same in a different way. First, we worship money and all things of material, giving it great honour and place it foremost before all other things. Then, we also marvel a lot at our universe and its splendour, seeking to see more, understand more, and find out more about the mysteries of our universe, but doing these, without giving due honour to the One who created them all, that is God.

We tend to forget that these wondrous things are merely things created, and they are just like us. It is perfectly alright for us to go and observe them, observe and note the phenomena that happen around us, and learn from them, as it is in our nature to be curious and want to seek more. But what is not right is if we do not pay attention or honour the One who created them all, who is God. These things may indeed be distractions in our attempt to seek God if we are not careful.

Use science, learning, and wisdom of the world for good, that is to utilise them for good purposes, and for tools to help us on our way to reach God our Lord and Creator. Do not let them instead control us or corrupt us in any way. That is what St. Albert the Great, the saint whose feast we are celebrating today has exemplified through his own life. A pious saint, and yet a wise and well endowed saint, with the knowledge of the world and with great faith to the One who created all things.

St. Albert the Great was a religious who was made a bishop in the medieval era Europe, where he spent much of his time in intellectual pursuit, studying the ancient philosophers and various other knowledge. St. Albert the Great learnt a lot of knowledge and worldly wisdom, and it was reflected in his numerous writings and works. And yet, at the same time, his piety and zeal for the Lord burned brightly, and his faith is undimmed.

St. Albert the Great went around Europe at the time, preaching the Good News, and was particularly caring about the people who are without wisdom and knowledge. He established many institutions of learning and schools, aimed at bringing more people to be aware of their surroundings, understanding their existence, and the beauty of God’s creations, while at the same time rooting out any misunderstandings about the faith in the people.

Through St. Albert the Great, many souls were saved and taken away from damnation, by enlightening them with the knowledge of the world, and even more importantly by endowing them with greater understanding of the Lord their God and Creator. It is through him that many has been made aware of the love of God, and the care that He has for all of them.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, inspired by the example of St. Albert the Great and other saints, let us adore the Lord our God, and praise Him for His wonderful works, just as we adore and be captivated by the good things we observe around us. Let us not be distracted and be misled by the evil one, and let us make the effort, to strengthen our faith, that in all things we do, we will always proclaim the Lord, profess the Lord, and be with the Lord at all times. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 June 2013 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Christ is our Lord and Messiah. His coming was told in the numerous prophecies by the prophets as written throughout the Old Testament of the Scripture. His coming was indeed not to destroy the Law as written in the Scripture, and not to abolish the teachings of the prophets and the Law and commandments that God has given to Moses, but to fulfill and complete all the prophecies made about Him.

In the first reading today, we also heard about how the ‘text’ of the Law brings death, while the Spirit brings life, and it also seemingly criticise those who minister to the Law. In this we can clearly see, that in his letter to the faithful in Corinth, he was referring to the chief priests and the Pharisees, whom Christ repeatedly called hypocrites, and whom repeatedly had caused troubles during the Lord’s earthly ministry.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, today we are called to live out the Law of God, the Law which God had given to Moses, and then perfected and completely fulfilled by Christ, His Son, that we do not become slaves to the Law, but become alive due to that Law, which is, according to Christ, is all about love, for God Himself is love.

The chief priests and the Pharisees had grown so accustomed and so attached to the Law, that they had entirely forgotten the Spirit of the Law, that is love, and they had entirely misunderstood the meaning of the Law, and its purpose, becoming instead mindless slaves to their own human traditions, which their ancestors established in rituals and traditions to worship the Lord, but over time, becoming corrupted with worldly desires and impurities.

Rituals and observations of the Law had become empty, and prayers had become stale, and lacking the freshness of the Spirit of the Lord. That was what Christ had criticised, when the Pharisees went praying in the public places, showcasing their piety for all to see. That they love human glory instead of seeking heavenly glory of God and praising God, and instead of using the Law as it is intended, they had abused it to their own purposes.

That is why Christ came into our world, not just to be our Saviour, but also to perfect the Law of God, and to explain them clearly to the people of God, that they would no longer misinterpret the Law and therefore sin in the eyes of the Lord. He revealed to those whom He had chosen and those who were willing to listen to His word.

The same too, brothers and sisters in Christ, applies to our Church today. We have our own Law in the Church, that is the Canon Law, to regulate matters pertaining to the Church and the faithful in God, and also the liturgical laws to regulate the way we worship the Law with its rituals and observations, much like that observed by the priests of Israel of old, and during Jesus’ time.

We have to obey these laws and norms, my brothers and sisters in Christ, particularly regarding the Mass and the liturgy, because in the Mass we worship the Lord Himself, and we have to do it worthily. Sadly, there are many today who simply do not care about the liturgy and the proper worship of the Mass as written in the Law of the Church, as are evident in the numerous liturgical abuses in the Masses all around the world.

What is important is, not that we should not obey these laws, nor should we disregard them, but to understand them, by proper preparation and explanations, just as Christ Himself once had done regarding the Laws of Moses, which were given by God. A proper understanding of our Church laws and the liturgical norms in the Mass is a must, brothers and sisters, for improper understanding will certainly lead us astray from God.

But on the other hand, neither should we be so fixated on the rules and the Law that we end up doing everything just for the sake of obeying the Law. Then in that case we are no better than the Pharisees and the chief priest of Jesus’ time. We should not follow the rules simply for the sake of obeying the rules and looking good in the eyes of others.

A simple example would indeed be, the obligation for all of us to attend the Sunday Mass. While it may seem to be trivial, but how many of us actually come to the Mass because we want to come to the Mass and worship the Lord, as all of us should be? I am certain that many of us came to the Mass because we feel that it is an obligation to do so, and being good Catholics, we ‘obeyed’. But, this is not good, because if we do it this way, our heart will not be fully in the Mass, not fully attuned to the worship of the Lord, because our mind and our heart are elsewhere, in our businesses, our other occupations, and not focused towards the Lord.

No, when we come for the Mass, my brothers and sisters in Christ, let us make sure that we truly come to be with God, to love our God, and to praise Him and give thanks to Him for all the good graces and blessings that He had given us. Seek to understand more about our faith and about the Mass from those who have the knowledge and are qualified to teach about the faith to others. Remember, obey the Law because we love the Law and understand it, not just for the sake of obedience, or worse, as a symbol of self-gratification and self-glorification. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear once again, God’s call to us to return to Him in full sincerity. Not to depend on things that are temporary, and not to depend on vanity and self-preservation, and pride, like what the Pharisee did in glorifying himself before God, and did not humble himself, like the sinful tax collector did. Yes, the tax collector is sinful, but at the same time he is also humble, and not only humble, but also sincere in his repentance for his sins, and in his desire to return to God and to love Him back just as God loves him.

The path to God is not easy, and it is not through constant prayers the way that the Pharisee did, but rather, when we pray, we should humble ourselves before God, because first, we are sinners and unworthy of God, and yet He had sent His only Son to die on the cross for our salvation. He had been rejected, but yet return in glory so that all who believes in Him has the hope of reconciliation with God, and eternal life through Him.

We have often rebelled against the Lord in various ways, in many moments in our life in this world, just as our forefathers did, and like what the people of Israel had done, in the time when they still were as kingdoms in Judah and Israel, that they turned a deaf ear on God’s prophets, abandoned God for false gods, and massacred His prophets.

Of course, we did not do such things as killing God’s prophets and abandoning Him for idols that are false gods, but in our modern world today, we too have our own ‘false gods’ that had detracted us from God and His path. Worldly temptations, money, and allures of worldly pleasures, consumerism, and excessive capitalism, are just a few examples of the world’s new false gods that can detract us from our path towards the Lord, and turn our hearts towards Him.

Many people in our world today lack the love and faith they once had in the Lord, because that space in their heart that should have been reserved for the Lord, had been taken over by vices and corruption, by things that are not of the love and not of God. Many have also lost their ways, in their seeking of alternatives besides God.

Let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, first, not to fall in the same way as they are, and let us help one another that all of us will remain strong in our faith and our love for God, and not only that, let us help those who have already lost their way and have already turned their heart away from God, that they too may once again listen to the words of God, and be healed from their afflictions.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Frances of Rome, also known as Francesca of Rome, who was a pious wife of a wealthy commander of the Pope’s troops in the early 15th century, and she had considerable wealth and therefore, expected to be able to lead a happy life, without having to worry at all. Yet, she inspired many others, especially women at her time, to do plenty of works of charity, to help the poor and the marginalised, through her own works of charity, and she also founded a confraternity of pious women like herself, called the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, and thus helping to spread further the works of God and the love of God in her society, through prayer, and through service.

Let us imitate St. Frances of Rome, to do as what she had done, and in our life, not to be detracted by wealth and other temptations as St. Frances successfully did, and rather than letting ourselves getting enamoured by them, let us use them for good use in our works and services for the poor and the less fortunate around us.

St. Frances of Rome, pray for us.