divine guidance

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Saturday, 19 April 2014 : Easter Vigil of the Lord’s Resurrection, Easter Triduum (Psalm after the Sixth Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 18 : 8-11

The Law of God is perfect : it gives life to the soul. The word of the Lord is trustworthy : it gives wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right : they give joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear : they enlighten the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, it endures forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, all of them just and right.

They are more precious than gold – pure gold of a jeweller; they are much sweeter than honey which drops from the honeycomb.

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Sunday, 30 March 2014 : 4th Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or Rose (Laetare Sunday)

Psalm 22 : 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul.

He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake. Although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me : Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

 

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Saturday, 15 March 2014 : 1st Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 118 : 1-2, 4-5, 7-8

Blessed are they whose ways are upright, who follow the Law of the Lord. Blessed are they who treasure His word and seek Him with all their heart.

You have laid down precepts to be obeyed. O, that my ways were steadfast in observing Your statutes!

I will praise You with an upright spirit when I learn Your just precepts by heart. I mean to observe Your commandments, o, never abandon me.

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Sunday, 2 March 2014 : 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 6 : 24-34

No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the first and look down on the second. You cannot at the same time serve God and money.

This is why I tell you not to be worried about food and drink for yourself, or about clothes for your body. Is not life more important than food, and is not the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow, they do not harvest and do not store food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not less worthy than they are?

Can any of you add a day to your life by worrying about it? Why are you so worried about your clothes? Look at how the flowers in the field grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his wealth was clothed like one of these. If God so clothes the grass in the field, which blooms today and is to be burnt tomorrow in an oven, how much more will He clothe you? What little faith you have!

Do not worry and say : What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? Or  : What shall we wear? The pagans busy themselves with such things; but your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of God, and all these things will also be given to you.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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Wednesday, 5 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 31 : 1-2, 5, 6, 7

Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is wiped away. Blessed are those in whom the Lord sees no guilt and in whose spirit is found no doubt.

Then I made known to You my sin and uncovered before You my fault, saying to myself, “To the Lord I will now confess my wrong.” And You, You forgave my sin, You removed my guilt.

So let the faithful ones pray to You in time of distress; the overflowing waters will not reach them.

You are my refuge; You protect me from distress and surround me with the songs of deliverance.

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Monday, 16 December 2013 : 3rd Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 24 : 4bc-5ab, 6-7bc, 8-9

O Lord, make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. In Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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Wednesday, 27 November 2013 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 21 : 12-19

Before all these things happen, people will lay their hands on you and persecute you; you will be delivered to the synagogues and put in prison, and for My sake you will be brought before kings and governors. This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

So keep this in mind : do not worry in advance about what to say, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.

You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. But even though, because of My Name, you will be hated by everyone, not a hair of your head will perish. By your patient endurance you will save your souls.

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Monday, 11 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, Bishop (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters, today it is revealed and explained to us all, the nature and the power of faith, that is the faith that we have in God. Faith is truly powerful, and it is also revealed what we ought to do as the children of God, that is to reflect God’s love in all of our actions, and in all that we do. We cannot be truly faithful to God, if we do not do what He asks us to do, and if we do not listen to His words or obey His will.

In the Lord lies all wisdom, knowledge, power, and authority, because He is the Lord and Creator of all things and all in this universe. That is why, we who are mere humans ought to look at Him, believe in Him, His words and His love for us. Unfortunately, many of us took great pride in our own wisdom and intelligence. Not that this is bad, but the way we often do this is by excluding God from our lives and indulging in self-glorification, the glorification of our deeds and achievements and we do not give glory to God.

Through Jesus His Son, our Lord made it clear to us, that we need to know how to love one another, to show love to one another, and to let love govern all our words, actions, and deeds. We cannot belong to God and be faithful to God, if our actions contradict what we believe in. We must walk the talk and not just believe in rhetorics, because such is the faith of the Pharisees, the hypocrites.

Brethren, we are role models for one another, shepherds to one another, and as such, we have to help make sure that each of us, all of us are truly faithful to the Lord our God. We cannot lead our brethren into damnation instead. As the Lord Himself mentioned in today’s Gospel, that great is the sin of those who had misled others, especially so for those who misled the innocent ones. The greater is our sins then, if we do so, and the greater is the punishment due for us.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of St. Martin of Tours, one of the greatest saints and builders of the early Church. St. Martin of Tours lived during the waning years of the Roman Empire in the West, and he was once a Roman soldier turned into a general. Yet, he remained faithful in God and was truly exemplary in his practice of the faith.

St. Martin of Tours was truly a role model for the other Christians of his time. He was loving, just, and charitable, renowned especially for his care and love for the poor and unloved ones in the society. St. Martin of Tours devotedly give his life in dedication to the Lord, even as he continued his career as a Roman soldier. He did not have an empty faith, or faith based on mere words. His faith is truly a living one, and one that is based on love, for God and for his fellow men.

In one instance, it was told that St. Martin of Tours was passing by a road, when he saw a poor man suffering from cold, without any clothing to cover and protect him from the cold. St. Martin was moved by the sight, and true to his faith in God, he cut off a part of his soldier’s cape, and gave it to the poor man as a cloak. Later that night, St. Martin saw an apparition of our Lord Jesus, who showed to him that the old man he helped was none other than Jesus Himself!

Truly, at this juncture we ought to remember what Jesus Himself has told us, that whatever we do for our brethren, to the least of them, the poorest, the least loved, and those whose sufferings are the greatest, we do it for God Himself. That was the true virtues and righteousness of St. Martin, which we all can follow too.

St. Martin was chosen later in his life to be the Bishop of Tours, and he carried on his duties faithfully, as the shepherd of God’s people, till the end of his life, well-known by many in Christendom as a holy, humble, and faithful servant of God. We too can follow in his footsteps, if we choose to do so, and take concrete steps in following after his examples. Nothing is impossible for God, and therefore nothing too should be impossible for us.

Therefore, brethren, from now on, let us be conscious to our own sins, to our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities to sin, and let sin not hinder us on our way towards the Lord. Let us be a reflection of our Lord and His love, in our own actions and deeds, through forgiving and loving one another, committing ourselves in love to our brethren in need, just as St. Martin of Tours himself had once done.

May the Lord guide us and continue to watch over us, as we grow in faith and love, that we will always ever draw closer to His presence and to His loving embrace. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 2 November 2013 : Solemnity of All Souls (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Violet or Black

Psalm 22 : 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul.

He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake. Although i walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me : Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

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Thursday, 31 October 2013 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, opposition is against us, against the servants of the Lord our God, against the good works dedicated to the service of God and His people, and finally, against the Lord Himself.

Today the Lord highlighted a historical fact, on how the people of God, the chosen people of Israel, rejected the Lord, His love and kindness, and cast away those whom God had sent to them. They did not just send them away but many of them were even slaughtered in cold blood.

The people whom the Lord had chosen and made as His own has rebelled and turned away from Him. Naturally, the Lord would have been angry and should have destroyed them all from the face of the earth. However, He is loving and merciful just as He is just and angry against the sins mankind have committed. He wants His people to be saved, and not to fall for the sins they have done.

The Lord Himself was rejected when He came to be with His people, and to liberate them from the yoke of the evil one. He did not leave His people to the power of the evil one, but they spurned His love. He was condemned for sins that He did not commit and was condemned to a humiliating death on the cross. Nevertheless, you all know what the Lord did.

He took up all those sins that were placed upon Him, and took them into Himself unto death. All these He had done for us, so that we do not have to suffer the consequences of the sins we had committed. For the consequences of sins are suffering and death, and the Lord who loves us dearly, does not want us to suffer those fates. That is why He offered Himself through Jesus His Son, to be the sacrificial victim to liberate us from our fate of destruction and death.

He laid down His own life that we shall live, that we shall not die an eternal death and suffer eternal suffering in hell. Nobody can separate us from Him, just as St. Paul had said in the first reading today, in his letter to the Church in Rome, the Empire’s capital. St. Paul asserted Christ’s eternal and undying love for all of us, that He is willing to suffer all the grievous sufferings actually intended for us as our deserved punishments for our sins.

It is that through His one and only ultimate sacrifice on the cross, that the Lord saves us all from the valley of death and brings us closer to the heavenly rewards that we have been blessed with through Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, as is noted in the Gospel today, despite all the love and kindness that the Lord has poured on us, there are still those who do not follow Him and even despise Him, just as they had despised the prophets and messengers sent before the Lord.

It is easy for us to dismiss them as being others, as being not all of us. Yet, we should indeed look first into ourselves, whether we have ourselves been righteous or wicked in our actions, and whether we have been ignorant or obedient to follow the Lord and His commandments. If we have done any of these, then we too have taken part in the suffering of the Lord.

Remember, that every single wounds on the Body of Christ is the sins that we have committed, with every words of evil that came out of our mouth, and with every actions of our limbs and bodies that do not reflect love or bring pain and suffering to others. Hence, brethren, let us, from today onwards, reflect on our own actions, and learn from what we have done, that we will cast from us, any actions that contribute towards the suffering of Christ in His Passion.

May our loving and merciful God continue to nurture in us His wonderful love, that we will grow to be ever more faithful and loving children of God, saved by Jesus His Son, and rejecting Satan and all of his advances. God guide us all. Amen.