divine wisdom

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Wednesday, 5 November 2014 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 14 : 25-33

At that time, one day, when large crowds were walking along with Jesus, He turned and said to them, “If you come to Me, unwilling to sacrifice your love for your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters, and indeed yourself, you cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not follow Me, carrying his own cross, cannot be My disciple.”

“Do you build a house without first sitting down to count the cost, to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you have laid the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone will make fun of you : ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'”

“And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent? And if not, while the other is still a long way off, he sends messengers for peace talks. In the same way, none of you may become My disciple, if he does not give up everything he has.”

 

Homily and Reflection : 
https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/04/wednesday-5-november-2014-31st-week-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

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Thursday, 16 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious and Virgins)

Luke 11 : 47-54

At that time, Jesus said, “A curse is on you, for you build monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them!”

“For that reason the Wisdom of God also said : I will send prophets and Apostles and this people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all.”

“A curse is on you, teachers of the Law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.”

As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to harass Him, asking Him endless questions, setting traps to catch Him in something He might say.

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Thursday, 16 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hedwig, Religious and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious and Virgins)

Ephesians 1 : 1-10

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, to you who share Christian faith : receive grace and peace from God our Father and from Jesus the Lord.

Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus our Lord, who in Christ has blessed us from heaven with every spiritual blessing. God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and without sin in His presence.

From eternity He destined us in love to be His adopted sons and daughters through Christ Jesus, thus fulfilling His free and generous will. This goal suited Him : that His loving kindness which He granted us in His Beloved might finally receive all glory and praise.

For in Christ we obtain freedom, sealed by His Blood, and have the forgiveness of sins. In this appears the greatness of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and understanding, God has made known to us His mysterious design, in accordance with His loving kindness in Christ.

In Him and under Him God wanted to unite, when the fullness of time had come, everything in heaven and on earth.

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Monday, 13 October 2014 : 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 29-32

At that time, as the crowd increased, Jesus began to speak in this way, “People of the present time are troubled people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation.”

“The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here there is greater than Solomon. The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here there is greater than Jonah.”

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Friday, 3 October 2014 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Job 38 : 1, 12-21 and Job 40 : 3-5

Then YHVH answered Job out of the storm : “Have you ever commanded the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it, when it takes a clay colour and changes its tint like a garment; when the wicked are denied their own light, and their proud arm is shattered?”

“Have you journeyed to where the sea begins or walked in its deepest recesses? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of Shadow? Have you an idea of the breadth of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.”

“Where is the way to the home of light, and where does darkness dwell? Can you take them to their own regions, and set them on their homeward paths? You know, for you were born before them, and great is the number of your years!”

Job said, “How can I reply, unworthy as I am! All I can do is put my hand over my mouth. I have spoken once, now I will not answer; oh, yes, twice, but I will do no further.”

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Saturday, 27 September 2014 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Ecclesiastes 11 : 9 – Ecclesiastes 12 : 8

Rejoice, young man, in your youth and direct well your heart when you are young; follow your desires and achieve your ambitions but recall that God will take account of all you do.

Drive sorrow from your heart and pain from your flesh, for youth and dark hair will not last. Be mindful of your Creator when you are young, before the time of sorrow comes when you have to say, “This gives me no pleasure,” and before the sun, moon and stars withdraw their light, before the clouds gather again after the rain.

On the day when the guardians of the house tremble, when sturdy men are bowed and those at the mill stop working because they are too few, when it grows dim for those looking through the windows, and the doors are shut and the noise of the mill grows faint, the sparrow stops chirping and the bird-song is silenced, when one fears the slopes and to walk is frightening; yet the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is fat and the caperberry bears fruit that serves no purpose, because man goes forward to his eternal home and mourners gather in the street, even before the silver chain is snapped or the golden globe is shattered, before the pitcher is broken at the fountain or the wheel at the mill, before the dust returns to the earth from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Meaningless! Meaningless! The Teacher says; all is meaningless!

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Friday, 26 September 2014 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cosmas and St. Damian, Martyrs (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Ecclesiastes 3 : 1-11 (or Qoheleth 3 : 1-11)

There is a given time for everything and a time for every happening under heaven : A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting. A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building.

A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing. A time for throwing stones, a time for gathering stones; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing. A time for searching, a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for throwing away.

A time for tearing, a time for sewing; a time to be silent and a time to speak. A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace. What profit is there for a man from all his toils?

Finally I considered the task God gave to the humans. He made everything fitting in its time, but He also set eternity in their hearts, although they are not able to embrace the work of God from the beginning to the end.

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Thursday, 25 September 2014 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the wisdom and power of God, which transcends far beyond even the greatest of human intellect, wisdom and understanding. There is none like God, and no matter what we try to understand and find out about God, it is truly futile if we do not first understand what He had done to us through Jesus His Son, the embodiment of God’s perfect love for all mankind.

For we are creations of the Lord, whom God made out of simple dust and soil, unto which He breathed His life-giving Spirit. Therefore, we are bound to the Lord who created us, and our lives are in His hands. He is the Lord of life, and One who has authority over life and death. Thus, whatever is His will for us, it will definitely happen to us, without any exceptions.

The problem with us and our world today is exactly that mankind are often too concerned and too worried about themselves, to the point that they are unable to look beyond their inherent selfishness and thus fall prey into the machinations of the evil one, who always prod us with more and more selfishness and temptations which would end up turning us further and further away from the way to the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have often been too fixated on our prosperity and well-being, and in this modern day world, our lives have revolved around the concepts of material goods and material possessions, and if we look at the kind and the amount of the advertisements and promotions we see in our media, we can easily see that it is so easy for many of us to be devoured into the streams of greed and desire in the world.

Many of us try to look for more things in the world to satisfy ourselves, be it our desire, our curiosity or our sense of belonging, and our desire for love. But many of us failed to understand that we have to first seek the Lord before anything else. If we put God aside and instead seek the numerous things that satisfy our desires and pleasures in the world, then we lose our focus and our true purpose in this world.

We often occupy ourselves with thoughts and matters such as the desire to know more about God, and in our world today, we can see that there are increasingly more and more hostile groups of people who are adamantly opposed to the idea of God, and who contended that God does not exist, because they could not prove His existence and whether He truly is present with us and among us, and if He is as what our Faith had taught us.

This is all in fact because, as mankind grew to know more about the things around them, and as their curiosity accordingly grew, they became more and more revelling in their own sense of superiority and greatness, which was further helped by the culture and habit of competition in the society, where only the best can persist and prosper amid the increasingly more and more demanding world.

As such, men grew to care more and more about themselves and less about others, and they grew more and more detached from the Lord, thinking that it is their own efforts and achievements that had brought them to where they are now. People are fighting and toiling over possessions and prestige, and they strived to gain more and more fame and honour, that their names may be glorified among the people.

However, as the Scriptures tried to remind us, that all these pursuits are eventually futile, if we leave God behind in pursuit of all these. Ultimately, it is the salvation of our souls that matter, and as Jesus said that, it is meaningless indeed if someone is to gain the whole world just to lose his or her soul. Rather, indeed, it is better for someone to lose what he has in the share of the world, so that he may receive the salvation of the soul.

Therefore, brethren, let us all seek the Lord from now on with all of our hearts, and with all of our devotions and our dedications, that with all the strengths of our beings, we may bring glory to God and draw ever closer to His presence and love. May we learn to let go of the things that keep us away from Him, namely the excessive attachments to the things and pleasures of this world.

May Almighty God sharpen the edge of our humility and of our desire to seek Him with all sincerity and love, and dull the edge of our ego, our pride, our greed and our desire, so that we may learn to love Him unconditionally, just as He had once done unto us. Let us also love one another tenderly and with grace. That eventually we may let go of all things that keep our pride held high, and realise the love which God our Lord and Creator had given us through this life. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 25 September 2014 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 89 : 3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17

You turn humans back to dust, saying, “Return, o mortals!” A thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has passed, or like a watch in the night.

You sow them in their time, at dawn they peep out. In the morning they blossom, but the flower fades and withers in the evening.

So make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart. How long will You be angry, o Lord? Have mercy on Your servant.

Fill us at daybreak with Your goodness, that we may be glad all our days. May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us; May He prosper the work of our hands.

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Thursday, 25 September 2014 : 25th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Ecclesiastes 1 : 2-11 (or Qoheleth 1 : 2-11)

All is meaningless – says the Teacher – meaningless, meaningless! What profit is there for a man in all his work for which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, a generation comes and the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun sets, hastening towards the place where it again rises.

Blowing to the south, turning to the north, the wind goes round and round and after all its rounds it has to blow again. All rivers go to the sea but the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers come from, there they return again.

All words become weary and speech comes to an end, but the eye has never seen enough nor the ear heard too much. What has happened before will happen again; what has been done before will be done again : there is nothing new under the sun.

If they say to you : “See, it is new!” know that it has already been centuries earlier. There is no remembrance of ancient people, and those to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.