Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
Psalm 65 : 1-3a, 5 and 16-17
Shout with joy to God, all you on earth; sing to the glory of His Name; proclaim His glorious praise. Say to God, “How great are Your deeds!”
Come and see God’s wonders, His deeds awesome for humans. All you who fear God, come and listen; let me tell you what He has done. I cried aloud to Him, extolling Him with my tongue.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
Deuteronomy 34 : 1-12
From the barren plain of Moab, Moses went up to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho. And YHVH showed him all the Land : from Gilead to Dan, the whole of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim, and of Manasseh, the whole land of Judah, as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, the Plains, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
And YHVH said to him : “This is the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, promising it to their descendants. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not enter it.” Moses, the servant of God, died there in the land of Moab, according to the will of YHVH. They buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but to this very day, no one knows where his tomb is.
Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died. He did not lose his vigour and his eyes still saw clearly. The children of Israel mourned for him in the plains of Moab for thirty days. But Joshua, son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands upon him. The children of Israel obeyed him and did as YHVH had commanded Moses.
No prophet like Moses has appeared again. YHVH conversed with him face to face. What signs and wonders He worked in Egypt against Pharaoh, against his people and all his land! What a powerful hand was His that worked these terrible things in the sight of all Israel!
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard how God will guide His people against all odds and challenges, and He will go before them to protect them and provide them with all the things they need. He defeated their enemies and their persecutors before them, just as He had done with the Pharaoh and the Egyptians who once enslaved them, and with the Amalekites, the kings Sihon and Og who opposed them.
They have no need to fear or be worried, for the Lord was guiding them and leading them, and He blessed them beyond compare. And they received the blessings and the promise of God, settling down eventually in the Land which God had promised to them and to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God did not backtrack on His promises and He did not ever break the promise He made.
On the other hand, it is His people who have often broken their part of the bargain and promise, for they have not always been faithful to the Law and to the commandments, preferring to follow their own ways and obey their own hearts’ desires. As a result, many, many times they had gone astray and thus committed sin before God and men alike.
This is also happening to us all as well, because many of us have also not been faithful to the Lord, and preferring to follow our own hearts’ desires, our wants and our ego, rather than humbly following the Lord and His ways, and listening to His will. And in this, we should again also heed what Jesus had said to His disciples, that they ought to look at the little children and imitate them in their faith.
Why is this so, brethren? That is because unlike adults around them, children up to a certain age were still innocent and pure, and they will believe everything that they are told and taught with. They are like pure and blank slate awaiting the moment for them to be filled up and written with. And therefore, their faith is truly genuine, and when they are faithful to something, they are not affected by the concerns or things around them. This is their innocence, and this is their genuine faith.
Compare this to ourselves, in our own faith. Whenever we say that we are faithful to the Lord, how often is it that we are distracted by the many worldly things around us? How often is it that we delay in doing something that pleases God, just because the world does not approve of it, or that we are afraid that our friends and family, or our society would denounce us?
This is because in our hearts and minds, we have been filled with much worldly things and concerns. We are unable to detach ourselves from them, and all of our actions are determined by whether we give in to these desires and influences or whether we are capable of resisting them and not to give in. And today we celebrate the feast of a saint, whose examples may be an inspiration for us to do just that.
St. Clare, also known as St. Clare of Assisi was one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi, and she was the founder of a religious order and tradition following the examples and the tenets of St. Francis of Assisi, focusing on the Lord and abandoning worldliness by living in poverty, so that in all things, those who followed that way may be able to better able to resist the temptations of the world.
She was born into a noble and wealthy family, but she abandoned them all in exchange for a life totally and completely dedicated to God in prayer and good works. She worked for the sake of the poor and the abandoned ones. She helped to inspire many others to also do the good works for the sake of all those who need it. And thus, she was renowned for both her works and for her great piety.
And many people venerated her after her death, and looked up to her, just as they did for St. Francis of Assisi, because of their role and works. And we too should walk in their footsteps. Let us all therefore pray so that we all may put our complete trust in God and obey Him in all of our actions and deeds. God bless us all and keep us safe from all harm. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 18 : 1-5, 10, 12-14
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you that, unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in My Name receives Me.”
“See that you do not despise any of these little ones, for I tell you : their angels in heaven continually see the face of My heavenly Father. What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you : when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it than about the ninety-nine, that did not get lost.”
“It is the same with your Father in heaven : your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to be lost.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Deuteronomy 32 : 3-4a, 7, 8, 9 and 12
For I will proclaim the Name of the Lord and declare the greatness of our God. He is the Rock, and perfect are all His works, just are all His ways.
Recall the days of old, think of the years gone by; your father will teach you about them, your elders will enlighten you.
When the Most High divided humankind and gave the nations their inheritance, He set up boundaries for the peoples after the number of the sons of God.
But the Lord keeps for Himself His portion Jacob, His chosen one. The Lord alone led them, without the aid of a foreign god.
Liturgical Colour : White
Deuteronomy 31 : 1-8
When Moses finished telling all Israel these words, he said, “I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I can no longer deal with anything – Remember that YHVH told me that I shall not cross the Jordan River. Now Joshua shall be at your head, as YHVH has said. He, your God, will go before you to destroy these nations before you, and you will drive them away.”
“YHVH shall deal with these cities as He dealt with Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings, and their land, which He destroyed. So when He has given these nations over to you, you shall do the same, according to what I have commanded you. Be valiant and strong, do not fear or tremble before them for YHVH, your God, is with you; He will not leave you or abandon you.”
After this, Moses called Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel : “Be valiant and strong, you shall go with this people into the land which YHVH swore to their ancestors He would give them and you shall give it to them as their possession. YHVH shall go before you. He shall be with you; He shall not leave you or abandon you. Do not fear, then, or be discouraged.”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about God who has given us all so many good things, so many wonderful things that He had planted in us, as seeds that will germinate in due time, if we cultivate them and they will prosper. He has sowed many things in us, and He has given us the seeds of faith, the seeds of hope and the seeds of love.
All these are within us, inside our hearts, and await our action and work to awaken them. As Jesus said in the Gospel today, that the seed, that is the grain of wheat, if it does not die, then it remains alone and meaningless. Only when the grain of wheat falls onto the ground, then life can spring out from it and a new plant can grow from the seed.
This means that, by using the life of Christ as a comparison, we must take action and live our lives with faith and real action based on that faith in order that we may have the seeds inside us to bear much good fruits. If we do not do anything or do things that are contrary to what our Lord had taught us, then the seeds of faith, hope and love in us will not germinate and grow.
Jesus was faithful to the mission which He was entrusted with by His Father, that is to bring about salvation to all mankind, by teaching them the truth about the Lord and how to live their lives in accordance with the Law of God. And He was faithful to the very end, as He needed to endure all the sufferings and the punishments intended for our sins and wickedness, so that all of us may have a new hope of life.
He took up all of our iniquities and all the sufferings which should have been ours upon Himself, and bearing that great and heavy cross, He walked on and ascended patiently towards Calvary, faithful to the mission for which He came into this world and ultimately because of the great and boundless love which He has for all of us, and the pity and mercy which He has shown us, because He pitied our state, lost in the darkness of this world and not knowing which way to go to.
And He showed us all an example, on how to live our lives so that we too may share in the promises which He had given us and our ancestors, by leading an example Himself, showing that unless we take up our crosses and join Him, then we would have no part in the life and salvation which He will give all of His faithful. And just as He had died on the cross and rose again on the third day from the dead, we too must do the same.
This means that we should die to ourselves, to the temptations and desires of the flesh which have caused us to sin, and to throw far away all forms of worldliness and all sorts of selfish attitudes which remain in us. We should die to our desires, to the allures of the flesh and worldly pleasures, so that by sharing the death of Christ, we mah also share in His glorious resurrection, and be found worthy to receive the gift of eternal life He had promised all of us.
On this day, we celebrate together the feast of St. Lawrence the Deacon, who was also a great martyr of the Church and defender of the Faith. St. Lawrence was a deacon of the Church of Rome, appointed as such by Pope St. Sixtus II, whose feast we had just celebrated a few days ago. St. Lawrence was a hardworking servant of God, who gave his all in service to God and to His people.
St. Lawrence continued to remain faithful and committed to the tasks placed before Him. He ministered to the people of God, especially to the faithful ones during the persecution of the faithful and the Church by the Emperor Valerian. He ministered to the people of God, caring for them and kept a great and well-ordered system of distribution of goods to the faithful people of God.
And when he was arrested together with many other members of the Church, he remained true to his faith in God, and remained resolute and strong in his devotion to God until the end. He embraced the challenges and sufferings he was to face openly, and without fear, for he knows that, it is only by dying to his fears and placing his complete and full trust in the Lord that he will be saved and brought to the eternal glory promised by the Lord.
We can learn from his examples, in how we live our lives. We should follow his example in showing love to one another, caring for the poor and the less fortunate, and by loving those who are unloved and rejected, and then by also having a complete and full trust in the Lord, placing our trust in Him alone, and knowing that all who remain faithful to the Lord will not be disappointed.
May Almighty God be with us all always, and may St. Lawrence intercede for our sake always, that we may be helped on our path towards redemption and eternal life, that we may be righteous and just, and be found worthy at the end of our days. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
John 12 : 24-26
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Those who love their life destroy it, and those who despise their life in this world keep it for everlasting life.”
“Whoever wants to serve Me, let him follow Me; and wherever I am, there shall My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him.”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 111 : 1-2, 5-6, 7-8, 9
Alleluia! Blessed is the one who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands. His children will be powerful on earth; the upright’s offspring will be blessed.
It will be well with him who lends freely, who leads a life of justice and honesty. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered and loved forever.
He has no fear of evil news, for his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is confident, he needs not fear, he shall prevail over his foes at the end.
He gives generously to the poor, his merits will last forever and his head will be raised in honour.
Liturgical Colour : Red
2 Corinthians 9 : 6-10
Remember : the one who sows meagrely will reap meagrely, and there shall be generous harvests for the one who sows generously. Each of you should give as you decided personally, and not reluctantly as if obliged. God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to fill you with every good thing, so that you have enough of everything at all times, and may give abundantly for any good work. Scripture says : He distributed, he gave to the poor, his good works last forever.
God who provides the sower with seed will also provide him with the bread he eats. He will multiply the seed for you and also increase the interests of your good works.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 