Friday

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Friday, 1 May 2026 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 13 : 26-33

Paul said to the Jews in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia, “Brothers, children and descendants of Abraham, and you also who fear God, it is to you that this message of salvation has been sent. It is a fact that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognise Jesus.”

“Yet in condemning Him, they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath but not understood. Even though they found no charge against Him that deserved death, they asked Pilate to have Him executed. And after they have carried out all that had been written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.”

But God raised Him from the dead, and for many days thereafter He showed Himself to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They have now become His witnesses before the people. We ourselves announce to you this Good News : All that God promised our ancestors, He has fulfilled for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus, according to what is written in the second psalm : You are My Son, this day I have begotten You.”

Alternative reading (Mass of St. Joseph)

Genesis 1 : 26 – Genesis 2 : 3

God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, to Our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals, and over all creeping things that crawl along the ground.” So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God said, “I have given you every seed bearing plants which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning : the sixth day. That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day He rested from all the work He had done in His creation.

Alternative reading (Mass of St. Joseph)

Colossians 3 : 14-15, 17, 23-24

Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. May the peace of Christ overflow in your hearts; for this end you were called to be one body. And be thankful. And whatever you do or say, do it in the Name of Jesus, the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, working for the Lord, and not for humans. You well know, that the Lord will reward you with the inheritance. You are servants, but your Lord is Christ.

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Friday, 24 April 2026 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each and every one of us are reminded that as Christians we have been called and chosen from this world to follow what the Lord Himself has revealed to all of us through His Church and through the Good News contained in the Scriptures. Each and every one of us have been made partakers of the New and Eternal Covenant that the Lord Himself had established with us through His Son, by His Passion, suffering and death on the Cross, and by His Resurrection from the dead. All of us as Christians have confessed our faith in all of these truths, and we have been called to listen to these same truths and commit ourselves to proclaim the Good News to others.

As we heard from our Gospel passage today, we proclaim the same truth that the Lord Jesus Himself has revealed to all of the people He was speaking to, as He continued His discourse on Him being the ‘Bread of Life’ and the ‘Living Bread’ Who has come down from Heaven. The Lord told them all these not long after He had fed the multitudes of thousands of men and many thousands of women and children with the miraculous multiplication of loaves of bread and fishes. He told them all these because many of those people were seeking for Him because they were happy and satisfied as they were all well fed and received sustenance, but they were still lacking true and genuine faith in Him.

This means that many of them were still seeking Him for other motives and reasons that are not truly sincere, and many likely were trying to satisfy their own worldly needs and even greed. Hence, the Lord told them all that what He would give them, is that of the perfect gift surpassing what they had received earlier on, that is none other than the gift of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, to be sacrificed, offered and broken for them, just in the manner that He had blessed, broken and shared with them all the bread and the fishes from the earlier miracle. But this time, what the people would receive, is not merely just bread and is something surpassing even the bread of the Angels, the manna, that the Israelites ate in the past.

The Lord essentially foretold what He Himself would do for the sake of everyone whom He loved and cared about. He foretold His own suffering and death on the Cross, and His gift of His own Precious Body and Blood for everyone. At the Last Supper, just before the Lord was about to enter into His Passion or suffering, He gathered all of His disciples and had the Passover meal with them, at which time He instituted the Most Holy Eucharist, the bread and wine which He blessed and then shared with His disciples, as the gift of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood. All those were completed as He took His Cross and suffered on His Cross, and as the Lamb of God laid dying on the Cross, what the disciples had partaken, have indeed been the Lord’s own Body and Blood.

This is what our Christian faith is all about, as we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour, and He has come into our midst as the perfect manifestation of God’s love and ever enduring compassion and mercy for us. The Lord has willingly chosen to embrace us with His perfect love, enduring the worst and most bitter of sufferings, rejections, humiliations and trials, so that by His suffering, pain, wounds and eventually death, He might free and deliver us from the tyranny and domination of our sins. By His perfect obedience, as the Son of Man and Son of God, He has shown us all the path to eternal life and salvation, and reminding us that sin is borne out of our disobedience against God and His will. And by His offering and sacrifice as our Paschal Lamb, He has offered the only worthy sacrifice and offering for all of the multitudes of our sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have been called and chosen by God to be His disciples and followers, and we have also received the grace of knowing and understanding His truth, just as He had done to one of His greatest enemies, as we heard in our first reading today, namely that of Saul, the young Pharisee. Saul, who would later on be known as St. Paul the Apostle, was a young and fanatical member of the Pharisee who persecuted many early Christians, launching a great hunt and campaign to destroy the Church and the holy people of God, causing untold miseries and sufferings, as many of the early Christians were arrested, persecuted and even martyred due to the works of Saul.

But God called that same young man, and called him to the path of salvation and truth, as He revealed just how wayward and misled his path had been to Saul himself. Saul was converted, and through baptism, he became a new man, and dedicated himself to serve the Lord from then onwards. From someone who had often caused misery and suffering amongst the people of God, greatly feared and was a great sinner, the Lord had turned him into one of his greatest champions and defenders, into a holy and devout man that dedicated his whole life to the proclaiming and spread of the Good News of the Lord, enduring untold sufferings, pains, rejections, humiliations just as the Lord Himself had suffered all those.

Today we also celebrate the memory of one of the holy and faithful saints, namely St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen. St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen was a priest who ministered to the faithful in many parts of Switzerland as a Capuchin friar, at the forefront of the Counter-Reformation efforts. St. Fidelis courageously and patiently spoke of the truth of the Lord against the Calvinists who rejected the truth of God, particularly in what the Lord Himself had stated it clearly today, of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. St. Fidelis ministered to the people faithfully and managed to gain a great number of converts, which angered the Calvinists who saw him as a great threat to their community and their misguided faith. As such they plotted against him and tried to find ways to destroy him. St. Fidelis himself according to tradition had known of what would happen to him, and surrendered himself to the Lord, entrusting himself completely into His hands, as Calvinist soldiers struck at him and murdered him when he refused to abandon his true faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, his faith and dedication to the Lord, his efforts to proclaim the Lord’s Real Presence in the Eucharist just as we heard the Lord Himself clearly saying about this same fact to the people and to His disciples in our Gospel today, and how he and many other saints and martyrs, from the days of the Apostles to this very day, have dedicated themselves to proclaim the same truth and Good News, we are all hence reminded that as members and parts of the Church each and every one of us also have the same share in the calling and mission entrusted to us by God. But are we willing to commit ourselves in the manner that the Apostles, the saints and martyrs, like how St. Fidelis had committed himself and his own life?

Let us all therefore be good role models and examples ourselves to one another, to all those whom we encounter in life, so that by our every words, actions and deeds, and most of all throuhgh our sincere and loving devotion to God, our sincere and genuine belief in His Real Presence in the Eucharist, in our Bread of Life, and also in our generous love for our brothers and sisters, especially to those most beloved and dearest to us, we may indeed show our Christian faith to everyone whom we encounter in each and every moments of our lives. May God bless us always and may He continue to strengthen us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 24 April 2026 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 6 : 52-59

At that time, the Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this Man give us flesh to eat?” So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you. The one who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood lives eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

“My Flesh is really food, and My Blood is truly drink. Those who eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, lives in Me, and I in them. Just as the Father, Who is life, sent Me, and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats Me will have life from Me. This is the Bread which came from heaven; not like that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this Bread will live forever.”

Jesus spoke in this way in Capernaum when He taught them in the synagogue.

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Friday, 24 April 2026 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 116 : 1, 2

Alleluia! Praise the Lord, all you nations; all you peoples, praise Him.

How great is His love for us! His faithfulness lasts forever.

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Friday, 24 April 2026 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 9 : 1-20

Meanwhile Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorise him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.

As he travelled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?” And he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus Whom you persecute. Now get up and go into the city; there you will be told what you are to do.”

The men who were travelling with him stood there speechless : they had heard the sound, but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. He was blind and he did not eat or drink for three days.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” Then the Lord said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him praying, for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ananias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”

Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem, and now he is here with authority from the High Priest to arrest all who call upon Your Name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is My chosen instrument to bring My Name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well. I Myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for My Name.”

So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you so that you may receive your sight and be filled with Holy Spirit.” Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptised. Then he took food and was strengthened.

For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.

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Friday, 17 April 2026 : 2nd Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 6 : 1-15

At that time, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, near Tiberias, and large crowds followed Him, because of the miraculous signs they saw, when He healed the sick. So He went up into the hills and sat down there with His disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

Then lifting up His eyes, Jesus saw the crowds that were coming to Him, and said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread so that these people may eat?” He said this to test Philip, for He Himself knew what He was going to do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred silver coins would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece.”

Then one of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass there, so the people, about five thousand men, sat down. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish, and gave them as much as they wanted.

And when they had eaten enough, He told His disciples, “Gather up the pieces left over, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with bread, that is, with pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

When the people saw the miracle which Jesus had performed, they said, “This is really the Prophet, the One Who is to come into the world.” Jesus realised that they would come and take Him by force to make Him King; so He fled to the hills by Himself.

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Friday, 17 April 2026 : 2nd Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 26 : 1, 4, 13-14

The Lord is my Light and my Salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the Rampart of my life; I will not be afraid.

One thing I ask of the Lord, one thing I seek – that I may dwell in His house all the days of my life, to gaze at His jewel and to visit His sanctuary.

I hope, I am sure, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Trust in the Lord, be strong and courageous. Yes, put your hope in the Lord!

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Friday, 17 April 2026 : 2nd Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 5 : 34-42

But one of the members of the Council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law highly respected by the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin. He ordered the men to be taken outside for a few minutes and then he spoke to the assembly.

“Fellow Israelites, consider well what you intend to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas came forward, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed or disappeared.”

“After him, Judas the Galilean appeared at the time of the census and persuaded many people to follow him. But he too perished and his whole following was scattered. So, in this present case, I advise you to have nothing to do with these men. Leave them alone. If their project or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. If, on the other hand, it is from God, you will not be able to destroy it and you may indeed find yourselves fighting against God.”

The Council let themselves be persuaded. They called in the Apostles and had them whipped, and ordered them not to speak again of Jesus Saviour. Then they set them free. The Apostles went out from the Council rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of the Name. Day after day, both in the Temple and in people’s homes, they continued to teach and to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah.

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Friday, 10 April 2026 : Friday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we continue to progress through the time of the Easter Octave and the Easter season, a most joyful time of celebration and happiness because of the Lord’s Resurrection from the dead, we are constantly being reminded each day and at every moments also, that as Christians, as God’s beloved and chosen people, all of us have the responsibility and obligation to reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters, and to proclaim the truth of God, His glorious Resurrection and work of salvation among His people, as missionaries and evangelisers of our Christian faith and beliefs. This Easter season all of us are reminded to be truly exemplary in our way of life so that in whatever we do, we will always be truly inspirational in our faith, and truly can proclaim our faith by our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the opposition and hardships which the Apostles faced in the midst of their ministry, as they were arrested by the chief priests and the members of the Sanhedrin, who have often been adamantly and stubbornly against the Lord, His truth and teachings. The chief priests and the Sanhedrin asked them incessantly and repeatedly on whose authority that they had preached and taught the people, and how they had performed the miracles they had done, despite those same people obviously having experienced and heard about the Lord Jesus and His teachings and miracles many times previously. They themselves had witnessed everything that the Lord had done, with their own eyes no less, and yet, still refused adamantly to believe in Him and His truth. They had seen, heard and witnessed so much, and yet in their pride, arrogance and stubborn hearts and minds, they had allowed all those vices to shut themselves off from the Lord.

St. Peter and St. John courageously defended the truth and their belief in the Risen Lord before the whole assembly of the Sanhedrin, despite themselves being alone against all the whole multitudes of those who were opposed against them and their Lord. They reiterated their faith and their stand on the side of the truth, proclaiming about the Resurrected Messiah or Saviour, that is the same One that all those people had rejected and condemned to death, handed over to the Romans to be crucified. Despite them having heard that this One had risen from the dead and showed Himself to many people, they refused to believe because of their stubborn hearts and minds, and hence, the two Apostles spoke courageously of the truth, to tell them yet again that it was by the Holy Name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Risen One, that the crippled beggar had been healed.

In particular, if we remember St. Peter for who he was prior to that, it must have been a truly amazing transformation. St. Peter was a mere fisherman of the Lake of Galilee, whom the Lord had called to follow Him and to become His disciple. He was an illiterate and brash man, who often said and did things without much thinking, and yet, this same St. Peter stood before the whole assembly of the Sanhedrin, filled with the most intellectual and powerful members of the Jewish community, and put them all to shame with his great wisdom and understanding, given to him by the Holy Spirit and the Lord. The same illiterate fisherman from Galilee had proclaimed all the great works of the Lord, and spoke of His teachings and truth, which must have amazed and surprised many of the members of the Sanhedrin, which would have remembered many of the Lord’s disciples being uneducated and mostly coming from the peripheries of the Jewish community.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard about the account of the Risen Lord appearing before His disciples in Galilee, just as He had foretold and revealed to them, just as they were about done fishing all night long without any results at all. The Risen Lord told them all to follow His instructions, and while they were tired, they listened to Him nonetheless and did as they were told to do, and immediately a huge number of fishes were caught in their nets. It was then that the same St. Peter and St. John recognised the Risen Lord, with St. Peter immediately jumping into the water to seek the Lord and to find Him. This account of the encounter between the Lord and His disciples serve as a reminder for us that the Risen Lord has called on His servants, the disciples, to embark on the mission to proclaim His Good News and truth to the world, to be the fishers of men as how the Lord had called St. Peter and the other fishermen of Galilee in the beginning.

What we heard in that Gospel passage was also highly symbolic and revealing of the Lord’s intentions for His Church and disciples, as the moment that He told them how to catch the fish, the disciples immediately gathered such a large number of fish, and yet, the two boats they were in did not sink. The boats represent the Church of God, while the disciples inside the boat represent the servants of the Lord, themselves and their successors, who have been entrusted with the management of the Church of God, while then the fishes themselves represent the people of God, who have been called to follow the Lord through His disciples, the Apostles and their successors, the bishops and all those who have dedicated themselves as priests and missionaries of the Church, spreading the Word of God and His truth to all those who have not yet heard of His truth and salvation.

Then, just as the Lord had said earlier on when He called on them the first time, He was sending them all as the ‘fishers of men’, to go forth to the nations, and to all the people and to bring them all back towards God’s embrace and love, proclaiming to all of them everything that He Himself has revealed to His disciples. This mission is the primary mission of the Church, just as He proclaimed to them at the moment just before He ascended into Heaven, to ‘go forth to the nations and to baptise all the people in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ They did so through many hours of tireless labours and works, spending their time and effort to proclaim the Lord and His Good News, reaching out to those who were oppressed and who were without hope, and risking even their own lives in the process. Not few of the disciples of the Lord perished throughout those difficult early years, and even beyond, right up to this day, as martyrs of the faith.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all then ask ourselves, whether we are willing and ready to follow in the footsteps of those faithful disciples of the Lord, in doing God’s will and embracing His calling and mission? Are we willing, able and ready to be part of the missionary and outreach efforts of the Church, and to share our Easter joy to those whom we encounter each day in life? It then depends on us to do what we can to live our lives worthily of the Lord and to be exemplary and inspirational in our way of life, so that not only all those within the Church but also even those outside who witness our works and actions, our way of life, our words and interactions, may come to be stirred to seek the Lord, and to believe in Him as well. This is what we have been called to do, to be the bearers of Christ’s truth and Good News to the world.

May the Risen Lord continue to help and guide us in our journey throughout life, and may He empower and strengthen us all that we may persevere amidst the most difficult challenges and hardships, trials and difficulties we may encounter in our path and journey as faithful Christians and evangelising disciples of the Lord. Let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord and let us all go forth with zeal and love for God, doing all that we can to proclaim the salvation of God and His Resurrection, His truth and love for us, by living our lives in the way that is aligned with God and His path, and to do what we can to lead many others towards Our Lord and Saviour, the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. May the blessings of the Risen Christ, our Lord be with us always this Easter season, with our loved ones, always! Amen.

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Friday, 10 April 2026 : Friday within Easter Octave (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 21 : 1-14

At that time, after Jesus appeared to Thomas and His disciples, He revealed Himself to them by the lake of Tiberias. He appeared to them in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas who was called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were together; and Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They replied, “We will come with you.” And they went out and got into the boat, but they caught nothing that night.

When day had already broken, Jesus was standing on the shore, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus called them, “Friends, have you anything to eat?” They answered, “Nothing.” Then He said to them, “Throw the net on the right side of the boat and you will find something.” When they had lowered the net, they were not able to pull it in because of the great number of fish.”

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” At these words, “It is the Lord!” Simon Peter put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and jumped into the water. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish; they were not far from land, about a hundred metres.

When they landed, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed into the boat and pulled the net to shore. It was full of big fish – one hundred and fifty-three – but, in spite of this, the net was not torn.

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” And not one of the disciples dared to ask Him, “Who are You?” for they knew it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and He did the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus revealed Himself to His disciples after rising from the dead.