Friday

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Friday, 12 May 2023 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. St. Nereus and St. Achilleus, Martyrs, and St. Pancras, Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 15 : 22-31

Then the Apostles and elders together with the whole Church decided to choose representatives from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. These were Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. They took with them the following letter :

“Greetings from the Apostles and elders, your brothers, to the believers of non-Jewish birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We have heard that some persons from among us have worried you with their discussions and troubled your peace of mind. They were not appointed by us.”

“But now, it has seemed right to us in an assembly, to choose representatives and to send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have dedicated their lives to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. We send you then Judas and Silas who themselves will give you these instructions by word of mouth.”

“We, with the Holy Spirit, have decided not to put any other burden on you except what is necessary : You are to abstain from blood from the meat of strangled animals and from prohibited marriages. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

After saying goodbye, the messengers went to Antioch, where they assembled the community and handed them the letter. When they read the news, all were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.

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Friday, 5 May 2023 : 4th Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each one of us are reminded that all of us have a sure and firm foundation in Christ, and we have been reminded of this fact, as we listened again of everything that He had done for us which culminated in the perfect sacrifice and offering that His Son, Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, has offered on our behalf, as the perfect and worthy sacrifice that is the only one worthy in redeeming all of us from the many and unimaginably great burdens and bondage of our sins. Our Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of God, has taken away our many and innumerable sins, upon Himself and became the worthy sacrifice that opened the path for all of us towards the salvation and eternal life in our loving God, Father and Creator.

In our first reading today, we heard of the Acts of the Apostles in which St. Paul continued to speak to the Jewish people in Antioch in Pisidia in their synagogue. St. Paul spoke about the Messiah or Saviour Who had come into their midst, Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate in the flesh, Who has ministered, laboured and preached the Good News of God, the salvation and redemption that have finally come from the Lord Himself. Yet, as St. Paul recounted it to the Jews, those Jewish leaders and people in Jerusalem were swayed by their stubbornness and jealousy to reject the Lord and His teachings, and condemned Him to death after arresting Him, and leading Him to be crucified by the Romans under Pontius Pilate’s leadership. But in doing so, in truth, everything had happened as the Lord Himself willed it.

In taking up His Cross, suffering and dying for us from His Cross, the Lord fulfilled everything that He has ever promised for us just as St. Paul explained it. We ourselves must understand this well, as Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross was the only path through which all of us mankind could be reconciled to God, our loving Father and Creator. Since at the very beginning of time and Creation, mankind chose to abandon the Lord for the sweet lies and falsehoods of Satan, and through their disobedience leading up to sin, they had been sundered from the fullness of God’s love and grace. That was why all of us had to experience suffering and death, because separated from God, there can be no life and true happiness for us. Yet, God did not despise us, but He has loved us all the same, and because of His ever enduring love, He reached out to us, helped and guided us, and ultimately He gave us all His beloved Son.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard then of the Lord Himself reassuring His disciples that He would always be with them regardless of anything, and He would always be by their side. The Lord has not abandoned us, and through His Son, He would prepare for us all a place with Him in Heaven. That was what the Lord Himself told His disciples just prior to His Passion, His suffering and death. That despite Him being persecuted and put to death, but not even death itself can separate us from God and His Love. And the resurrection of the Lord proved us all just exactly this case, that God Himself has conquered and destroyed death for us, and by offering Himself, He has built for us a new Bridge through His Cross and Resurrection, that became sure guarantee and firm passageway in the path that we have towards eternal life and salvation in God.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians, as all those who have believed in the Lord and His truth, His love for us and in His sacrifice, and His glorious Resurrection, each and every one of us have been entrusted with the same mission that God has entrusted to His Church and disciples, and that is to proclaim this Good News, this truth and love that He has for each and every one of us to the whole entire world. Yet, many of us are still unaware of this calling and mission we have, and worse still, many of us are lacking real and genuine faith in the Lord, with many of us are only outwardly expressing our faith, or worse still, having stopped showing our faith at all, with many people having stopped celebrating the Sacraments and taking part in the active life in the Church altogether. We can see with great sadness how many Catholics have not been attending the Mass or coming to the church on Sundays, less still doing other things that they should have done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us have become lukewarm in our faith, and many more still have forgotten the important tenets and teachings of the Lord in our Christian faith. That is why, today as we all are reminded of the Lord’s works and actions through the passages of the Sacred Scriptures, we are called to rejuvenate and restore our faith in the Lord, and practice our faith in our lives so that our every words, deeds, actions, our way of life and every interactions with one another be truly filled with the joy of the Lord’s Good News and Gospels, and be truly faithful in all things, not just merely paying lip service or be externally faithful and yet having no real love, devotion and commitment to the Lord within our hearts and minds. Each and every one of us are reminded and challenged to be genuine and missionary Christians, as evangelising disciples and followers of the Lord in our world today.

That is why, let us all continue to strive each day to be ever more faithful to God, deepening our relationship with Him and understanding our faith ever better, by spending the time and effort to come ever closer to the Lord. Each and every one of us should spend more quality time with the Lord, doing our very best to walk in His path ever more worthily and becoming true inspirations and good role models for each other. It is through our actions that we can help many more people to come to know the Lord, His truth and His love. If our actions in fact bring scandal to our faith and to the Lord’s Holy Name, how can we then convince others to come to believe in God as well? We will only end up turning people ever further away from the Lord and from His path, and the consequences of this action will be put against us on the Day of Judgement.

May the Risen Lord, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Saviour and King continue to guide and bless us in all things, and may He help each and every one of us to persevere through the challenges facing us in how we live our Christians lives with faith. May the Lord continue to help us to do our best so that we may become great inspiration and role models for others in how we live our lives with faith, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 5 May 2023 : 4th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 14 : 1-6

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Do not be troubled! Trust in God and trust in Me! In My Father’s house there are many rooms; otherwise, I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. After I have gone and prepared a place for you, I shall come again and take you to Me, so that where I am, you also may be. Yet you know the way where I am going.”

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

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Friday, 5 May 2023 : 4th Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 2 : 6-7, 8-9, 10-11

“Behold the King I have installed, in Zion, upon My holy hill!” I will proclaim the decree of the Lord. He said to Me : “You are My Son. This day I have begotten You.”

“Ask of Me and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall rule them with iron sceptre and shatter them as a potter’s vase.”

Now therefore, learn wisdom, o kings; be warned, o rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and fall at His feet; lest He be angry and you perish when His anger suddenly flares. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

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Friday, 5 May 2023 : 4th Week of Easter (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.”

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Friday, 28 April 2023 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (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.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, all of us are also reminded of even more good examples of our holy predecessors, in the two saints whose feasts we celebrate. St. Peter Chanel and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort are two great servants of God who have dedicated themselves to the service of God, in proclaiming His truth and Good News to many of their fellow brethren. St. Peter Chanel was a renowned missionary, who ministered to the people in many mission areas, which led him to Futuna in distant part of the vast Pacific Ocean region. There he ministered to the people who had not yet known about Christ and evangelised to them, preaching about the Risen Lord to the people of Futuna, which eventually led to the desire for the local king’s son to be baptised, which led to the martyrdom of this good servant of God, persecuted and murdered for his faith and efforts.

Meanwhile, St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort was the inspiration and founder behind the many Montfortian organisations present today, known for his dedication and passion for his ministry, in taking care of the needs the less privileged, the poor and the sick, and in the countless hours and efforts that he spent in taking care of them, both physically and spiritually. He was also known for his efforts in the Catholic education, caring for the needs of young boys and girls to be properly educated, establishing schools and institutions in order to allow this to happen. Through all these works, St. Louis Marie brought quite a lot of people from the brink of darkness and destruction back into God’s Light, and helped them to find the path to salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by their good examples, and do whatever we can as Christians, in order to do God’s will and to proclaim His truth and Good News to more and more of those whom we encounter in our daily living. Let our lives and actions, our words and interactions be good and exemplary, worthy and bring inspiration to others who witness our works and interacted with us, that they too may be moved and driven to follow the Lord and to believe in Him as we had done in our own lives. May God be with us always, and be with His Church in our every endeavours and efforts to proclaim Him, the one and only Saviour of all. Amen.

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Friday, 28 April 2023 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (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, 28 April 2023 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (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, 28 April 2023 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (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, 21 April 2023 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Anselm, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the love and compassion, the kindness and all of the things which our Lord and Saviour has always shown us, in being present with us and for us, in our every journeys and paths, in all the roads that we are travelling through within our respective lives. God has always been ever present in all of that, and He will not abandon us no matter what. Everything that the Church and the Christian brothers and sisters had done, all have been guided and protected by the Lord. God will not abandon all those who put their trust and faith in Him. His love and kindness have always been shown to us, and none of us will be left without help, in our hour and time of need. For if we depend solely only on our own power, we will likely face defeat and failure, but with God’s help, everything is possible.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the time when the Sanhedrin, or the Jewish High Council was pondering on what to do with the Apostles who had courageously opposed them and refused to follow their orders not to proclaim and teach in the Name of the Risen Christ, with many of the members of the Sanhedrin were desiring to destroy those Apostles, angry and inflamed as they were with the Apostles who defied them and spoke with great Wisdom and courage, in resisting the pressures and coercions levied against them. But with the rising tension and passionate anger, one figure came forth seeking calm and rationale argument, namely the highly respected Gamaliel, a renowned and highly respected teacher of the faith, an elder Pharisee of great reputation. This Gamaliel told the Sanhedrin members to listen to reason and wisdom, and not persecute the Apostles.

The reasons presented by Gamaliel were very compelling, as he brought up the recent so-called False Messiahs, all those who have claimed to be the Messiah or the Saviour sent by God, and how their following and works quickly disappeared and were scattered after their leaders were put to death. Thus, following the same logic and example, Gamaliel convinced the other members of the Sanhedrin to let the Lord’s disciples be, as if their Lord and Master had indeed been a False Messiah like the others before Him, His movement and the works of His disciples would have quickly disappeared and they would be quickly scattered. On the other hand, as what was actually the case, if their Lord and Master was truly the true Messiah, the Saviour of the world, then no matter what efforts or persecutions the Sanhedrin would carry out against them, the works of the Lord would continue and triumph in the end.

That is why, all of us are called and reminded to put our trust and faith in the Lord, remembering that He has always been by our side, guiding us and providing for us, protecting and helping us even in ways that we may not realise at first. The Lord has always been with His Church and His disciples, and as we also then heard from our Gospel passage today, He has provided for us all that we need by His love and compassion towards us. In that Gospel passage we heard of the time when the Lord Jesus performed His well-known miracle of the feeding of the five thousand men and more people, by the multiplication of the five loaves and two fishes that He was offered with. This great miracle showed to all of us that God really cared very much about us, and He truly loved all of us, providing for us not just spiritually but also physically, as a wholesome guidance and providence to us.

The Lord showed pity on all those people who were following Him, as they were hungry without sustenance and food, and had been following Him for many days, as they listened to Him teaching and preaching to them. It was in the countryside and wilderness, and there was no food readily and easily available for them to buy and eat. Hence, the Lord told His disciples to provide for all of them food to eat, which when the lack of food was told to Him, He gathered the five loaves of bread and two fishes presented to Him, and miraculously multiplied them before everyone, as the bread and fishes did not run out despite the huge number of people assembled, at least five thousand men and many thousands more of the women and their children. The Lord showed all of these to His people and those disciples to show them that He has always been with them and that He would not abandon them in their time of need.

This is why each and every one of us are called today to renew our faith and trust in the Lord, remembering His love and providence towards us, which will not change and which will always be by our side. All of us are reminded that as Christians, we have all been chosen by the Lord and called to follow Him, and each and every one of us should dedicate ourselves, our time and effort, our whole entire being to the Lord. Let us all turn towards the Lord with love and devotion, with faith and commitment, as we commit ourselves to walk down His path and to proclaim His truth and commandments, His Law and providence to all the people, to all of mankind. Let us all dedicate ourselves to the Lord with renewed vigour and zeal this Easter, and follow Him, as vigorously as the Apostles themselves had done. And today, we have yet another good role model and example to follow.

St. Anselm, whose feast day we celebrate today, also known as St. Anselm of Canterbury was a great and dedicated servant of God, who committed himself to the ministry and the calling that he had been entrusted with. The Lord has called him to be His servant, becoming eventually a monk and abbot, and then after years of faithful work and ministry, he was appointed a bishop and was sent to minister the faithful as shepherd, which during his time of leadership and ministry, had become a great centre of learning and many were touched by his dedication and efforts. St. Anselm eventually was sent to England, to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the leader of all the faithful in all of England. He faced great trials and challenges throughout his ministry, and even went through exile during his work, having to endure persecution and rejection from his enemies. Yet he continued to dedicate himself and kept on going in his works and ministry regardless, entrusting himself to the Lord wholeheartedly.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, can we be inspired by the courage and the hard work shown by all those holy predecessors of ours, in all the trust and faith in the Lord which they had shown us through their lives. Let us all be courageous and committed as they had done in their own lives. Let us all commit ourselves to the Lord and do our best to follow Him in all of our lives, doing whatever we can even in the smallest things, to proclaim and glorify Him by our exemplary lives. May God, our Risen Lord and Saviour be with us always and may He empower each one of us to live ever more faithfully in His Holy Presence, now, always and forevermore. Amen.