God is with us

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Monday, 8 September 2014 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 1 : 1-16, 18-23

This is the account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon.

Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been Uriah’s wife.

Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings : Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah. Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel as the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor, Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob.

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus who is called the Christ – the Messiah.

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet : “The virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means : God-with-us.”

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Matthew 1 : 18-23

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet : “The virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means : God-with-us.”

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Sunday, 31 August 2014 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the readings from the Holy Scriptures today all had a single and most important meaning as well as purpose, that is to remind us that, in all things and in all that happen in our lives, they are not within our control, and in everything, we should defer to the will of God, that is what God wanted for us to do in this life.

Brethren, God always means well for us, even when often it does not seem as such. That was exactly why the prophet Jeremiah in the first reading we heard today, while he grumbled for the difficulties, challenges and persecutions he faced, he eventually acknowledged that the Lord and His will had him in the best interest, and that God continued to help and support him amidst all the challenges, and thus Jeremiah continued on to preach the word of God to the people of Judah.

And St. Paul in the second reading, in his letter addressed to the Church in Rome, the great Apostle urged the people there to listen to and heed the will of God, understanding what the Lord wanted from them rather than following the ways and the norms of the world, which were filled with wickedness and injustice unworthy of God’s chosen peoples in the Church. And he also urged the people to live and bound themselves to God’s great mercy, making themselves a favourable sacrifice in heart and prayer to Him.

And lastly we heard how Jesus rebuked Satan, who entered Peter’s heart, to remind both St. Peter and all of us, by our listening and understanding of the message of that encounter, of the need and importance for us to follow and obey the will of God in all things. St. Peter commented on how Jesus should not have said that He would suffer persecution and rejection in Jerusalem by the Pharisees and the chief priests, because he was afraid and fear filled his heart.

And the same applied to us all, brethren, because we all also often feel fear and are afraid of many things. We are easily concern about many aspects of our own well-being, as we mankind are by our nature selfish. And the many things in this world served to fuel our insecurities further, often leading us to carry out deeds and works that often benefit ourselves but disadvantage and even hurt others. Often, this means that we are also frequently disadvantaged by others when others acted in self-preservation out of the same fear.

Some fears that we have, be it we are rich or poor, weak or strong, young or old are the fear of death, the fear of suffering and pain, the fear of loss of properties and material goods, and many others. We are insecure over these, and it is easy for us to think that when times are difficult, when things do not go our way, and when someone who loved are lost through various means, be it old age or even unexpected events such as accidents, we often feel such despair and anger in us over the loss that we often think and even say, where is God in all these?

Yes, brethren, it is very easy for us to blame God and put the fault at Him for such apparent ‘neglect’ of His beloved creations. However, this is because many of us did not understand the nature of God and the nature of our relationship with the Lord. If we look into our lives, we can often see that we frequently overlook the presence of God in our lives, and we often only turn to Him whenever we are in dire strait and in trouble. And many of us misunderstood our relationship with our Lord, thinking and expecting that the Lord will ‘listen’ to our petitions, prayers or even whining and demands.

That is because for many of us, prayer to God is nothing more than a litany of requests and even demands, which we bombard the Lord with, with the familiar, constant and ubiquitous phrases of ‘Lord I want that…’, ‘Lord I wish for…’, ‘Lord, please do something…’, ‘Lord, give me…’ and other similar phrases, without giving a chance for the Lord to speak to us in our hearts.

Yes, as we all should know, the essence of prayer is not for us to bombard the Lord with all these. We did these exactly because we feel insecure and fearful, and we think that God is someone who can just fulfill and admit all of our wishes. But He is not our slave nor our servant, in the sense that we can just order Him around for anything. On the other hand, we are the ones who actually should live according to what God wants from us, and yet many of us failed to do so.

We have to realise that we live in this world not just for ourselves, and we have to live with one another in faith, peace and love. We have to learn that the true meaning of prayer is for us to open our hearts and all sorts of our senses to the Lord, who will then converse with us in the silence of our hearts, in the deepest part of our selves, which we have often overlooked and forgot, in the midst of all the things we are so concerned about in life.

God is always there for us, and He always watches over us. He wants to speak to us all the time, and yet we always find our excuse or pretend to be ignorant, refusing to listen to His words. We always think that God does not listen to us, or that He does not care for or love us, and we even think that He had abandoned us to the forces arrayed against us, but we often never stop to think that the Lord is always with us and around us, and it is we who have often shut ourselves from. His care and love.

We are surely familiar with the story of someone who walked in the beach, on the seashore, where he walked with God. There were two sets of footsteps, one that belonged to the man and one that belonged to the Lord. Then the man encountered great difficulties in life and he suffered from it. He looked at the footsteps and realised that there was only one footstep there. The man complained and protested against God, alleging that God had abandoned him and did not care for him.

When the Lord asked him what he thought, he presented the evidence of the one set of footsteps to accuse the Lord of leaving him back there alone during his time of troubles. But the Lord patiently and lovingly told the man, that when the man was in his most difficult moments, the Lord carried the man on His own shoulders, and thus the footsteps that the man saw, actually belonged to the Lord who carried and guided the man in his difficulty, even without him knowing it.

Thus, brothers and sisters, learning from the Scriptures which we have heard today, and what we have reflected and pondered on this day, we have to keep always in our hearts. First, we mankind cannot presume what is in God’s mind, and we have to learn to trust in the Lord, as whatever He has for us in His will and mind, it is the best of the best for us. Second, we have to always trust in His providence and love for us, as God is always with us and He will never leave us even for a moment, and in fact it is men who left Him first.

And lastly, we all have to know that to follow the Lord means that challenges, difficulties and persecutions from the world and all in it will be part and parcel of our lives. What we need to do is to carry our cross and follow the Lord, as Jesus Himself said. If Christ had suffered and was rejected by the world, we who are part of Christ as His disciples and servants are bound to suffer in the same way as well.

Jesus told us to get rid of from our hearts all desires of self-preservation, selfishness itself and seek to be upright and righteous in all things. If we do so, we will save our souls, as the Lord who sees all and who knows all will reward us for our hard works. And we ought to do this by showing love, care and concern for our fellow men.

Those who are so concerned for themselves, fearing the loss of their properties, their other concerns in life will be paralysed by that fear, or act in ways that hurt or disadvantage others, and the Lord who sees this, will cast them out of His presence into eternal damnation, and hence, saving the world and their glory in the world but losing their soul for eternity.

We can do our part, brethren, by changing our lives if we have not done so, or do even better if we have indeed done as the Lord had taught us. Be courageous to defend the weak and the oppressed, and be courageous to defend our faith as well. Live our faith consciously and actively by loving acts and dedications to our brethren around us, especially those who are in need. And lastly, keep a good, vibrant and healthy prayer life, spending time with God whenever we are able to. And in our prayers, keeping silent and focused on the Lord, so that He may speak in our heart and that we may then know His will for us.

May Almighty God bless us, protect us and be with us always as He had always been all this time. May His light shine upon us that we may find our way to Him and may all souls in this world be saved, by following the only God and Saviour Lord, Jesus Christ, Saviour of all mankind. Let us all also bear our crosses of suffering in this life together, that in the end, the Lord may transformed those crosses into the crosses of His glory and power. Amen.

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Tuesday, 20 May 2014 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Bernardine of Siena, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 14 : 27-31a

Peace be with you! I give you My peace; not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled; do not be afraid. You heard Me say, “I am going away, but I am coming to you.” If you loved Me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe. It is very little what I may still tell you, for the prince of this world is at hand, although there is nothing in Me that he can claim. But see, the world must know that I love the Father.

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Tuesday, 25 March 2014 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 7 : 10-14 and Isaiah 8 : 10

Once again YHVH addressed Ahaz, “Ask for a sign from YHVH your God, let it come either from the deepest depths or from the heights of heaven.”

But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask, I will not put YHVH to the test.”

Then Isaiah said, “Now listen, descendants of David. Have you not been satisfied trying the patience of people, that you also try the patience of my God? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign : The Virgin is with Child and bears a Son and calls His Name Immanuel.”

“Devise a plan and it will be thwarted, make a resolve and it will not stand, for God-is-with-us.”

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Friday, 7 March 2014 : Friday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 9 : 14-15

Then the disciples of John came to him with the question, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not Your disciples?”

Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

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Thursday, 16 January 2014 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

It was said indeed, that the people of Israel were fortunate, for among the many nations of this world, they had been chosen to be the people of God, after the Lord chose Abraham their forefather, for his upright life and righteousness. To his descendants therefore God promised many things that He fulfilled, giving them great numbers that spread throughout the world, and to Israel, the descendants of Jacob the grandson of Abraham, He chose to be a chosen people.

God chose His people among the many nations, and deliver them out of their suffering and slavery in Egypt with strong power and miraculous glory. He smote those who tried to destroy His people, by sending a deliverer to them in the person of Moses, who with his brother Aaron performed great miracles, that were plagues to smite the Egyptians, as well as to provide for the people of God with sustenance while they were in the desert.

God Himself set His commandments and laws before His people, through Moses, in the form of the Ten Commandments, written by God on two pieces of stone, which were then placed in a great container called the Ark of the Covenant. It was holy because the two stones inside bearing the words of the Commandments had been forged by God Himself. The Ark was to represent the divine presence in this world, God who walked among His people.

To the Promised Land He led them, into the land of overflowing milk and honey, where they were to enjoy endless happiness and joy, much like the glory allotted for our first ancestors Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, before they fell into sin. And yet, the people of God too did not remain faithful, but was even worse, by falling for the false gods and idols, first by worshipping the golden calf which they made, blaspheming that it was the golden calf that brought them out of Egypt.

And even though they were disciplined many, many times by the Lord, through plagues and attacks by their enemies, the people of God remained in their stubbornness. They rebelled against the Lord again and again, even complaining that they had much better life back in slavery in Egypt, and made complaints after complaints of their difficult journey that God made them wonder around the desert for forty years, until all the generation of rebels save for some who remained faithful would perish and not receive the reward of the Land of Promise.

However, as angry and wrathful as God was for the sins and the disobedience of His people, He still loved them beyond His wrath and anger. Yes, just as He still loves all of us despite His hatred for sins and our sinfulness. He did not abandon them or ignore them, when the enemies of His people came hard on them and made them suffer. He sent them judge after judge to lead His people and deliver them from their enemies.

Nevertheless, just as before, the people went back again to their rebellious and sinful ways right after they had been saved. They were like children given gifts by their parents without even showing gratitude. They spurned God’s love and persisted in their opposition against God’s will. They often did not listen to the words of the Lord or His judges, and did things evil and wicked in the eyes of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that was why God showed that He would abandon them and let them be destroyed if they continued in their rebellious way. The sons of the judge and priest Eli had led the people in their disobedience and wicked acts against God. The people of Israel was defeated in their battle against the Philistines, and the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the enemy.

This did not mean that God purposely wanted to destroy His people, but in His love for His children and His people, He wanted to remind them, a kind of shock therapy, reminding them how it would be like to have the Lord absent from their midst, marked with the loss of the Ark of the Covenant. God also punished the Philistines and they were terrified by the Ark among them, and therefore they were obliged to return the Ark to the people of Israel.

And in today’s Gospel we heard about Jesus our Lord went about healing the sick, those who fell ill with the abominable leprosy. He made the man clean and pure again from his leprosy. Jesus is the new Ark of the Covenant, one that is eternal and absolute. If the first Ark of the Covenant was the earthly Ark and which was lost when the First Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC.

Jesus is the new Ark as He made the new covenant between God and mankind, sealed by the sacrifice of Himself, with the outpouring of His Body and Blood on the cross, the perfect sacrifice and offering which He offered for the purification and our redemption of our sins, making us whole once again in God. And from the lessons learnt from the First Ark, we can understand more about the Eternal Ark that is Jesus, as well.

If we remain faithful to the Lord and keep Him always close to our hearts, then He will also bless us with His grace, and He will make our fortunes to grow plentiful. But, as with the First Ark, if we remain persistent and adamant in our rebellion against Him and refuse to acknowledge Him as our Lord and refuse His love, then He will leave us to our fate, that is destruction and eternal suffering, to suffer forever with Satan and his fellow fallen angels who were destined to suffer in the lake of fire.

Therefore, brethren, let us continue our efforts to remain faithful in the Lord, that we will continue to persevere to walk in His ways despite the temptations and challenges from the world. Through Jesus, God had made Himself available to all, and He dwells among us, for God is with us, and we will never be separated again from Him, if we ourselves keep our faith in Him alive and well.

May our Lord Jesus Christ, God who dwells among us, keep us in His love and embrace, that we will always belong to Him, and never have to fear again the consequences of our evils, that is death. May the Lord bless us and be with us all, forever and ever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 8 January 2014 : Wednesday after the Epiphany (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

God is with us, and He never leaves us, because He is in us and He remains with us, so long as we remain faithful ourselves towards Him. He steadies those who have faith in Him and keep them steady in the storm of the ocean that is this world. Like the disciples, if they keep their faith in God strong, their ship would not sink, because the Lord is with them.

God sent us His Son, Jesus Christ, to liberate us from the tyranny of sin and evil. No longer will evil have any power or sovereignty over us, as they once had since the days of the first mankind until the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This is the proof of Divine love, manifested in the suffering and death of Jesus.

And He did not just stop at that, because He promised and then sent the Advocate, that is the Holy Spirit, to come down upon His disciples on Pentecost, who then, through the disciples, passed on to all the faithful ones, all of us today. The Lord Himself dwells within us through His Most Holy Presence in the Eucharist, which we partake every time we participate in the Holy Mass.

We must always them keep all of our actions, our deeds and words within the bounds of the laws and the precepts of the Lord, because only then He will remain with us and stay within us, marking us as the ones worthy of His kingdom when He comes again at His second coming. We cannot just profess our faith in Christ without action, that is concrete action, based in love, the love of God.

Faith without love and good graces through our actions, again based on love, is dead. A dead faith is no good, and is no better than having no faith in the Lord. Our faith must be a vibrant and living faith, which is a faith made concrete by our own loving actions, both towards our neighbours, our fellow men and women, as well as of course, towards God Himself, who had first loved us.

God rewards those who have faith, and rewards those who love. This is because He treasures those who believe in Him and worship Him as the Lord their God, and those who follow His will, as revealed through the prophets and through the Lord Jesus Himself who revealed to us the true meaning of the commandments of God that is love.

And God will protect those who belong to Him and provide for them. They will be blessed and glorified. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us put our complete trust in the Lord and love Him more and more day after day. Fear not the devil or any forces that threaten us, because the Lord is with us, on our side. Those who have any ill will against us will be destroyed before God.

Instead, brothers and sisters, we should love one another and care for each other, and give of ourselves to others in need, in the same way as Jesus Himself had given Himself to us, to be our help, our Saviour, and our hope. Be a beacon of light for the people of God, those who still live in darkness. Share with them, the love of God, that we have in us, because we have received the Holy Spirit and the Lord Himself dwells within us.

Let us profess love in all of our actions, words, and deeds, and spread the same love that God has given us through Jesus. Let us always remember that our faith is dead without action, and particularly without love. Let us from now on, if we have not done so, love one another, and love each other sincerely, forgiving each other of the mistakes we have done, and remove any grudge that existed between us. And finally, let us love Jesus our Lord with all our hearts, all of our strength and abilities!

Lord Jesus, love us ever more and continue to watch over us, and make us to realise how great the love You have for us, that we may love You ever more too! Amen.

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Friday, 3 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time, Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Today we glory in Jesus Christ, and we praise Him with the greatest exaltation we can give. Indeed, we ought to do that every single day of our lives without ceasing, with every single breath that we take. For it is through Christ that we have life, and it is also through Christ that we have hope for a new and everlasting life in joy and happiness.

Why is Jesus so special? And why is He so important to all of us? That is because as we all know, He is God Himself, and yet He is not a distant and unloving God who lords Himself over us as gods typically do, in our understanding of the term divine. Instead, Jesus is the Word, who is God and who is with God since the very beginning of all, begotten of the Father not created, and who emptied Himself of His glorious divinity, so that He might be born into this world, as one of us, a lowly human.

His coming had been prophesied by the prophets and the messengers of God for many millennia, and His coming had been expected and awaited by the people of God. God was known as the God named I am who I am, or YHVH in short. His Name is holy, and as one of the Ten Commandments stated, that the people of God must treat this Holy Name with the greatest respect.

We who are the most beloved ones of the Lord’s entire creation, had sinned against Him and rebelled against His will and commands, preferring to trust in Satan rather than in the power of the One and only True God. Yet, God is Love, and in us, He saw that there were good in us, just as all of creation was once perfect in goodness.

Everything was good then, until rebellion, pride and jealousy entered into the heart of Satan, who rebelled against Him and boasted that he would sit at the throne of God, only to be cast down, away from heaven. From there, Satan tricked and lied to our ancestors, that they were deceived and sin entered into the hearts of mankind. Ever since then we had been made dirty by the presence of sin in us, and yet in each one of us good is still present.

That is why God decided to come down upon this world in order to save us all from our fate that is death. He came to us, through the intermediary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother, who bore Him as He remained in her womb for nine months after He, by the power of His own Spirit, entered into the world of mankind

And just like all of us, He has a Name, and a Name was given Him, that is Jesus, which in the original Aramaic is Yehosuah in approximation, containing the Name of YHVH, that is the Lord. Yes, that is in conjunction with the other name that Jesus is known, that is Emmanuel, or God-is-with-us. Yes, the very Name of Jesus is Holy and great, for it is the Name of God Himself, and not just any gods, but the One and only True God who dwells with us, by being born into the world, in order to be our Saviour.

He came into this world and began His ministry, of healing, of teaching, of feeding the people of God. He gave a great revelation on the nature of God and His love. Indeed, as we all know, that God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, so that all who believe in Him will not perish in death, but gain eternal life, which was promised to us by the Lord Himself.

Jesus came into this world with power and authority, and not just any kind of authority or power, but the true authority, out of whom all authorities came about. There can be no power or authority that does not have its source in Jesus. Even the devil, Satan, who had reigned mercilessly upon us as our jailor in the slavery by sin, and who had exercised power and control over us, was powerless and is powerless, and will ever be powerless before Jesus.

The evil spirits feared Him, and said His Holy Name aloud to the people to hear, that is Jesus, the Holy One of God, the Christ Himself. They trembled with fear upon hearing His Name, knowing the fate that they will suffer at the hand of God’s justice. They were once beautiful angels in heaven, but they followed the devil, once Lucifer, the brightest and greatest angel into his rebellion as I mentioned earlier. Ever since then, they were doomed, and destined to suffer for eternity by God’s justice.

The Lord’s authority is over everything, every single matter that exists in our universe and beyond. He is the Lord of all things visible and invisible. That is why even at the utterance of His Name, every knee and every beings shall bow down, genuflect, even flat to the floor! Yes, every beings, everything created by God, be it angels, mankind, animals, plants, or even the demons, the evil spirits, and Satan the great enemy of all himself.

Yet, brethren, sadly, many of us these days seem to take lightly upon this Most holy Name of all names. They made fun of His Name and disrespected His glorious Name. They did not respect the Name of the Lord, through whose sacrifice on the cross, we have been made whole once again, and gained the hop e of life eternal in Him. We instead prefer to deal with the devil, just as our ancestors had done, and glorify him instead of glorifying the Lord in Jesus.

This must not be the way we live our lives, brethren in Christ! We have to seek a total and complete change of our wayward ways, and seek to rectify the impropriety we had done upon the Lord. Keep the Lord’s Name sacred and glorified, just as He had commanded us in the Ten Commandments He gave to Moses. We cannot mock or disdain the Holy Name of Jesus.

Remember, brethren, the power of the Holy Name is powerful. If we are faced with a great power of evil, and we recite this great Name with faith, that is with true faith, and if we are upright in our lives, then no power, no matter how great or how evil it may be, can assail us. God Himself will come to protect us, and those who are against us will flee in fear, because they know that God is with us, Emmanuel! Jesus indeed! The One whose Name is exalted above every other names!

Yes, let us all give glory to our Lord Jesus, and glorify His Name from now on if we have not done so. Come Lord Jesus, be with Your people, and with Your children, and deliver us from the evil one, with the might of Your hands and with the glory of Your Name!

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Friday, 3 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time, Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 1 : 29-34

The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! It is He of whom I said : A Man comes after me, who is already ahead of Me, for He was before me. I myself did not know Him, but I came baptising to prepare for Him, so that He might be revealed in Israel.”

And John also gave this testimony, “I saw the Spirit coming down on Him like a dove from heaven, and resting on Him. I myself did not know Him, but God, who sent me to baptise, told me, ‘You will see the Spirit coming down, and resting, on the One who baptises with the Holy Spirit.'”

“Yes, I have seen! And I declare that this is the Chosen One of God!”

 

Alternative Reading (Mass of the Most Holy Name of Jesus)

 

Luke 2 : 21-24

On the eighth day the circumcision of the Baby had to be performed; He was named Jesus, the Name the angel had given Him before He was conceived. When the day came for the purification according to the law of Moses, they brought the Baby up to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord.

As it is written in the law of the Lord : “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to God.” And they offered a sacrifice, as ordered in the law of the Lord : a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

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Friday, 3 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time, Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 97 : 1, 3cd-4, 5-6

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.

With melody of the lyre and with music of the harp. With trumpet blast and sound of the horn, rejoice before the King, the Lord!

 

Alternative Reading (Mass of the Most Holy Name of Jesus)

 

Psalm 8 : 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

When I observe the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars You set in their place – what is man that You be mindful of him, the son of man, that You should care for him?

Yet You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honour and gave him the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.

Sheep and oxen without number and even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and all that swim the paths of the ocean.