good works

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Thursday, 13 July 2017 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Henry (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Matthew 10 : 7-15

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Go, and proclaim this message : The kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons. Freely have you received, freely give. Do not carry any gold or silver or money in your purses. Do not take a travelling bag, or an extra shirt, or sandals, or a walking stick : workers deserve to be compensated.”

“When you come to a town or a village, look for a worthy person, and stay there until you leave. When you enter the house, wish it peace. If the people are worthy people, your peace will rest on them; if they are not worthy people, your blessing will come back to you.”

“And if you are not welcomed, and your words are not listened to, leave that house or that town, and shake the dust off your feet. I assure you, it will go easier for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, than it will for the people of that town.”

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Monday, 1 May 2017 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 6 : 8-15

Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Some persons then came forward, who belonged to the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They argued with Stephen but they could not match the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke.

As they were unable to face the truth, they bribed some men to say, ‘We heard him speak against Moses and against God.’ So they stirred up the people, the elders and the teachers of the Law; they took him by surprise, seized him and brought him before the Council.

Then they produced false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against our Holy Place and the Law. We even heard him say that Jesus the Nazarean will destroy our Holy Place and change the customs which Moses handed down to us.” And all who sat in the Council fixed their eyes on him, and his face appeared to them like the face of an Angel.

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.

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Wednesday, 18 May 2016 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Mark 9 : 38-40

At that time, John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon Your Name, and we tried to forbid him because he does not belong to our group.”

Jesus answered, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My Name can soon after speak evil of Me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

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Friday, 19 February 2016 : 1st Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Ezekiel 18 : 21-28

YHVH said, “If the sinner turns from his sin, observes My decrees and practices what is right and just, he will live, he will not die. None of the sins he committed will be charged against him; he will live as a consequence of his righteous deeds. Do I want the death of the sinner? – word of YHVH. Do I not rather want him to turn from his ways and live?”

“But if the righteous man turns away from what is good and commits sins as the wicked do, will he live? His righteous deeds will no longer be credited to him, but he will die because of his infidelity and his sins. But you say : YHVH’s way is not just! Why, Israel! Is My position wrong? Is it not rather that yours is wrong?”

“If the righteous man dies after turning from his righteous deeds and sinning, he dies because of his sins. And if the wicked man does what is good and right, after turning from the sins he committed, he will save his life. He will live and not die, because he has opened his eyes and turned from the sins he had committed.”

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Tuesday, 10 November 2015 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 17 : 7-10

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples and to the people, “Who among you would say to your servant, coming in from the fields after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Go ahead and have your dinner’? No, you tell him, ‘Prepare my dinner. Put on your apron, and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink afterwards.'”

“Do you thank this servant for doing what you told him to do? I do not think so. And therefore, when you have done all that you have been told to do, you should say, ‘We are no more than servants; we have only done our duty.'”

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(Usus Antiquior) Third Sunday after Epiphany, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul and Feast of St. Peter the Apostle (II Classis) – Sunday, 25 January 2015 : Epistle

Liturgical Colour : Green

Lectio Epistolae Beati Pauli Apostoli ad Romanos – Lesson from the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Romans

Romans 12 : 16-21

Fratres : Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmetipsos : nulli malum pro malo reddentes : providentes bona non tantum coram Deo, sed etiam coram omnibus hominibus. Si fieri potest, quod ex vobis est, cum omnibus hominibus pacem habentes : Non vosmetipsos defendentes, carissimi, sed date locum irae.

Scriptum est enim : Mihi vindicta : ego retribuam, dicit Dominus. Sed si esurierit inimicus tuus, ciba illum : si sitit, potum da illi : hoc enim faciens, carbones ignis congeres super caput ejus. Noli vinci a malo, sed vince in bono malum.

English translation

Brethren, do not be wise in your own conceits. To no man you should render evil for evil, providing good things not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men. If it is possible, as much as it is in you, have peace with all men. Do not make revenge yourselves, my dearly beloved, but give place unto wrath.

For it is written, ‘Revenge is Mine, I will repay,’ the Lord had said. But if your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for in doing this, you shall heap coals of fire upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by doing good.

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Wednesday, 14 January 2015 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 1 : 29-39

At that time, on leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to the home of Simon and Andrew with James and John. As Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with fever, they immediately told Him about her. Jesus went to her and, taking her by the hand, raised her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening at sundown, people brought to Jesus all the sick and those who had evil spirits : the whole town was pressing around the door. Jesus healed many who had various diseases, and drove out many demons; but He did not let them speak, for they knew who He was.

Very early in the morning, before daylight, Jesus went off to a lonely place where He prayed. Simon and the others went out also, searching for Him; and when they found Him, they said, “Everyone is looking for You.” Then Jesus answered, “Let us go to the nearby villages so that I may preach there too; for that is why I came.”

So Jesus set out to preach in all the synagogues throughout Galilee; He also cast out demons.

 

Homily and Reflection :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/13/wednesday-14-january-2015-1st-week-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

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Thursday, 8 January 2015 : Thursday after the Epiphany (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listen about the fulfillment of the Law and the prophecies of the prophets and messengers of God in Jesus, which He Himself proclaimed as He read from the very prophecy of Isaiah at the synagogue of His hometown of Nazareth. In Jesus God had made manifest His love, which entered this world and dwells among us even now, for Christ is in us, and we live in Him, all of us who put our faith to Him and believe in Him.

But if we read later on what happened after Jesus had proclaimed Himself as the Messiah, we would find out that His own townspeople, His own neighbours rejected Him, as they were too fixated on their own ego and human desires, thinking that because they knew Him who had lived and dwelled among them for a long time, then they had the right to judge who He was.

They thought of Him as a mere carpenter’s Son, and being in the family of a carpenter, they thought lowly of Him. In their minds, they thought, how could this mere Carpenter be the Messiah or be the One to bring the salvation of all mankind? They thought that because they saw Him doing menial job of a carpenter, cutting the logs and making furnitures, then they got the right to judge His character.

But they were wrong, as it is the same too for many of us, as we are often so blinded by our imperfect human perceptions, biased by our flawed sense of judgment, biased by our desires and even greed, and biased by our upbringing and the varied influences of the world. How often is it that we are jealous of what others have and we do not have with us? How often is it that we crave what others have, wishing that we have them too, be it by force or other means?

Brethren in Christ, we often do not realise God’s presence among us and within us, indeed because we are often selfish and thinking only about ourselves and nothing else. We are too caught up with the concerns of this world to even notice about the Lord working His subtle works in our world, and among us all. Remember, that God is Love, and Jesus is the manifestation of that great love which He has for us. Even though He is no longer physically in the world because He ascended into heaven, but His love is still with us and is still present with us.

And the essence of His love is still with us too, even though He has ascended to heaven, but because He has given us His Body to eat and His Blood to drink, to all of us who believe in Him, and to all of us who have accepted Him as our Lord and Saviour, we have received Him, His Real Presence and True Body and Blood into ourselves. As such, we have the Lord and His love dwelling in us.

We should therefore be conscious of this love which God had shown us through Christ. We must not be like the people of Nazareth who were indifferent and even openly hostile against Him for they were blinded by their own ego, by their own prejudice and jealousy. We must not follow their examples, and instead we all must be humble, knowing how much love God has poured unto us, even though we are sinners, wicked and unworthy.

This season of Christmas, which we still celebrate even today, is a season of celebration of God’s love for us all, which was made fully and completely real and concrete, through the loving entry of Himself, through the Son, into the world, and His birth at Bethlehem, as a humble Baby, the One who would change the world and all of us forever.

For Christ calls us, even now, just as He had done so often in the past, to repent and change our sinful ways. He has lovingly sacrificed Himself and offered Himself as the perfect oblation and offering to free us forever from sin and its consequences, but this can only happen if we too accept what He has done for us and recognise what He has done for us. Thus we have to learn to recognise Christ present within us and around us, by knowing His love, understanding it and applying it in our own lives.

God has given us all love, by sharing it through His Son, who is with us, and this love needs to be shared with one another. If we keep this love within ourselves, then it will wither and be gone, but if we share it, it will grow stronger and ever stronger. Thus, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all share our love with one another, living our lives filled with faith, faith in God’s love. May Almighty God be our guide and our strength, so that through us all, He may call many more peoples of many nations to be reunited with Himself. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/07/thursday-8-january-2015-thursday-after-the-epiphany-first-reading/

 

Psalm :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/07/thursday-8-january-2015-thursday-after-the-epiphany-psalm/

 

Gospel Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/07/thursday-8-january-2015-thursday-after-the-epiphany-gospel-reading/

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Monday, 15 December 2014 : Third Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple or Violet

Matthew 21 : 23-27

At that time, Jesus had entered the Temple and was teaching, when the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and the Jewish authorities came to Him, and asked, “What authority have You to act like this? Who gave You authority to do all this?”

Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you a question, only one. And if you give Me an answer, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. When John began to baptise, was it a work of God, or was it merely something human?”

They reasoned out among themselves, “If we reply that it was a work of God, He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ And if we say, ‘The baptism of John was merely something human’, we have got to beware of the people, for all hold John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”

And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what right I do these things.”

 

Homily and Reflection :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/12/14/monday-15-december-2014-third-week-of-advent-homily-and-scripture-reflections/