guidance of God

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Sunday, 2 November 2014 : Feast of All Souls, 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or Black

Psalm 26 : 1, 4, 7-9, 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.

Hear my voice when I call, o Lord, have mercy on me and answer. My heart says to You, “I seek Your face, o Lord.” Do not hide Your face from me nor turn away Your servant in anger. You are my protector, do not reject me. Abandon me not, o God my Saviour!

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!

 

Homily and Reflection :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/01/sunday-2-november-2014-feast-of-all-souls-31st-sunday-of-ordinary-time-homily-and-scripture-reflections/

 

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 22 : 1-3, 4, 5, 6

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul. He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake.

Although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me : Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 24 : 6 and 7bc, 17-18, 20-21

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Free my heart of bitterness; relieve me of this distress. See my pain and sufferings, and forgive all my sins.

Deliver me from them; let me not be put to shame, for I have trusted You. Let integrity and uprightness be my protection, for all my hope, o Lord, is in You.

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 41 : 2, 3, 5cdef and Psalm 42 : 3, 4, 5

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, o God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

How I used to lead the faithful in procession to the house of God, amid shouts of joy and thanksgiving, among the feasting throng.

Send forth Your light and Your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp, o God, my God.

Why are you so downcast, my soul, why so troubled within me? Hope in God, for again I will praise Him – my Saviour and my God.

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 62 : 2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

O God, You are my God, it is You I seek; for You my body longs and my soul thirsts, as a dry and weary land without water.

Thus I have gazed upon You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You.

I will bless You as long as I live, lift up my hands and call on Your Name. As with the richest food my soul will feast; my mouth will praise You with joyful lips.

For You have been my help; I sing in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You, Your right hand upholds me.

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 102 : 8 and 10, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18

The Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.

The days of mortals are like grass; they bloom like a flower of the field; but the wind passes over it, and it is gone, his field will not see him again.

But the Lord’s kindness is forever with those who fear Him; so is His justice, for their children’s children, for those who keep His covenant and remember His commands, for those who put them into practice.

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 115 : 5, 6, 10-11, 15-16ac

Gracious and righteous is the Lord; full of compassion is our God.

The Lord protects the simple : He saved me when I was humbled.

I have kept faith even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” I have said in my dismay, “To hope in humans is vain.”

It is painful to the Lord to see the death of His faithful. O Lord, I am Your servant, You have freed me from my bonds.

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 121 : 1-2, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!

There the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : “May those who love you prosper! May peace be within your walls and security within your citadels!”

For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be with you!” For the sake of the house of our Lord, I will pray for your good.

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6ab, 6c-7, 8

Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord. O Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, and for that You are revered.

I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than the watchmen the dawn.

O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with Him is unfailing love and with Him full deliverance.

He will deliver Israel from all its sins.

Alternative reading (Mass for the Dead)

Psalm 142 : 1-2, 5-6, 7ab and 8 ab, 10

O Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; answer me, You who are righteous and faithful. Do not bring Your servant to judgment, for no mortal is just in Your sight.

I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on what You have done and consider the work of Your hand. I stretch out my hands to You, and thirst for You like a parched land.

O Lord, answer me quickly : my spirit is faint with yearning. Let the dawn bring me word of Your love, for in You alone I put my trust.

Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. Let Your Spirit lead me on a safe path.

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Wednesday, 13 August 2014 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Pontian, Pope and Martyr, and St. Hippolytus, Priest and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear of the saving power of God, and what He intended to do with mankind, with those who follow Him and walk in His way, as well as with those who rejected Him and sought the comforts and lies of Satan rather than the truth and love of God. He wants mankind to be saved and to be reunited to Himself, and that was why He sent us Jesus to be the One who is our hope and our salvation.

But Jesus also wants to let us know that there are always the proper way of doing things, that we have to adhere closely to the teachings of the Church and avoid any forms of heresy and behaviours that are against the way of the Lord. And in this He made evident the authority of the Church, as the Body of the assembly of the faithful in keeping the faith and obedience to the true faith in God.

For the Church as we know it today is the exact same one as the one which Jesus had mentioned in the Gospel today. The Church refers not just to any buildings or hierarchy, but in fact the Church refers to all of us, who together we make the assembly of the faithful, as one united Body in Christ, that is the Church, and there will always be the Church.

It cannot be ignored, the fact that the Church had been the faithful custodians of the faith, keeping the flames of faith alive despite the various challenges and even persecutions that faced both the Church and the faithful. The Church kept the faith pure and true through various attempts by men to corrupt the purity of the faith, which resulted in many heresies and evils.

One thing we need to always remember is that, God knows those who are His own, and this is highlighted in the first reading today, when God mentioned to the prophet Ezekiel, how He instructed His angels to go through the Holy City and mark those faithful ones with the sign of the cross, that is the sign of our salvation and the sign of the promise of eternal and everlasting glory.

Our Church has had an effective way to deal with those who are not in line with the teachings of the faith. This is through constant and repeated help and assistance offered through the priests and the other servants of the Church, and if this is not successful, then the last resort was to cast the person out of the Church, on what is called excommunication, where the person was in a state of what is called anathema and in a state of sin.

This had been practiced by the Church since the beginning of times, and this was directly linked to what Jesus had said in today’s Gospel, that those who blatantly and constantly refused to listen to the Lord and to the words of His servants. Excommunication is truly a last resort measure, and truly it was not aimed to punish, but in fact more such that the one who erred may see the errors of his or her ways, and be repentant.

Today we celebrate the feast of two saints, namely that of Pope St. Pontian, successor of St. Peter as Bishop of Rome and head of the Church, and St. Hippolytus, a priest who once came into conflict with the leadership of the Church and was once elected to head a rival faction in the Church, as the first known antipope of the Church. One of the Popes whom St. Hippolytus had stood against was none other than Pope St. Pontian.

The rivalry between the Papal claimants and the attacks between both sides hurt the Church and the faithful much, dividing the faithful among the two camps. On top of all that, the persecutions against the faithful by the pagan Roman Empire and the Emperors continued unabated. Many died in martyrdom in the defense of their faith.

Both Pope St. Pontian and St. Hippolytus were faithful servants of the Lord, and before their conflict and squabble, they had worked hard for the good of the people of God, leading them in their struggle for the faith and against the persecution of the world. Their hard work earned much good for the Church, but their squabbles and infightings also led to much pain for the Church.

They excommunicated each other and attacked each other, but yet, the Lord worked in His mysterious ways. In the intensifying persecution against the faithful by the Emperor Alexander Severus of Rome, both of these future saints were arrested and eventually was exiled together to the area of Pontus in what is today northern Turkey or southern Ukraine.

Both of them were reconciled to each other before their death, and the division of the Church over, they together became the symbols of the faith, through their martyrdom, and hence through their deaths in the defense of their faith. Hence, the Lord achieved His aim of bringing the people together, through tireless and ceaseless works of the servants of God and through the prayers of the saints, bringing back wayward children of Go back into the fold of the Church.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we all ought to do our best, to lead one another to the Lord, bringing the love and warmth of the Lord to our brethren, especially those who are in darkness, and those who rejected the Lord and rejected His Church, or even caused divisions among the faithful and brought more people into darkness like themselves.

We have to do our part to help these brethren of ours, that they may be together with us be brought together into the loving embrace of our Lord, as one body in the Lord in His Church. May Almighty God be with us all and guide us fogether on our way. Amen.