holy bishops

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Friday, 21 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Mark 8 : 34 – Mark 9 : 1

At that time, Jesus called the people and His disciples, and said, “If you want to follow Me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. For if you choose to save your life, you will lose it; and if you lose your life for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel, you will save it.”

“What good is it to gain the whole world, while destroying your soul? There is nothing more precious than your soul. I tell you : If anyone is ashamed of Me and of My words among this adulterous and sinful people, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the Glory of His Father with the holy Angels.”

And He went on to say, “Truly I tell you, there are some here who will not die before they see the kingdom of God coming with power.”

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Friday, 21 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Psalm 32 : 10-11, 12-13, 14-15

The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and brings to nothing the peoples’ designs. But His plan stands forever, and His heart’s design through all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

From where He sits He watches all those who dwell on the earth – He Who fashions every heart observes all their deeds.

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Friday, 21 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Genesis 11 : 1-9

The whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved from east, they found a plain in the country of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them in fire.” They used brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. They said also, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching heaven; so that we may become a great people and not be scattered over the face of the earth!”

YHVH came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of man were building, and YHVH said, “They are one people and they have one language. If they carry this through, nothing they decide to do from now on will be impossible. Come! Let Us go down and confuse their language so that they will no longer understand each other.”

So YHVH scattered them over all the earth and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there YHVH confused the language of the whole earth and from there YHVH scattered them over the whole face of the earth.

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Friday, 14 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the downfall of mankind into sin, reminding us all how sin has led us into this wretched existence in this corrupted world, filled with sin and evil. But at the same time, we are being reminded also of our true nature which God had made and intended us all to be, a pure and holy existence in His Presence as He has meant us all to enjoy. At the same time, we should put our trust in the Lord, and allowing Him to heal us all from our afflictions, our corruptions of sin and evil, allowing us to be whole once again, to be enlightened once again by God’s grace and love, by His light and truth. God is the only One Who can do this for us, and we have to keep this always in mind.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the moment when Satan, in the form of a snake, came upon our ancestors in the Gardens of Eden. At that time, everything had been created all good and perfect by God, and our ancestors, Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, had also been created perfect, all wonderful and good, in the image and likeness of God Himself, all meant to enjoy forever the fullness of God’s love and grace. However, our inability to resist the temptations of sin, of worldly desires, ambitions and pride, had all led to us succumbing to the sweet lies and falsehoods of Satan, who used all those to lead us all down the path of ruin, and therefore brought us into the corruption of sin.

Satan played upon our curiosity and desire for knowledge, and also our indulgence in pleasure to seek for what we have been told not to seek the pursuit of power, glory and knowledge that Satan has offered us by tempting our ancestors to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and which he has continued to tempt us with as he offered us all sorts of worldly goods and ambitions, and all other things meant to shake our faith and trust in the Lord, in trying to make us to embrace the path of disobedience and sin instead. That is why we are reminded of this today so that we will always be vigilant and we will not allow Satan and all of the other forces of evil to tempt us into the path towards our downfall and destruction.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the works of the Lord Jesus as He came into the region of Decapolis beyond the Jordan River, where He encountered a man who was deaf and mute, and He healed this man miraculously by putting His hands into the man’s ears and tongue, declaring ‘Ephphata’ or ‘be opened’! as mentioned in the Gospel. Through this action, God showed all the people, His disciples and followers that He is truly the Lord and Master of all things, even over diseases, sickness and all other conditions, and He is also the Messiah or Saviour which God has promised His people through the prophets, as those prophets spoke of how the Messiah would make the blind to see once again, the deaf to be able to hear again, the mute to be able to speak again and more great and wonderful things.

It is a reminder to all of us how God is the only One Who can liberate us all from our bondage to sin. Ever since our ancestors listened to Satan and disobeyed God, as we heard from our first reading passage today, they had allowed sin to enter into our hearts and corrupt us all, corrupting our human nature and through that making us all to be unworthy of God and the glorious inheritance that God has always meant for us to share and enjoy in. The corruption of sin has corrupted our human existence and led us all to concupiscence, that is our inherent human nature to be tempted and to fall into sin. But God did not give up on us, and He has always loved us all throughout, desiring for us to be reconciled and reunited to Himself, and hence, He provided for us the means to do so.

It is by sending unto us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ Himself, Our Lord and Saviour, that God has opened for us all the sure and straight path towards eternal life and salvation. He has given us all His beloved Son, Who willingly took up upon Himself the human flesh, nature and existence so that He can break us all free from the tyranny and dominion of sin and death. And it was by His perfect and humble obedience to the will of His heavenly Father that Christ, as the New Adam, together with His mother Mary, the New Eve, opposed the past disobedience of Adam and Eve, rejected Satan and all of his falsehoods, and by offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice and offering, breaking His own Most Precious Body and pouring out His Most Precious Blood that brings about our healing and redemption. There is no other means by which we all can be saved.

That is why all of us are reminded that we should always put our faith and trust in the Lord, and we should not allow the temptations of evil to lead us astray anymore in our lives. Through the Lord Jesus, our Saviour, all of us have been liberated from the chains and dominion of sin, and hence, we should embrace this freedom which we have earned from the Lord, the grace that He has given us all, and strive therefore to live a truly holy and worthy lives, following Him ever more wholeheartedly in each and every moments of our lives. And one way of doing this is by doing whatever the Lord has commanded us to do, to live a life truly devoted to Him and to be exemplary in our everyday living, becoming good and worthy examples for our fellow brothers and sisters, to be missionary and evangelising in all things as many of our holy predecessors had done.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who are the Patron Saints of Europe, and also great missionaries in their efforts to evangelise to the people of Central and Eastern Europe. St. Cyril and St. Methodius were brothers who were born in the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium in the early ninth century, and they were appointed as missionaries by the Byzantine Emperor and the Church in Constantinople to evangelise among the Slavs and the Khazars, the pagans who were inhabiting the regions to the north of the Empire. They were the ones to come up with the Glagolitic alphabet, which eventually became the Cyrillic alphabet still in use in many Slavic countries to this day.

They achieved much success in proclaiming the Good News of God to the pagan nations, and were also involved in other missionary works, including inter-Church mission to Rome and many other good works. Through their efforts, many of those people they visited and ministered became Christians, bringing God’s salvation to countless more souls. They did encounter difficulties and challenges during their ministry, including conflicts with the Latin and the Western Church during their evangelising work among the pagans, enduring the political conflicts between the Western and Eastern Christendom that happened at that time, but all these did not dissuade them from continuing to do their works and to carry on the missions entrusted to them faithfully to the very end of their lives.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore strive to follow in the footsteps of St. Cyril and St. Methodius and do our best in all things, so that by our dedication and commitment to God, we may always be shining beacons of His light and truth, becoming the manifestation of His love and mercy, His kindness and compassion to all those whom we encounter daily in life. Hopefully many more people may come to believe in the Lord and be saved through us, and through everything that we do in our everyday living. May God be with us always, and may He bless us in all of our good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 14 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 7 : 31-37

At that time, again Jesus set out : from the country of Tyre He passed through Sidon and, skirting the sea of Galilee, He came to the territory of Decapolis. There, a deaf man, who also had difficulty in speaking, was brought to Him. They asked Jesus to lay His hand upon him.

Jesus took him apart from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears, and touched his tongue with spittle. Then, looking up to heaven, He said with a deep sigh, “Ephphata!” that is, “Be opened!”

And immediately, his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly. Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about it; but the more He insisted, the more they proclaimed it. The people were completely astonished and said, “He has done all things well; He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.”

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Friday, 14 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 31 : 1-2, 5, 6, 7

Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose iniquity is wiped away. Blessed are those in whom YHVH sees no guilt and in whose spirit is found no deceit.

Then I made known to You my sin and uncovered before You my fault, saying to myself, “To YHVH I will now confess my wrong.” And You, You forgave my sin; You removed my guilt.

So let the faithful ones pray to You in time of distress; the overflowing waters will not reach them.

You are my Refuge; You protect me from distress and surround me with songs of deliverance.

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Friday, 14 February 2025 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Genesis 3 : 1-8

Now the serpent was the most crafty of all the wild creatures that YHVH God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say : You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden God said : You must not eat, and you must not touch it or you will die.”

The serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, but God knows that the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the fruit was good to eat, and pleasant to the eyes, and ideal for gaining knowledge. She took its fruit and ate it and gave some to her husband who was with her. He ate it.

Then their eyes were opened and both of them knew they were naked. So they sewed leaves of a fig tree together and made themselves loincloths. They heard the voice of YHVH God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day, and they, the man and his wife, hid from YHVH God among the trees of the garden.

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Monday, 3 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all listened from our Scripture passages today, we are all reminded of the reality of hardships, persecutions and the challenges that each and every one of us as Christians may encounter in our journey of faith as the disciples and followers of the Lord. We must remember that despite all these difficulties, we must remain firm in our faith in the Lord and do not easily be discouraged or disheartened, dissuaded or prevented from finding our way towards Him. This is because the Lord is always by our side, journeying with us and guiding us, and He will provide us with whatever we need along the journey, and it is in Him alone that we can confide, and He alone can overcome the forces of darkness and evil, just as we have heard from our Scripture passages today.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we heard the author of this Epistle speaking to the Jewish community referring to the examples of God’s providence, help and guidance to His people, how He had called, chosen and empowered His servants, those famous figures like Samuel, David and others in the Old Testament, who have been blessed and strengthened by God, ordinary people who were sinners and imperfect, and yet, by the Lord’s guidance and strength, had been empowered to do great and wonderful things, which mankind alone cannot do by themselves. This passage is an important reminder for us all that we are never alone in our journey and struggles in life, and we must always keep our hope and faith in the Lord at all times, no matter what the circumstances are.

And at the same time, sufferings, hardships, obstacles and challenges are always in our path, and we will always likely be encountering these in our journey, as we must never forget that whatever the Lord has taught and shown us, His way and path are often in contradiction to the ways promoted by the world. That is why if we continue to embark on this journey and remaining faithful to God throughout, we may be persecuted and face challenges just as the Lord Himself had been rejected and oppressed by the world. And yet, we must remain firm in our faith because God will give us the strength and the courage needed for the journey, and if we trust in Him, we will eventually share in His glorious inheritance and be freed from all those hardships, persecutions and challenges.

It will not be an easy journey for us to be faithful Christians, to be good and worthy disciples and followers of the Lord. But with God and by His guidance and help, everything is truly possible. We must also not fear those that can only harm the body, our physical self, existence and material in this world, but cannot touch our eternal soul, which belongs to God alone. But if we choose to abandon the Lord and allow sin to continue to corrupt us and leading us down the path of ruin, then by ignoring or rejecting God’s mercy and generous love, we will be judged and condemned by those same sins and wickedness that we have committed, and by the corruptions that have marred the sanctity of our souls, which God had intended to be holy and worthy of Him.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus went to the region of the Gerasenes beyond the Jordan River where He and His disciples encountered a man who had been possessed by evil spirits, and forced to wander off in the wilderness away from the community because of his condition, and we heard how he was greatly feared by everyone because of the demons that were in him. But God showed His power and might, His authority and dominion over all those evil spirits, who called themselves ‘Legion’ because they were numerous in number. God told them to leave the man behind and not to trouble them anymore.

Those evil spirits, which many others had feared and fled from, had to obey the Lord and His commands, although they tried to negotiate with Him, asking Him to allow them to leave the man for the herd of pigs that were there nearby the location. And thus, that was how the Lord cast out those army of demons out of the possessed man, healed and made him whole once again, which therefore allowed him to return once again to the community. We heard how the people who heard of the miraculous occasion were astonished and even fearful, seeing such a great sign and miracle occurring before them, and the man who had once been possessed by the many evil spirits having been freed from his possession by those demons.

All these showed us how the Lord is there for us, by our side, and not even an army of demons can stop Him, because He is Lord and Master over all things, and even all those demons and evil spirits had to obey Him, to stay away from us, His beloved ones. That is why if we are encountering hardships and challenges, we should not be easily deterred or brought down by fear, because the evil ones are indeed always ready to strike at us especially when we are not vigilant and when we lack confidence and faith in the Lord. When our faith in Him wavers and when we allowed them to tempt us and enter into our hearts and minds, that is how we falter and fall in our journey towards Him, and end up in miserable state of sin, in danger of damnation and destruction with those evil spirits, who are more than happy to see us share their fate.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of two great and holy men, whose lives can be great source of inspiration and hope for us all to follow in our own lives and journeys of faith. St. Blaise was the Bishop of Sebastea in what is today part of Turkey, in the region of Lesser Armenia, and he was a well-known physician, and today revered as patron saint of physicians, animals, veterinarians, and also over throat sickness and diseases, and the special blessing associated to him, the Blessing of Throats by St. Blaise is a popular and well-known tradition of the Church. He was a great and popular healer, and not only in physical ailments, but also expert in matters of the spiritual, as the shepherd of the flock entrusted under his care in Sebastea and its surrounding regions.  Many people came to him seeking for help from their various ailments, physical and spiritual, and many were healed by him.

The popular blessing associated to St. Blaise came about because of the popular account of the healing of a child who had been choking on a fish bone, when his distraught mother came to seek St. Blaise seeking for his help and intercession. St. Blaise prayed for the child and he was cured from his condition immediately. Henceforth, he became the patron of all those suffering from throat conditions. Then, during the time of persecution of Christians, then under the Eastern Emperor Licinius, the rival of Emperor Constantine the Great, who persecuted Christians in spite of the Christian-favouring Emperor Constantine, St. Blaise was arrested and tortured, and according to accounts he was tortured with iron comb before being beheaded, a true martyr of the Church and the Christian faith.

Then, St. Ansgar, the other saint whose life we honour and commemorate today was also known popularly as the ‘Apostle of the North’ due to his many works and missions to the northern part of what is today Germany, which during his time and ministry were still populated by many pagan believers, and many of those people had not yet received the Good News of God, or refused to believe in Him despite earlier missionaries’ works. St. Ansgar eventually became a priest and missionary, and was sent by the then ruler of Francia, Charlemagne or Charles the Great, to evangelise in the region of Saxony and northern Germany. He ministered to the people there and proclaimed the Word and Good News of God courageously even amongst those who resisted his efforts and works.

The patient works of St. Ansgar and many of his compatriots and fellow workers in evangelisation eventually bore many fruits, as many people came to believe in the Lord, laying the foundation for the Christian Church in that region. He was also eventually chosen as the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in northern Germany, and he continued to perform many works of evangelisation in spreading the Word of God to not just northern parts of Germany but even Scandinavia, where the then Vikings who were still mostly pagan had not yet known the Lord. St. Ansgar worked hard and devoted himself to the works of evangelisation to the end of his life, managing to put the beginnings and laying the firm foundations for later conversion of Scandinavia through his efforts and good relationships with the Scandinavian rulers, his patient and consistent efforts in dialogue and encounter with those who have yet to believe in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, from the examples of these great men, St. Blaise and St. Ansgar, and from what we have just discussed about the Scripture readings earlier, let us all therefore be reminded that we should always put our trust and faith fully in the Lord, and commit ourselves to whatever missions, works and calling that the Lord has entrusted to us. We should not be afraid or fearful of the challenges and trials that we may have to encounter in our path, but like St. Blaise and St. Ansgar, we should continue to push on forward with genuine and strong faith in the Lord, knowing that God will always be by our side, journeying and guiding us throughout our journey in life, now and always. Let us all renew our commitment and our desire to follow Him and to glorify Him, proclaiming His Good News and truth to all the people, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 3 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Bishops)

Mark 5 : 1-20

At that time, Jesus and His disciples arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. No sooner did Jesus leave the boat than He was met by a man with evil spirits, who had come from the tombs. He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him, even with a chain. He had often been bound with fetters and chains, but he would pull the chains apart and smash the fetters, and no one had the strength to control him.

Night and day he stayed among the tombs on the hillsides, and was continually screaming, and beating himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell at His feet, and cried with a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, I beg You, do not torment me!”

He said this, because Jesus had commanded, “Come out of the man, evil spirit!” And when Jesus asked the evil spirit, “What is your name?” It replied, “Legion is my name, for we are many.” And it kept begging Jesus, not to send them out of that region.

Now a great herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside, and the evil spirits begged him, “Send us to the pigs, and let us go into them.” So Jesus let them go. The evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs, and immediately the herd rushed down the cliff, and all were drowned in the lake. The herdsmen fled, and reported this in the town and the countryside, so all the people came to see what had happened.

They came to Jesus, and saw the man freed of the evil spirits sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the same man who had been possessed by the legion. They were afraid. And when those who had seen it, told what happened to the man and to the pigs, the people begged Jesus to leave their neighbourhood.

When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man, who had been possessed, begged to stay with Him. Jesus would not let him, and said, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.”

So he went throughout the country of Decapolis, telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him; and all the people were astonished.

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Monday, 3 February 2025 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Bishops)

Psalm 30 : 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

How great is the goodness which You have stored for those who fear You, which You show, for all to see, in those who take refuge in You!

In the shelter of Your presence You hide them from human wiles; You keep them in Your dwelling, safe from the intrigues of wagging tongues.

Blessed be the Lord for His wonderful love! He has strengthened my heart.

I said in my fright : “I have been cut off from Your sight!” Yet when I was crying, You heard; when I called for mercy, You listened.

Love the Lord, all you His saints! The Lord preserves His faithful, but He fully requites the arrogant.