holy Popes

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Thursday, 31 December 2015 : Seventh Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of Pope St. Silvester I, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 1 : 1-18

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God; He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing came to be. Whatever has come to be, found life in Him; life, which for human beings, was also light, light that shines in darkness, light that darkness could not overcome.

A man came, sent by God; his name was John. He came to bear witness as a witness to introduce the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but a witness to introduce the Light; for the Light was coming into the world, the true Light that enlightens everyone.

He was in the world, and through Him the world was made, the very world that did not know Him. He came to His own, yet His own people did not receive Him; but to all who received Him, He empowers to become children of God, for they believe in His Name.

These are born, but not by seed, or carnal desire, nor by the will of man : they are born of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we have seen His glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father : fullness of truth and loving kindness.

John bore witness to Him openly, saying, “This is the One who comes after me, but He is already ahead of me, for He was before me.” From His fullness we have all received, favour upon favour. For God had given us the Law through Moses, but Truth and Loving kindness came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, but God-the-Only-Son made Him known : the One, Who is in and with the Father.

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Thursday, 31 December 2015 : Seventh Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of Pope St. Silvester I, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 95 : 1-2, 11-12a, 12b-13

Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name; proclaim His salvation day after day.

Let the heavens be glad, the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields exult and everything in them.

Let the forest, all the trees, sing for joy. Let them sing before the Lord Who comes to judge the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.

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Thursday, 31 December 2015 : Seventh Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of Pope St. Silvester I, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 2 : 18-21

My dear children, it is the last hour. You were told that an antichrist would come : but several antichrists have already come, by which we know that it is now the last hour.

They went out from us though they did not really belong to us, they would have remained with us. So it became clear that not all of us were really ours. But you have the anointing from the Holy One, so that all of you have true wisdom.

I write to you, not because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you already know it, and lies have nothing in common with the truth.

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Friday, 11 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the differences of what God expects, and what men expects. Human expectations and divine expectations often differ in how they clash and in how they are incompatible. The world expects many things, and they are very difficult to please and satisfy, just as the desires of men are great and ever growing.

This was made clear in the Gospel today, in how the prophet and servant of God, John the Baptist came into the world to proclaim the coming of the Messiah, he was seen as a madman whose habits and works resembled those who were uncivilised and barbarous, as he wandered in the desert, eating nothing but wild honey and kept an unkempt appearance.

And then the Lord Jesus when He came into the world, He lived as men were, and He also went to approach the sinners, meeting with them, speaking with them, sitting at a meal with them, eating and drinking together, and through His interactions, He brought the mercy of God upon them. And yet, to the world that is never satisfied, what the Lord Jesus had done was a travesty and horrible to behold.

All these should bring us to the reality that the world is truly hard to please, and will never be pleased at whatever we do as the followers and disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. This world is particularly obsessed with appearances, and they feared those whose actions and appearances do not stand with and do not fall into what they deemed as an appropriate and worthy appearance and behaviour.

This is why, especially in today’s world, a place of ever increasing materialism and commercialism, where greed and desires rule the hearts of men, it is important for us all to stand strong in our faith and not to fall into the trap of sin and the desires and greed of our hearts. We must be careful lest we become subservient to our own desires and become like those who live only to be acceptable to the world.

That was precisely what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done. They lived not for the Lord God or for the people who had been entrusted to them as shepherds to guide, but they lived for themselves, trying to gain the approval of men over the approval of God. Therefore, many of their actions depended on the approval of men, and for the people to look at them and praise their piety, but yet inside their hearts, there is no God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not the path that we all should take. On the contrary, we should heed the examples of Christ our Lord, Who lived not to please the world, but instead to serve the people to whom He had been sent into the world for, to be their Shepherd, their Leader and their King, guiding them to the right paths, and often not worrying about the approval of the world in His actions, but rather serving the truth and seeking the full execution of the truth.

Today we celebrate the feast of a faithful servant of God, Pope St. Damasus I, one of the early Popes, who was a great and pious leader of the faithful, who also did not fear to take certain actions that were unpopular, if these were for the good of the whole Church and for the good of the faithful. He was particularly known for his opposition to heretical teachings such as those espoused by the Arians, and he was also committed to the unity and harmony within the Church.

Pope St. Damasus I helped many segments of the faithful and helped to lay the strong foundation for the Universal Church, fostering active cooperation between the many churches and leaders of the Church, engaging one another actively to help lead the people of God on the way towards their salvation in God. Through his dedication and good works, he had brought about much good for the people of God.

And even though in his position he has the power and great influence over many, but he did not let his ego, human desires or the temptations of Satan to influence his own actions and in how he remained deeply faithful and devoted to the Lord and His ways. He remained humble and all the things that he had done, he did them for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of mankind.

As now we have heard of the examples of Pope St. Damasus I, and in how we also should know how many other saints and faithful servants of our Lord had lived, and heeding the failures and the errors of those who came before us, let us all commit ourselves to renew our faith through action and by our deeds that show our faith in the Lord, by staying true to Him even amidst all the difficult temptations of the world and the persuasions of Satan.

May Almighty God be with us always, and may He always guide our paths, so that we will be able to stay true to our faith, and stand up proudly to defend it and to profess it amidst a world shrouded in darkness. May the light of the Lord, shown through us and our actions, be able to light the path to the salvation in God to one another, and by our works may we bring as many souls as possible to the eternal life in Christ. Amen.

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Friday, 11 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Matthew 11 : 16-19

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples and to the people, “Now, to what can I compare the people of this day? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, about whom their companions complain : ‘We played the flute for you, but you would not dance. We sang a funeral song, but you would not cry!'”

“For John came fasting, and people said, ‘He is possessed.’ Then the Son of Man came, He ate and drank, and people said, ‘Look at this Man! A glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet the outcome will prove Wisdom to be right.”

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Friday, 11 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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Friday, 11 December 2015 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Isaiah 48 : 17-19

Thus says YHVH, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel : I, YHVH, your God, teach you what is best for you; I lead you in the way that you must go. Had you paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Your descendants would have been like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, their names never cut off nor blotted out from My presence.

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Monday, 23 November 2015.: 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr and St. Columban, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the Scripture readings which highlighted the fact that giving should come from the heart, and that from a purity of heart, one can give enormously in terms of the righteousness and light that emanates from those who are righteous, just and good in the eyes of the Lord.

In the first reading, we heard the beginning of the narrative of the story of Daniel the prophet and servant of God, who was called and chosen from among the many exiles of Israel at the time of their Babylonian exile, and he was blessed by God, for his faith and devotion to God, through his never ending commitment to the ways of the Lord, and God blessed him to show an example to the nations that He is the one and only True God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the choice facing Daniel and his friends are the same choices which all of us are facing on daily basis. It is a choice between following the way of righteousness of our Lord, following His commandments and laws, and obeying all the tenets and precepts as taught by the Sacred Scriptures. The other option is for us to disobey the Lord and follow our own desires, living without the bounds of the Law.

It is a choice for us whether we lead a life filled with the purity of love, of care for others, commitment to peace and harmony between peoples and nations, and leading a life filled with faith and joy knowing that we have lived in accordance to God and His words, or we can choose to live a life filled with the worldly pleasures of gluttony and greed, of hatred and jealousy, of insatiable desire and selfishness.

And in this, we should heed the examples of the poor widow as shown and told by our Lord Jesus Himself, as He related the parable to His disciples, about a poor widow who even though gave only two pieces of small coins, but she sincerely gave them for the Lord, without even worrying about what she would do without these coins which would be essential for her own livelihood and survival.

Jesus did not mean to mark a difference or distinguish between the rich and the poor, between the privileged and those who have little or none. On the other hand, He wanted to point out that to have faith in the Lord require much effort and much devotion, commitment and hard work on our part, by giving of ourselves unconditionally and with complete confidence in God.

Many of us are often distracted by the many worldly goods and things that kept us away from truly being able to give ourselves fully to the Lord, and many of these things tempted us away from the true goal that is to reach out to salvation in our Lord. It is in our nature to be easily lured away and tempted by these pleasures and goods of the world, which the evil one is using to his full advantage to prevent us from being saved and fall into damnation.

Therefore, all of us ought to follow the examples of the two saints, faithful men whose lives are an inspiration to us all, namely the lives of St. Columban the Abbot, and Pope St. Clement I, one of the first Popes and a martyr of the Holy Church and a defender of his Faith in God. Both of these saints have lived through times both good and evil, and they have lived their lives faithfully and had had their faith tested through many trials.

Pope St. Clement I was one of the first Bishops of Rome, the successors of St. Peter the Apostle, the first Pope and Vicar of Christ. As the leader of both the growing local Church in the heart of the Roman Empire and as the leader of the whole Universal Church, Pope St. Clement I toiled and laboured hard for the sake of the Lord, and for the sake of His people.

He wrote extensively, and in His many writings, He encouraged the faithful of the Church all over the world to follow closely to the teachings of Christ found in the Church, and amidst persecutions of the faithful, he continued to inspire many of the people of God to walk courageously in faith, and he led by example, when he himself was arrested and imprisoned, he continued to defend his faith in God passionately. Yes, even unto death.

Meanwhile, St. Columban was a religious monk whose life was truly exemplary, filled with prayers and great spiritual focus on the Lord. He advocated the faithful to be true to their faith, and seek to be forgiven from their sins and mistakes through the use of confession by priests. He was one of the first to encourage regular confession before priests to ensure that our souls are clean from the taints of sin.

These two holy men led an example through their own respective lives, and there are many things which they had done that we can also emulate for ourselves. Indeed, let us all heed their examples, and show the same actions in our own lives as well. It is time for us to commit ourselves more to the Lord and walk ever more faithfully in His ways. May God be with us all, and may through the intercession of Pope St. Clement I and St. Columban the Abbot, we may be brought closer to God’s holy presence. Amen.

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Monday, 23 November 2015.: 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr and St. Columban, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

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

Luke 21 : 1-4

At that time, Jesus looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury of the Temple. He also saw a poor widow, who dropped in two small coins. And He said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them. For all of them gave an offering from their plenty; but she, out of her poverty, gave all she had to live on.”

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Monday, 23 November 2015.: 34th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr and St. Columban, Abbot (Psalm)

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

Daniel 3 : 52a, 53, 54, 55, 56

Blessed are You, Lord, God of our fathers, be praised and exalted forever.

Blessed are You in the Temple of Your sacred glory, Your praises are sung forever.

Blessed are You on the throne of Your kingdom, honoured and glorified forever.

Blessed are You Who fathom the depths, Who are enthroned on the Cherubim, praised and exalted forever.

Blessed are You in the firmament of Heaven, praised and glorified forever.