holy priests

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Tuesday, 28 April 2026 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the call and responsibilities that each and every one of us have as Christians in proclaiming the truth of God to more and more people around us, to all those who have not yet heard of Him and those who have yet to know Him. All of us are called to be the bearers of God’s truth and love to the world, through our every words, actions and deeds. All of us ought to proclaim our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, and everything that He had done for us, in bringing us all out of the darkness and into the light, in saving us all from the threat of eternal damnation and death by freeing us from our sins. As Christians, each and every one of us are called and reminded to be good and faithful missionaries through our lives and our good examples.

In our first reading today, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard of the continuing growth of the early Church, as there were more and more people who came to believe in the Lord and became believers, were baptised and welcomed into the community of the Christian faithful. It was told how the Apostles sent St. Barnabas to Antioch upon hearing of the vibrant and rapid growth of Christians in those regions, and despite the many challenges, trials, persecutions and hardships that they faced, it was said that the Lord was with His disciples and faithful ones, as He guided and strengthened them, protected and provided them throughout their journey of faith and life. The Apostles through St. Barnabas ministered to the Christian faithful, spreading the Good News of God and proclaiming His truth, calling on many to turn towards the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

The Lord has shown us all His faithfulness and love through this, and through many more examples, as He was with them all through even the most difficult and challenging moments, as a Good Shepherd guiding His beloved sheep in His flock, as we heard in our Gospel passage today. He cared for them, for their needs and provided for them, guarded and protected them, and gave them the love and attention, leading them from the darkness of this world into the true Light of His glory and truth. All of us are reminded that Christ is truly our Good Shepherd, the most loving Lord and God Who has showered and shown us His most generous love and attention, Who knows each and every one of us very well, and Who wants all of us to follow Him and become members of His flock, as Christians, those whom the people of Antioch called as such because of their belief in the Risen Christ.

Now, all of us are reminded today if we have lived our lives as the Lord has taught us to do, and whether we have committed our time and effort to glorify Him by our lives. As Christians, we are all those who have committed ourselves to the Risen Lord, Whom we have taken as our Lord, Master and Saviour. However, if we spend some time to look deep into ourselves and our way of life, very soon we may realise that it was often that we did not act in the way that the Lord has called and expected us to do, and on the contrary, we often acted in ways that were contrary to His teachings and truth. Many of us failed to embrace His path wholeheartedly and not only that, but often through our wayward actions and way of life, we turned people away from the Lord and His Church, because our actions, words and deeds, our way of life were abhorrent and against what our faith truly is.

That is why today all of us are reminded that as Christians all of us must first of all do what the Lord has commanded and taught us to do, to be devoted and committed to Him in all things. Each and every one of us have been given the gifts, grace and blessings, the opportunities and the abilities to carry out our respective parts in doing the work of God, to be faithful and committed in our lives as Christians. All of us should do our best and strive to be good role models, inspirations and examples to one another in our faith and way of life. For we have to realise that it is by our works and deeds, by our words and interactions with others that we may let the world know of the truth and the identity of Our Lord and Saviour, the One Whom we ought to be proclaiming about. But too often we allowed ourselves to be tempted by various temptations, and chose to walk the path of wickedness and evil instead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore today, all of us are also reminded of more good examples of our holy predecessors to follow, in the two saints whose feasts we celebrate. St. Peter Chanel and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort are two great servants of God who have dedicated themselves to the service of God, in proclaiming His truth and Good News to many of their fellow brethren. St. Peter Chanel was a renowned missionary, who ministered to the people in many mission areas, which led him to Futuna in distant part of the vast Pacific Ocean region. There he ministered to the people who had not yet known about Christ and evangelised to them, preaching about the Risen Lord to the people of Futuna, which eventually led to the desire for the local king’s son to be baptised, which led to the martyrdom of this good servant of God, persecuted and murdered for his faith and efforts.

Meanwhile, St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort was the inspiration and founder behind the many Montfortian organisations present today, known for his dedication and passion for his ministry, in taking care of the needs the less privileged, the poor and the sick, and in the countless hours and efforts that he spent in taking care of them, both physically and spiritually. He was also known for his efforts in the Catholic education, caring for the needs of young boys and girls to be properly educated, establishing schools and institutions in order to allow this to happen. Through all these works, St. Louis Marie brought quite a lot of people from the brink of darkness and destruction back into God’s Light, and helped them to find the path to salvation. We too should be inspired by his great examples to bring more and more people ever closer to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by their good examples, and do whatever we can as Christians, in order to do God’s will and to proclaim His truth and Good News to more and more of those whom we encounter in our daily living. Let our lives and actions, our words and interactions be good and exemplary, worthy and bring inspiration to others who witness our works and interacted with us, that they too may be moved and driven to follow the Lord and to believe in Him as we had done in our own lives. May God be with us always, and be with His Church in our every endeavours and efforts to proclaim Him, the one and only Saviour of all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 28 April 2026 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 10 : 22-30

At that time, the time came for the Feast of the Dedication. It was winter, and Jesus walked back and forth in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around Him and said to Him, “How long will You keep us in doubt? If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Jesus answered, “I have already told you, but you do not believe. The works I do in My Father’s Name proclaim Who I am, but you do not believe because, as I said, you are not My sheep. My sheep hear My voice and I know them; they follow Me and I give them eternal life.”

“They shall never perish, and no one will ever steal them from Me. What the Father has given Me is above everything else, and no one can snatch it from out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.”

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Tuesday, 28 April 2026 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 86 : 1-3, 4-5, 6-7

He Himself has built it in His holy mountain; the Lord prefers the gates of Zion to all of Jacob’s towns. Great things have been foretold of you, o city of God.

Between friends we speak of Egypt and Babylon; and also Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia : “Here so-and-so was born.” But of Zion it shall be said, “More and more are being born in her.” For the Most High Himself has founded her.

And the Lord notes in the people’s register : “All these were also born in Zion.” And all will dance and sing joyfully for You.

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Tuesday, 28 April 2026 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 11 : 19-26

Those who had been scattered because of the persecution over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message, but only to the Jews. But there were some natives of Cyprus and Cyrene among them who, on coming into Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, giving them the Good News of the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favour, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; for he himself was a good man filled with Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord.

Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

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Friday, 24 April 2026 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each and every one of us are reminded that as Christians we have been called and chosen from this world to follow what the Lord Himself has revealed to all of us through His Church and through the Good News contained in the Scriptures. Each and every one of us have been made partakers of the New and Eternal Covenant that the Lord Himself had established with us through His Son, by His Passion, suffering and death on the Cross, and by His Resurrection from the dead. All of us as Christians have confessed our faith in all of these truths, and we have been called to listen to these same truths and commit ourselves to proclaim the Good News to others.

As we heard from our Gospel passage today, we proclaim the same truth that the Lord Jesus Himself has revealed to all of the people He was speaking to, as He continued His discourse on Him being the ‘Bread of Life’ and the ‘Living Bread’ Who has come down from Heaven. The Lord told them all these not long after He had fed the multitudes of thousands of men and many thousands of women and children with the miraculous multiplication of loaves of bread and fishes. He told them all these because many of those people were seeking for Him because they were happy and satisfied as they were all well fed and received sustenance, but they were still lacking true and genuine faith in Him.

This means that many of them were still seeking Him for other motives and reasons that are not truly sincere, and many likely were trying to satisfy their own worldly needs and even greed. Hence, the Lord told them all that what He would give them, is that of the perfect gift surpassing what they had received earlier on, that is none other than the gift of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, to be sacrificed, offered and broken for them, just in the manner that He had blessed, broken and shared with them all the bread and the fishes from the earlier miracle. But this time, what the people would receive, is not merely just bread and is something surpassing even the bread of the Angels, the manna, that the Israelites ate in the past.

The Lord essentially foretold what He Himself would do for the sake of everyone whom He loved and cared about. He foretold His own suffering and death on the Cross, and His gift of His own Precious Body and Blood for everyone. At the Last Supper, just before the Lord was about to enter into His Passion or suffering, He gathered all of His disciples and had the Passover meal with them, at which time He instituted the Most Holy Eucharist, the bread and wine which He blessed and then shared with His disciples, as the gift of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood. All those were completed as He took His Cross and suffered on His Cross, and as the Lamb of God laid dying on the Cross, what the disciples had partaken, have indeed been the Lord’s own Body and Blood.

This is what our Christian faith is all about, as we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour, and He has come into our midst as the perfect manifestation of God’s love and ever enduring compassion and mercy for us. The Lord has willingly chosen to embrace us with His perfect love, enduring the worst and most bitter of sufferings, rejections, humiliations and trials, so that by His suffering, pain, wounds and eventually death, He might free and deliver us from the tyranny and domination of our sins. By His perfect obedience, as the Son of Man and Son of God, He has shown us all the path to eternal life and salvation, and reminding us that sin is borne out of our disobedience against God and His will. And by His offering and sacrifice as our Paschal Lamb, He has offered the only worthy sacrifice and offering for all of the multitudes of our sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have been called and chosen by God to be His disciples and followers, and we have also received the grace of knowing and understanding His truth, just as He had done to one of His greatest enemies, as we heard in our first reading today, namely that of Saul, the young Pharisee. Saul, who would later on be known as St. Paul the Apostle, was a young and fanatical member of the Pharisee who persecuted many early Christians, launching a great hunt and campaign to destroy the Church and the holy people of God, causing untold miseries and sufferings, as many of the early Christians were arrested, persecuted and even martyred due to the works of Saul.

But God called that same young man, and called him to the path of salvation and truth, as He revealed just how wayward and misled his path had been to Saul himself. Saul was converted, and through baptism, he became a new man, and dedicated himself to serve the Lord from then onwards. From someone who had often caused misery and suffering amongst the people of God, greatly feared and was a great sinner, the Lord had turned him into one of his greatest champions and defenders, into a holy and devout man that dedicated his whole life to the proclaiming and spread of the Good News of the Lord, enduring untold sufferings, pains, rejections, humiliations just as the Lord Himself had suffered all those.

Today we also celebrate the memory of one of the holy and faithful saints, namely St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen. St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen was a priest who ministered to the faithful in many parts of Switzerland as a Capuchin friar, at the forefront of the Counter-Reformation efforts. St. Fidelis courageously and patiently spoke of the truth of the Lord against the Calvinists who rejected the truth of God, particularly in what the Lord Himself had stated it clearly today, of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. St. Fidelis ministered to the people faithfully and managed to gain a great number of converts, which angered the Calvinists who saw him as a great threat to their community and their misguided faith. As such they plotted against him and tried to find ways to destroy him. St. Fidelis himself according to tradition had known of what would happen to him, and surrendered himself to the Lord, entrusting himself completely into His hands, as Calvinist soldiers struck at him and murdered him when he refused to abandon his true faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, his faith and dedication to the Lord, his efforts to proclaim the Lord’s Real Presence in the Eucharist just as we heard the Lord Himself clearly saying about this same fact to the people and to His disciples in our Gospel today, and how he and many other saints and martyrs, from the days of the Apostles to this very day, have dedicated themselves to proclaim the same truth and Good News, we are all hence reminded that as members and parts of the Church each and every one of us also have the same share in the calling and mission entrusted to us by God. But are we willing to commit ourselves in the manner that the Apostles, the saints and martyrs, like how St. Fidelis had committed himself and his own life?

Let us all therefore be good role models and examples ourselves to one another, to all those whom we encounter in life, so that by our every words, actions and deeds, and most of all throuhgh our sincere and loving devotion to God, our sincere and genuine belief in His Real Presence in the Eucharist, in our Bread of Life, and also in our generous love for our brothers and sisters, especially to those most beloved and dearest to us, we may indeed show our Christian faith to everyone whom we encounter in each and every moments of our lives. May God bless us always and may He continue to strengthen us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 24 April 2026 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 6 : 52-59

At that time, the Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this Man give us flesh to eat?” So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you. The one who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood lives eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

“My Flesh is really food, and My Blood is truly drink. Those who eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, lives in Me, and I in them. Just as the Father, Who is life, sent Me, and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats Me will have life from Me. This is the Bread which came from heaven; not like that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this Bread will live forever.”

Jesus spoke in this way in Capernaum when He taught them in the synagogue.

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Friday, 24 April 2026 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 116 : 1, 2

Alleluia! Praise the Lord, all you nations; all you peoples, praise Him.

How great is His love for us! His faithfulness lasts forever.

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Friday, 24 April 2026 : 3rd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 9 : 1-20

Meanwhile Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorise him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.

As he travelled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?” And he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus Whom you persecute. Now get up and go into the city; there you will be told what you are to do.”

The men who were travelling with him stood there speechless : they had heard the sound, but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. He was blind and he did not eat or drink for three days.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” Then the Lord said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him praying, for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ananias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”

Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem, and now he is here with authority from the High Priest to arrest all who call upon Your Name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is My chosen instrument to bring My Name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well. I Myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for My Name.”

So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you so that you may receive your sight and be filled with Holy Spirit.” Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptised. Then he took food and was strengthened.

For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.

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Saturday, 31 January 2026 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (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 and as we all reflect and ponder upon its meaning and truth, let us all spend some time remembering just how wonderful God’s love and mercy is for all of us, that even when we have sinned against Him, He has always been rich in mercy, compassion and forgiveness, in wanting to embrace us all with His great love, to bring us all back to Himself, to gather us all, His beloved and yet lost sheep scattered all throughout the world, and He has always been welcoming and kind in reaching out to us, as our most loving and patient Good Shepherd, calling all of us to return to Him, giving us the assurance of His most generous and compassionate love.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Samuel, we heard of the continuation of yesterday’s story of the time when King David of Israel, the king whom God had blessed and secured in his position as king and ruler over all of Israel, in which on one occasion he encountered the beautiful wife of his own captain of the guard, Uriah the Hittite, a woman named Bathsheba, whom we may also know as the one who would become the mother of the famous King Solomon, David’s son who would become his eventual successor. At that time, Bathsheba was still married and the wife of Uriah, and we heard how David was tempted upon seeing Bathsheba which led them to commit sin of adultery before the Lord. We can see from this how even the faithful and famous King David himself was also a sinner and was able to fall into sin during his life.

And not only that, but David tried to conceal the fact and settle the problem by trying to make Uriah to sleep with his wife so that her pregnancy with David would not be discovered and a great disgrace be known to everyone. But Uriah did not do all that, and in the end, David plotted for Uriah’s death by purposely placing him at the frontline of the battle, which then led to his death and then David was free to take Bathsheba as his own wife. Through all of these that we have heard from today’s story of David’s life and this particular incident, and what happened afterwards, we can see how dangerous sin and its allures can be, and how weak our flesh can be, in the face of temptations and sin, which can lead us to commit ever greater mistakes and faults in life.

Yet, despite all of that, God eventually still forgave David after He had chastised him through the prophet Nathan as we heard in our first reading passage today, as unlike his predecessor Saul who doubled down on his sins and disobedience, David was truly repentant after the prophet Nathan pointed out his mistakes to him. This is also therefore an example of how sometimes we may not realise that we are in the wrong, especially when we allow ourselves to be swayed and deluded by the temptations and sins around us. God is however all loving and forgiving, and He wants to forgive us all should we truly seek His forgiveness and mercy, and He never stops any one of us from coming towards Him to be forgiven and loved fully and completely once again. What matters is that we should realise our errors and faults, doing our very best to improve ourselves and seek God’s forgiveness, mercy and love.

We must also take note that although David had committed sin with Bathsheba, God did not forbid them to be together, but instead, transforming both of them to be part of His Divine plan as mentioned. This aligned with what I have highlighted earlier on that our Church and therefore the Kingdom of God is not the gathering place for the perfect and the ones without sin or fault, but rather as often mentioned, is a ‘hospital for sinners’. God gathers everyone that He loves, all of us, without any bias, prejudice or exceptions, and He does not reject anyone, no matter how sinful they have been. Even the worst sinners are still beneficiaries of God’s most wonderful love and mercy, which He always extends to all those who seek them.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the account of the moment and time when the Lord Jesus and His disciples were travelling in the lake, likely the Lake of Galilee and they were all afflicted by the terrible storm, waves and wind that battered their boat. We heard how the disciples were all terrified, scared that their boat would capsize and would go under all those waves. And yet, then we heard how the Lord reassured them all and showed them His power and might, calming the storm with the mere command of His words, and everything was well again. The disciples were all naturally astonished and surprised at the turn of events, the great miracle that the Lord Himself has shown them.

Linking to what we have heard from our first reading earlier about what happened to King David, we are reminded that this storm, all the waves and the wind that battered the disciples in the boat are just like the temptations, sins and darkness present all around us, all the uncertainties of our lives and everything which made us all to lose our faith and trust in the world. But as we have seen, God has the answer to all of our troubles, and if we only hold firmly onto Him as our anchor and steady guide in life, He will rescue us and help us all out of our predicaments, because ultimately we must realise that God loves us all so generously and wonderfully, each and every one of us.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is right and just for us to follow the Lord once again more wholeheartedly, and learn to commit ourselves to Him once again, to the best of our abilities despite our flaws and sins. Today, we can model ourselves based on the great examples which our holy predecessor, St. John Bosco, a great priest of the Lord and holy man of God, whose feast we celebrate today, have done. St. John Bosco was remembered greatly for his great piety, love and dedication to God, as well as for his great love and compassionate care for those whom he encountered in the midst of his missions and works, as a priest and most well-known in his role as one who initiated and was in charge of an outreach to the underprivileged youth, those juveniles and teenagers who had none to lead and guide them to the right path.

St. John Bosco helped to get them proper education and place to stay for those who were orphaned and homeless, and cared for their spiritual, mental and material needs. He dedicated much of his time to touch the lives of the underprivileged, and inspired many others to begin similar initiatives, resulting in the blooming of many institutions of Christian education that benefitted especially the underprivileged youths, and in particular underprivileged girls. The faith, dedication and commitment which St. John Bosco has shown us should inspire us all as well in our lives so that hopefully we may also become good sources of inspiration and hope for many others whom we encounter and all those who have witnessed our actions and works.

May the Lord continue to guide us all and bless our many good works and efforts in following Him ever more wholeheartedly in all things and at all times. God has always been generous in loving us and we all should appreciate everything that He has always done for us, in calling on all of us to return to Him and to His loving Presence. Let us all be therefore good and worthy witnesses of His truth, bear with courage and confidence the Good News and all that He has presented and taught to us in our world today. May our actions, words and deeds are truly worthy of being good Christian disciples and followers in all things and at all times. Amen.

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Saturday, 31 January 2026 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 4 : 35-41

At that time, on that same day, when evening had come, Jesus said to His disciples, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they left the crowd, and took Him along in the boat He had been sitting in, and other boats set out with Him. Then a storm gathered and it began to blow a gale. The waves spilled over into the boat, so that it was soon filled with water. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

They woke Him up, and said, “Master, do You not care if we drown?” And rising up, Jesus rebuked the wind, and ordered the sea, “Quiet now! Be still!” The wind dropped, and there was a great calm. Then Jesus said to them, “Why are you so frightened? Do you still have no faith?”

But they were terrified, and they said to one another, “Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey Him!”