holy virgins

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Saturday, 6 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for each and every one of us as Christians, as God’s holy people to be truly obedient to God and to follow Him wholeheartedly in all of our lives. It is part of our Christian obligation and calling for us to do what God has commanded and told us all to do, and to leave behind our past, sinful way of life which are not in accordance with God’s will. If we profess to be a Christian, as someone who believes in Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and yet, in our attitudes and behaviours, in our words, actions and deeds, we do things that are contrary to our beliefs, then we are truly hypocrites and no better than unbelievers.

In our first reading today, we heard the continuation of the passage from the Book of the prophet Amos in which after almost a week hearing about the anger of God and the punishments which God would bring upon His people, the Israelites living in the northern kingdom of Israel, we now heard of the promises of God’s salvation and redemption for His people, the same ones that He had chastised and punished. In what we have heard in our first reading passage, the Lord promised that He would restore all the destroyed places and towns of His people, restoring them into His favour and blessing, giving them once again the promises and inheritance that He has given to their ancestors, but which those ancestors and people had spurned and rejected out of disobedience and sin, through their stubbornness and wickedness.

God showed His love, compassion and mercy to His beloved ones, just like that of a father caring for his children, and we are all truly God’s beloved children, the ones whom He had created out of love, taken upon Himself to be His own people, to be loved and cared dearly by Him, and to receive the fullness of His grace and love. But at the same time, because we as His children had become wayward and disobedient in our way of life, in our actions, words and deeds, then just like a father disciplines his children to ensure that the children grew up well and did not turn out to be a delinquent and failure, thus, God, our loving Father, Creator and Master had also disciplined us, chastising us and making us to understand that as His beloved children, His disciples and His followers, all of us must adhere to His ways and act according to His Law and commandments.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the parable which the Lord Jesus presented to His disciples and followers, and to all the people listening to Him, telling them about the wine and the wineskin, and the cloth used to patch a hole in a piece of cloth. In both parables, the Lord spoke about how new wine must be stored in new wineskin, while old wine must be stored in old wineskin, while new cloth should be used to patch a new piece of cloth, and correspondingly, an old cloth ought to be used to patch a hole in an old cloth. All these were meant to deliver the message that the old ways were meant to be lived in the manner how they were in the past, but with the advent and the coming of the new truth and revelation of the Lord, the people had to adopt the new path and ways shown to them by the Lord Himself.

Just prior to the Lord speaking in these parables, the disciples of St. John the Baptist had been asking the Lord the question about why they and the Pharisees followed strictly the laws of fasting that were dictated by the Jewish laws and customs, but the Lord’s own disciples did not follow the same ways, and instead embarked on their own path as shown by the Lord. This was when the Lord used the parables to explain that, in truth, while the laws and customs practiced by the people of God had been done and practiced for a long time, but in the end, what God desired from His people is something that is better than all those obedience to the laws and customs of the past, which were imperfect and even misunderstood by the people of God, which led to them not doing as the Lord had wanted them to do, and also failing to realise the true intention and purpose of such laws.

For example, the law on fasting is meant to teach the people of God to restrain themselves in their lives so that they might learn temperance and resist the temptations of worldly desires and pleasures, and that they may come to focus better and more on the Lord, their God and Master. However, many among the people of God, especially those of the Pharisees instead carried out their fasting with the intention to be seen and praised by others around them, by making their fasting well-known and such a pompous activity that it had become deviant and misled from the true path which God had wanted His people to walk through. Instead, they fell into the path of temptation of their own ego, ambition and desire, and the Lord wanted to tell them that this was not the way that they and all of us ought to take in our lives.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Maria Goretti, great and holy servant of God, a champion of virtue and chastity, compassion and mercy, whose life while short, was truly filled with virtue, and her martyrdom, in defending her virtues and righteousness, her purity and sanctity, is something that has inspired many people of her generation and afterwards. St. Maria Goretti was born in a rather large family with seven children, with St. Maria Goretti herself being the third of the seven children. Her family was poor, and after her father passed away when she was still young, her mother had to bring them to live with another family, the Serenellis, in order to provide for her many children. It was at this household that the young and pious St. Maria Goretti encountered Alessandro Serenelli, the son of the owner family.

At one time, when the young St. Maria Goretti, who was only eleven years old was outside the house, and there was no one else in the house, Alessandro Serenelli came to her and threatened to stab her with his awl if she did not do as what he wanted, and Alessandro was intending to rape her. St. Maria Goretti refused to obey Alessandro’s commands and demands, struggling and screaming, pleading with Alessandro in vain that it was a great sin against God to do as he had planned to commit. In a fit of anger, Alessandro choked and then stabbed St. Maria Goretti a total of fourteen times, and then a few more times afterwards before running away after witnessing what he had done. St. Maria Goretti passed away shortly afterwards in the presence of her mother and family in the hospital, but before she died, she told her mother that she has forgiven Alessandro and wanted to have him in Heaven with her.

Through the years afterwards, when Alessandro was arrested shortly after the event, it was told that St. Maria Goretti appeared to Alessandro himself in prison in a dream, and eventually this made him to repent from his sins, begging forgiveness from the mother of St. Maria Goretti, who forgave her and later on, the same Alessandro after he was released from his incarceration, eventually became a lay brother of the Capuchin Franciscan friars in the community, living in the monastery, ever repentant and regretful of the vicious deeds he had done, and committed the rest of his life in prayerful and dedicated life to God. He also attended the canonisation ceremony of St. Maria Goretti together with her mother. In this story of St. Maria Goretti, her courage and martyrdom, we are all reminded of what we are all expected to do as Christians, to live courageously in faith, and to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore renew our commitment henceforth to the Lord our God, doing whatever we can so that in our every words, actions and deeds, in our every moments in life, we will always be truly worthy of the Lord. Let us all continue to walk ever more faithfully in God’s path, remembering the love and mercy that He has shown us, and like St. Maria Goretti, let us all show the same love and mercy to one another, and love the Lord our God with all of our strength and might, now and always, that one day, we may truly be worthy to receive the fullness of inheritance that God had promised to all of us. Amen.

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Saturday, 6 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Matthew 9 : 14-17

At that time, the disciples of John came to Jesus with the question, “How is it, that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not Your disciples?”

Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast.”

“No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole in the coat. In the same way, you do not put new wine into old wine skins. If you do, the wine skins will burst and the wine will be spilt. No, you put new wine into fresh skins; then both are preserved.”

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Saturday, 6 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Psalm 84 : 9, 11-12, 13-14

Would, that I hear God’s proclamation, that He promise peace to His people, His saints – lest they come back to their folly.

Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.

YHVH will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.

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Saturday, 6 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Amos 9 : 11-15

On that day, I shall restore the fallen hut of David and wall up its breaches, and raise its ruined walls; and so built it as in days of old. They shall conquer the remnant of Edom, and the neighbouring nations, upon which My Name has been called.” Thus says YHVH, the One Who will do this.

YHVH says also, “The days are coming when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes overtake the sower. The mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall melt. I shall bring back the exiles of My people Israel; they will rebuild the desolate cities and dwell in them.”

“They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will have orchards and eat their fruit. I shall plant them in their own country and they shall never again be rooted up from the land which I have given them,” says YHVH your God.

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Saturday, 25 May 2024 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church, Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope, and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests, Popes and Holy Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we continue to listen to the words from the Sacred Scriptures, we are again constantly being reminded of the need for us all as Christians to be truly genuine in our faith and obedience to God. We should not be hypocrites who profess to believe in God and yet in our daily living, in how we live our lives, in how we act and behave, in what we say and do, we do not truly believe in the Lord, and we even sully and profane His Holy Name because our actions had been contrary to what we believe in, to our Christian faith and calling.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. James in which the Apostle continued with his exhortations to the people of God that we have heard in the past one or two weeks, as he told the people not to give in to the many temptations of the world, highlighting the fact that all those temptations had led to many people to fall into the path of sin and destruction, which leads only to damnation and suffering for us, and that was why the Apostle exhorted all the faithful to stay away from the path of temptation, disobedience and sin, all the things which could lead the people astray from truth and therefore into their downfall and defeat.

St. James told the faithful to stay rooted in their faith in God and to have genuine relationship and connection with God. Through prayer and the building of genuine commitment and relationship with God, we mankind can continue to live through our lives with renewed faith and that important connection that can help anchor us all in the faith. We must use the many opportunities, chances and moments that the Lord had given us so that we may build and establish a truly vibrant and living relationship with Him, strengthened through prayer and quality time, and through the faithful living of our lives as Christians.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples, reminding them all to be like little children in their faith. He was making this reference because they had been fighting and quarrelling with each other over favour and preference by the Lord, debating and disagreeing among themselves who among them was the greatest and the most important among the Lord’s followers. The Lord contrasted those attitudes with the pure faith of little children, who truly believe in the Lord and put themselves completely in His care, and not allowing themselves to be swayed by the temptations of the world.

Today, the Church also celebrates the feast of not just one but three holy saints of the Church, and these holy men and women hopefully can encourage us all through their exemplary lives so that by their good examples, we may indeed be strengthened in our resolve and commitment to follow their examples and live our lives ever more worthily in the Lord. First of all, St. Bede the Venerable was an English saint and remembered for his numerous writings and works on history as well as other Church matters, and then Pope St. Gregory VII was the leader and Pope of the Church, known for his role in the Investiture Controversy against the Holy Roman Emperor and his reforms of the Church, and lastly St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi who was a renowned Carmelite nun and mystic during the late Renaissance era.

St. Bede the Venerable was raised from young in a monastic area during the Anglo-Saxon period of England and its surrounding regions, eventually becoming a monk, ordained deacon and eventually as a priest, to be a faithful and good servant of God and His Church. As mentioned, St. Bede was well-known for his numerous writings and intellectual works, through which he chronicled not just many aspects of history of the British Isles and the general region, history of the world and other things, but his many writings and translations of the Scriptures were very influential in helping many generations of the Christian faithful in the British Isles and beyond after his time.

Pope St. Gregory VII as mentioned was embroiled in the bitter Investiture Controversy that had lasted for quite some time between the Church authorities and the secular powers of the world, with the Pope leading the Church on one side, while the Holy Roman Emperor entrusted with power and rule over all of Christendom on the other side. The Holy Roman Emperor, while crowned and anointed by the Pope to be the God-appointed ruler of all Christendom, began claiming the power to choose the bishops and prelates over the lands under his dominion as well, which was something that the Pope reserved to himself as the Vicar of Christ.

Thus, this led to a lot of struggles and disagreements, with the Holy Roman Emperors even appointing their own rival Antipopes to be the rival of the Popes in Rome, and to cast doubt on their authority, while trying to bring the Popes under Imperial dominion, power and influence. Pope St. Gregory VII laboured hard to oppose this intrusion of secular power into the spiritual and Church domain, rights and privileges, and he also spent a lot of time and efforts to reform the Church and its clergy, many of whom had fallen to corruption and excesses of the world. The Lord did many truly great things through this holy Pope and servant, who had dedicated himself thoroughly to His cause.

St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi was born into a very wealthy and influential family in what is today Italy, and since young, she had been brought up in great piety, and she soon exhibited great love and commitment to God, practicing self-mortification and wearing even a replica of the crown of thorns and other means to restrain her own worldly desires and temptations, while at the same time beginning to experience visions and mystical experiences that she would receive and encounter throughout her whole life. Eventually, after resisting her family’s effort to marry her to another nobleman, St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi joined religious life, dedicating her whole life to God, experiencing many visions and writing down her experiences, through which she inspired many others who were touched by her experiences.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard from the great examples of these three saints, holy men and women of God, in how they dedicated themselves and their whole lives to the Lord, let us all therefore strive to do our best to follow in their footsteps and to carry out whatever it is that God has entrusted to us to do so that by our every lives, actions and deeds, in our whole entire way of living, we may truly be worthy and will be great inspiration ourselves for all those who have witnessed us and our lives. Let us resist the temptations of worldly glory and desires, and the temptations of our ego, ambition, pride and other things that can lead us down the path towards our downfall. May God be with us always, and may He empower each one of us to live ever more faithfully in each and every moments of our lives. Amen.

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Saturday, 25 May 2024 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church, Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope, and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests, Popes and Holy Virgins)

Mark 10 : 13-16

At that time, people were bringing their little children to Jesus to have Him touch them, and the disciples rebuked them for this. When Jesus noticed it, He was very angry and said, “Let the children come to Me and do not stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”

Then He took the children in His arms and, laying His hands on them, blessed them.

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Saturday, 25 May 2024 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church, Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope, and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests, Popes and Holy Virgins)

Psalm 140 : 1-2, 3 and 8

Lord, I call on You, hasten to help me! Listen to my plea when I call to You. Let my prayer rise to You, like incense; as I lift up my hands, as in an evening sacrifice.

O YHVH, set a guard at my mouth; keep watch at the gate of my lips. But my eyes are turned to You, o God, my YHVH; strip me not of life, for You are my refuge.

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Saturday, 25 May 2024 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church, Pope St. Gregory VII, Pope, and St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests, Popes and Holy Virgins)

James 5 : 13-20

Are any among you, discouraged? They should pray. Are any of you happy? They should sing songs to God. If anyone is sick, let him call on the elders of the Church. They shall pray for him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord. The prayer said in faith will save the sick person; the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.

There will be healing, if you confess your sins to one another, and pray for each other. The prayer of the upright man has great power, provided he perseveres. Elijah was a human being, like ourselves, and when he prayed, earnestly, for it not to rain, no rain fell for three and a half years. Then he prayed again : the sky yielded rain and the earth produced its fruit.

Brothers, if any one of you strays far away from the truth, and another person brings him back to it, be sure of this : he who brings back a sinner from the wrong way, will save his soul from death and win forgiveness for many sins.

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Monday, 29 April 2024 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all listened to the Scripture readings today, we are all reminded of the need for all of us to remember that God is truly the centre and focus of our whole lives and existence. Each and every one of us as Christians must always remember that God is the reason for our existence in this world, and everything we have and all of our blessings and graces all originated from Him. It is important therefore that we must always remember that we should not be easily tempted by the corruptions of the world, all the temptations of pleasure, worldly glory and all the other things which may impede our path towards the Lord’s grace and salvation, and which may lead us down into the eternal damnation and destruction. That is why we should always continue to keep our gaze focused on the Lord, directing our whole lives towards Him.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles in which the works of the Apostles, particularly that of St. Paul and his companion, St. Barnabas, were highlighted to us. And in today’s passage we heard how they went to the city and region of Lystra in Lycaonia, which is located in Asia Minor, in what is present day part of southwestern Turkey. In that region, there were then still few or no believers in Christ yet, and the two Apostles went to a community which were deeply steeped in their worship of the pagan Greek and local regional gods, as they embarked on a missionary journey to that region. It was there that we heard how St. Paul healed a paralysed man by the Name of the Lord Jesus, which miraculously healed the paralysed man.

And as we all heard, this amazing occurrence led to an immediate response from the townspeople, all of whom thought that St. Paul and St. Barnabas were the avatars or the human disguise that their pagan Greek gods were assuming as they walked in their midst. We have to understand the context that this was what the Greeks commonly believed at that time, that their so-called gods would come from time to time in human forms, doing things just as what they themselves were doing, and naturally as they saw the miraculous deeds done by the two Apostles, they would associate them with these gods of theirs. However, the reality was that St. Paul and St. Barnabas was representing a far greater Being, the One Who is the One and only True God, and not those false pagan gods that the Greeks in Lystra and elsewhere believed in.

We heard how the two Apostles tried in vain proclaiming the Lord Jesus and His truth to them, as the townspeople kept on honouring and treating them as how they treated their gods and idols. For one to experience so much glory, fame and praise, it must have indeed been very tempting for the two Apostles to immerse themselves in all the adoration and praise that they were receiving, and it was likely that Satan must have been busy in trying to tempt them, but they certainly paid no heed to him, as they remained focused on the Lord and committed to the mission which He had entrusted to them. The Lord had entrusted to both of the Apostles with the important task of proclaiming His truth, Good News and salvation to the people of all the nations, and to call on all of them to embrace His truth and love, rejecting the wicked and sinful ways of their past, and that was exactly what both of the Apostles had done.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the Lord speaking to His disciples regarding the matter of following the commandments and Law of God, and how all those who profess to believe in Him and His truth have to truly be obedient to the commandments and the truths which the Lord Himself had brought and revealed into this world, to our midst. He told them all that first and foremost, they all must love Him and put Him above all else, and unless they do this, then they cannot truly be His disciples and followers. By loving Him, then they will come to know more about Him and His truth, as through His love, He has endeavoured to bring forth God’s love and truth into our midst, revealing everything that He had planned and desired for us from the very beginning of time.

Each and every one of us must always love the Lord first and foremost in all things and have Him as the centre and focus of our lives so that in everything, we will always keep in mind to follow Him and to obey whatever it is that He has commanded and entrusted to us to do in our respective lives. He has granted us the many opportunities and chances to live our lives in the manner that He Himself has shown us, to be the ones through whom God made His works and presence manifest in this world, as we have been guided and strengthened, empowered and led by the Holy Spirit, to be the shining beacons of God’s Light and truth, the bearers of His Good News to all the people of all the nations, just as He has entrusted to us, the primary mission of the Church, which is the evangelisation of the whole world.

If we have not first loved the Lord and focused ourselves and our whole lives on Him, how can we then go forth out there and proclaim the Lord and His truth? We must first be full of faith and love for the Lord, or else others will quickly see in us the lack of faith and true dedication to God, and the hypocrisy of our lacklustre faith and lack of love for Him. That is why, we must truly make the effort to live our lives with genuine love for God and also with love for our fellow brothers and sisters. Each and every one of us must always strive to bring the light of Christ, His salvation and grace to more and more people all around us, so that through us, God may indeed touch the lives of many more who have not yet known and experience His love and kindness.

Today, the Church commemorates the feast of a great woman and servant of God whose life and dedication to the Lord should serve as a great example and inspiration for all of us to follow. St. Catherine of Siena was a renowned saint who was already pious and committed to God from very early on in her life and having experienced mystical experiences throughout her life, as she received a vision from the Lord from when she was only six or seven years old. She resisted the efforts to get her to be married, and continued to commit herself to the path of the Lord, which eventually led to her family accepting her choice, and leading her to commit herself to a life of holy virginity committed to the Lord, declaring herself to the bride of the Lord, which she herself described in her writings as a ‘Mystical Marriage’.

St. Catherine of Siena dedicated herself completely to the service of God and His people, full of generosity and compassion for those who were suffering in the midst of her community. She frequently helped out in the hospital and the other establishments in her area, and her reputation for generosity, loving care and her great piety and holiness quickly gained her the respect and admiration of many people, and even the Pope came to respect her, and based on her many theological writings and works, her piety, wisdom and experiences, she was soon involved in many events in her community at the time. She was known for her travels throughout many parts of Italy, spreading her thoughts and experiences, settling issues and conflicts between various groups and political institutions. She also helped to mediate their conflicts and inspired many to come to seek the Lord. Even the Pope heeded her advice to return to Rome after a long period of time in Avignon. Her many writings and experiences still influenced us even to this day.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard from the great examples shown by St. Catherine of Siena let us all therefore be inspired to be faithful and committed disciples and followers of the Lord as she had done. Let us always strive to put the Lord first and foremost in all things, and let us all be ever more dedicated to Him, in doing His will and in answering His call, to do whatever missions He has entrusted to us in our respective lives. May the Lord continue to strengthen and guide us in our journey and efforts through life, and may He continue to bless our every efforts and endeavours, for His greater glory so that our every lives, actions, words and deeds will truly be worthy of Him, and be the shining beacons of His light, truth and salvation, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 29 April 2024 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 14 : 21-26

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever keeps My commandments is the one who loves Me. If he loves Me, he will also be loved by My Father; I too shall love him and show Myself clearly to him.”

Judas – not Judas Iscariot – asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that You will show Yourself clearly to us and not to the world!” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him; and We will come to him and make a room in his home.”

“But if anyone does not love Me, he will not keep My words; and these words that you hear are not Mine, but the Father’s Who sent Me. I told you all this while I was still with you. From now on the Helper, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I have told you.”