Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 66 : 2-3, 5, 6 and 8
May God be gracious and bless us, may He let His face shine upon us, that Your way be known on earth and Your salvation among the nations.
May the countries be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with justice and guide the nations of the world.
May the people praise You, o God, may all the peoples praise You! May God bless us and be revered, to the very ends of the earth.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 12 : 24 – Acts 13 : 5a
Meanwhile the word of God was increasing and spreading. Barnabas and Saul carried out their mission and then came back to Jerusalem, taking with them John also called Mark.
There were at Antioch – in the Church which was there – prophets and teachers : Barnabas, Symeon known as Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod, and Saul.
On one occasion while they were celebrating the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul to do the work for which I have called them.” So, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
These then, sent by the Holy Spirit, went down the port of Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus. Upon their arrival in Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogue.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all reminded that we should be truly faithful and committed to God beyond just merely having superficial faith, or worse still faith that is not centred on God but on ourselves and our ego like how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done in the past. All of us should learn to be humble and truly obedient to what the Lord has shown and taught us. We should not allow our pride, ego, ambition and worldly desires to influence and mislead us down the wrong path in life, simply because we cannot resist those temptations and falling ever deeper therefore into the slippery slope and path towards damnation and destruction.
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard of the prayer which King Solomon offered to the Lord for His Providence, love and kindness to all the people and to him as King, in everything that He had done in extending His ever patient love and forgiveness to the people whom He truly loved and cared for, despite their stubbornness in constantly disobeying and rebelling against Him. God’s love did not cease just because of all that, and instead, He truly loved us all the more and went all out to seek those who had been separated and lost to Him because of their disobedience and sins.
King Solomon gave thanks to God for Him having willed to come and dwell amongst His people, as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the grand Temple that he had built for the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant symbolised God’s Presence among His people, and that grand Temple, prepared and planned by David, Solomon’s father, and finally built and realised by Solomon himself, was meant to be the tangible centre and heart of the Kingdom of God’s people, and to where they all would come to worship the Lord their God, their Master and Creator. And King Solomon interceded on behalf of the people asking for the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness for their many sins, and for His continued presence and love among them.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which the Lord Jesus heavily criticised the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for their way of interpreting, practicing and applying the Law and commandments of God according to their own interpretation and preferences. They were too strict and rigid in implementing the Law and its statutes, focusing so much on the externals and appearances that they neglected to understand and appreciate the true meaning and intention of the Law, and why God has given His Law and provided them to His people in the first place. God never intended for the Law to make it difficult for His people or to burden them unnecessarily.
In fact, He meant for the Law to teach and show them, to guide and lead them on how to love Him and one another in the same way that He has loved all of them. That is why we are reminded today that our faith and how we observe it must always be rooted firmly in the Lord and not be tainted and swayed by the temptations of worldly glory and ambitions like how the Pharisees had done. Those Pharisees used their piety and their way of observing the Law to be comparison and to judge against those whom they deemed to be less than worthy, which usually meant anyone else who did not practice the Law in the same manner as they had done. This is not what we should be doing as Christians, as we should be faithful and obey the Lord while also loving our fellow brethren at the same time, without any prejudice or bias.
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Scholastica, a holy and devoted woman whose life and examples had inspired many throughout the history of the Church. St. Scholastica was the fraternal twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia according to Church tradition, who was another great saint of God and who was widely considered as the Father of Western Monasticism. St. Scholastica herself was renowned in her own way for her great piety and commitment to God, for her dedication and faith, which had inspired many others to follow her examples to a life of holiness and grace, resisting the many temptations of worldly glory, pleasures, fame and ambitions, and instead, seeking God wholeheartedly and turning themselves into the right path.
While the details on her early life was rather scant, but St. Scholastica eventually joined religious life much like St. Benedict, and she was credited with the foundation of the Benedictine nuns, which mirrored her brother’s role in founding the Benedictine monks and monasteries. St. Scholastica led a quiet and contemplative life in prayer, committing herself in prayer and study of the Scriptures, through which she inspired many other women of her time to follow the Lord in the same way, rejecting the excesses of wickedness and evils of the world, all the worldly temptations, pleasures and comforts, that they may all lead a holy life with the Lord, caring for one another in a holy community of the faithful consecrated ones to God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore be inspired by the good examples, piety and faith which St. Scholastica has shown us, in all of her life and work, dedicating herself wholly to the Lord and to His path. Let us all reject the temptations of worldly power and glory, and remind ourselves that we do not end up being swayed by all those things and fall into the path of sin and evil. Let us instead deepen our relationship with God, by spending more quality time with Him, through prayer, charity and almsgiving, and by our exemplary way of life at all times. May God be with us always, and may He bless our every good works and efforts, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Mark 7 : 1-13
At that time, one day, the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, and with them were some teachers of the Law who had just come from Jerusalem. They noticed that some of His disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.
Now the Pharisees, and in fact all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands, for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they eat anything, when they come from the market, without first washing themselves. And there are many other traditions they observe; for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots and plates.
So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?” Jesus answered, “You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied of you when he wrote : ‘This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. The worship they offer Me is worthless, for what they teach are only human rules.’ You even put aside the commandment of God to hold fast to human tradition.”
And Jesus commented, “You have a fine way of disregarding the commandments of God in order to enforce your own traditions! For example, Moses said : Do your duty to your father and your mother, and : Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death. But according to you, someone could say to his father or mother, ‘I already declared Corban (which means “offered to God”) what you could have expected from me.’”
“In this case, you no longer require him to do anything for his father or mother; and so you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed on. And you do many other things like that.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 83 : 3, 4, 5 and 10, 11
My soul yearns; pines, for the courts of YHVH. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young, at Your altars, o YHVH of Hosts, my King and my God!
Happy are those who live in Your House, continually singing Your praise! Look upon our shield, o God; look upon the face of Your Anointed!
One day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be left at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Liturgical Colour : White
1 Kings 8 : 22-23, 27-30
Then Solomon stood before the Altar of YHVH in the presence of all the assembly of Israel. He raised his hands towards heaven and said, “O YHVH, God of Israel, there is no God like You either in heaven or on earth! You keep Your Covenant and show loving kindness to Your servants who walk before You wholeheartedly.”
“But will God really live among people on earth? If neither heavens nor the highest heavens can contain You, how much less can this House which I have built! Yet, listen to the prayer and supplication of Your servant, o YHVH my God; hearken to the cries and pleas which Your servant directs to You this day. Watch over this House of which You have said, ‘My Name shall rest there.’ Hear the prayer of Your servant in this place.”
“Listen to the supplication of Your servant and Your people Israel when they pray in this direction; listen from Your dwelling place in heaven and, on listening, forgive.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Lord contained within the Sacred Scriptures and as we all ponder upon their meaning, importance and relevance to us in our world today, we are all reminded that as the holy people of God, we are all called to follow the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly as how our holy predecessors had done, like King David in the past, in his wholehearted commitment and dedication to God, in doing God’s will and in being ever attuned to His Law, commandments and to His teachings. We are reminded that we should always live our lives in the manner that is truly pleasing to God, in loving Him and also in loving those people around us, especially those whom God had entrusted to us to love and care.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Samuel, we heard of the moment when King David finally managed to bring the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of God from its temporary housing at the house of Obededom to the city of Jerusalem. The context was that David had been wanting to bring the Ark of the Covenant which had always been kept in the wilderness, in the Holy Tent of Meeting since the days of the Exodus to a more permanent place in Jerusalem, in the Temple and House that he has planned to make for the Lord. However, in the earlier attempt to move the Ark into Jerusalem, an accident struck and one of the priests transporting the Ark was killed, and hence, David suspended the plan to bring the Ark into Jerusalem for some time.
We heard then about how David finally managed to bring this great Ark of God into Jerusalem, joyfully leading the procession before God’s Ark into the city, singing and dancing with great joy. This moment was described as a great event, a great moment of joy as God Himself has come into the midst of His people, dwelling among them again in the city which He has established as his city, firmly securing the reign and rule of David, His servant as King and leader of the people He had chosen as His own. And this is a reminder of how God Himself one day, a millennium or so after this moment, would come in the flesh among His people, an even greater entry and arrival than the Ark of the Covenant, as He appeared before all of us in the form of His Son, the Divine Word and Son of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.
Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the relatives of the Lord Jesus came to Him when He was preaching and ministering to the people of God, and we heard how when some people told the Lord that His relatives, including His Mother Mary was there, He told the whole assembled people that all those who followed God’s will and obeyed Him, faithfully living their lives according to His Law and commandments, all of these were His brothers, His mother and relatives. To us who heard the Lord and what He said, some of us might think that the Lord was being very rude to His Mother and relatives, but this was not in fact what He meant to do.
Instead, when the Lord Jesus said those words before the assembled people of God, He intended for all of them to know that His works and ministry, and God’s favour were not limited by connections to Him, unlike what was common in the world then, and what is still very common in our world even to this day. I am referring to the networks and connection which we often use to determine our response to one another, and what kind of favour we can give and gain from each other. Those who are connected by familial or blood ties tend to get higher and better preferences, and this is what the Lord wanted to make clear that His love is universal and meant for everyone, and not merely limited or restricted within His family and inner circle. And that is also the message and truth of Christian faith and love as well.
In this matter, we can then follow the good examples of St. Angela Merici, one of the great saints of God, whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Angela Merici was the famous founder of the religious order of the Ursulines, also known as the Company of St. Ursula that led to the later foundation of the Order of the Ursulines. St. Angela Merici was inspired since her early youth to commit herself with some others to work for the cause of the training and education of young Christian girls, which is still the inspiration for the educational institutes established by the Ursulines. Through her efforts and piety, many came to be inspired to follow in her example in dedicating themselves to God’s work in this area of Christian education and empowerment of people.
St. Angela Merici dedicated herself and inspired many others together in the ministry that she had committed herself as part of the Company of St. Ursula, establishing schools and orphanages, caring especially for the needs of young Christians, especially that of young, underprivileged Christian girls, who were often exploited and in disadvantageous positions. St. Angela Merici dedicated her life to this ministry, and many more people would come to follow her examples in working for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of His people. Through her efforts and works many people came to be touched by God’s love and truth, and became closer to God and His salvation.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect upon what we have just heard from the Scriptures and see how we can live our lives each day with true dedication and commitment to the Lord, in our own unique ways and in the manner that God has entrusted to us, with our diverse and distinct gifts and all the opportunities that He has presented to us. Let us all serve Him joyfully like King David had done, and remember that in everything that we do in glorifying His Name, even the smallest and what seems to be insignificant, all of these truly matter to the Lord, Who knows everything that we do, even in secret, and He will bless us all even more abundantly, strengthening us to do His will and His works in our world today.
May the Lord continue to strengthen each and every one of us with the resolve to carry out living our lives with great faith and dedication, so that in every works and actions that we do, we will always be exemplary and inspirational, becoming good role models to everyone around us in faith and life. May God bless our every good efforts and endeavours, all the things that we do in our lives to glorify Him, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)
Mark 3 : 31-35
At that time, the mother and brothers of Jesus came. As they stood outside, they sent someone to call Him. The crowd sitting around Jesus told Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are outside asking for You.” He replied, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”
And looking around at those who sat there, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to Me.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)
Psalm 23 : 7, 8, 9, 10
Lift up, o gateways, your lintels, open up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may enter!
Who is the King of glory? YHVH, the Strong, the Mighty, YHVH, valiant in battle.
Lift up Your lintels, o gateways, open up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may enter!
Who is the King of glory? YHVH of Hosts, He is the King of glory!
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Holy Virgins)
2 Samuel 6 : 12b-15, 17-19
King David went to bring up the Ark of God from the house of Obededom to the city of David, rejoicing. After those who carried the Ark of YHVH had walked six paces, they sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. David whirled round dancing with all his heart before YHVH, wearing a linen ephod, for he and all the Israelites brought up the Ark of YHVH, shouting joyfully and sounding the horn.
They brought in the Ark of YHVH and laid it in its place, in the tent which David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt and peace offerings before YHVH. Once the offerings had been made, David blessed the people in the Name of YHVH of hosts, and distributed to each man and woman of the entire assembly of Israel, a loaf of bread, a portion of meat and a raisin cake. With this, all the people left for their homes.
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