holy women

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Tuesday, 8 September 2015 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a special feast and occasion, celebrating the birth of the mother of our Lord Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today’s feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a reminder to all of us, of the way how God had brought us all mankind to salvation, that through her, God brought the Saviour of the world into the world itself, in Jesus Christ, His Son.

We heard today about Bethlehem, a city seemingly without much significance throughout the history of Israel, and even more seemed to be a small village without importance, both as part of Judah and as part of the land of Israel. But it has been prophesied that one day, the Saviour would come from that city, and through that seemingly unimportant and unassuming place, God would deliver His people out of darkness and into the light.

It was likely the place where David, the famous and one of the greatest kings of Israel came from, a humble shepherd who was beloved of the Lord and who rose to be a king over all Israel. And God had renewed the promise He had made to His people, beginning from Adam and Eve, and then Abraham, and then David as well as the people as a whole, to whom God devoted Himself to them with a promise.

For God promised Adam and Eve deliverance from sin and death, and from all the harm that Satan the deceiver has brought upon them, and although for generations Satan and his allies would harm the children of mankind, but God promised that the Woman would bring about the destruction of Satan, and the Son born of the woman would be that salvation, the One to bring mankind out of their fated destruction.

And to Abraham, God renewed that promise, showing His favour to him because of his great faith. God promised that Abraham would become the father of great nations, and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and as the grains of sand on the beach. God blessed him and his descendants, one of whom, David, to whom He renewed yet again the promise and the covenant He had established with men.

God told David that his descendant will rule forever and his kingdom and throne will last forever, and will never end. And all the promises God had made was fulfilled in its perfection and completeness through Jesus, God’s own Son, the Divine Word made flesh, who was born through the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His earthly mother. By assuming the flesh of man and born of Mary and Joseph, God had fulfilled the promises He had made.

Firstly, that through Jesus Christ, the Son and Heir of David, God fulfilled His promises to David, as through His everlasting kingdom, God secured the throne and kingdom for the family of David forever. And by the means of faith in Jesus Christ, as all those who follow the Lord became the children of Abraham, God fulfilled also the promise made to Abraham, that he would become the father of many nations.

But the most important of all is the promise He had made to all mankind at the beginning of time, which as mentioned that when Satan brought about mankind’s fall into sin, God promised us that deliverance would come, and through Mary, our Lord made salvation a reality, by being born into this world to deliver all men from destruction of death.

The role of Mary is very important in the history of our salvation, since she alone among all mankind were prevented from suffering the same taint and corruption of sin, which we believe in the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, where she was conceived and born without the taint of the original sin of men. She had been prepared from the beginning to be the New Ark of the new Covenant of God, which is Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

And thus, Mary is the Woman prophesied and promised by the Lord, to be the one through whom Satan would face his final and irreversible ultimate defeat. That is because through Mary, the Saviour would be born, and by the action of the Saviour, Jesus, mankind would be freed from sin and death, and all those who believe in Him shall forever be brought free from the hands of the devil, who will be cast down forever and will be brought down low.

We all have to realise that in Mary, we have a very powerful ally, friend and mother, who cares for all of us just as she loves and cares for her Son, Jesus. She is special because she is the mother of our Lord, had been prepared for such since the beginning, and her birth heralded a new hope for the world. But during her life, she was also very dedicated and committed to the mission entrusted to her by God, living her life faithfully and with impeccable and exemplary faith, which should be an example to all of us.

Today, as we celebrate the birthday of Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the mother of us all, let us all dedicate ourselves to her more, and seek her help ever more, and following in her footsteps let us all live righteously in the sight and presence of God, so that by our faith and action, God’s salvation will be ours and the Covenant and promise He has made with us will be fulfilled to its completion.

Mary is a great example to all of us, and a great source of inspiration, as well as our greater intercessor before God. She is the closest to her Son in heaven, and all the time, she is always interceding for us, whom her Son had entrusted to her as He looked down from the cross that day at Calvary. And as her Son had triumphed over sin and evil, she would not want to see us all to fall back into our old way of sin.

Let us ask our Blessed Virgin, whose birth we celebrate this day, that we may be always preserved and protected by her Son, from all forms of malicious and evil influences that threaten to tear us away from the salvation that God had given us. Let us change our lives for the better, and commit ourselves to do what the Blessed Virgin Mary had done in her life, keeping faith and righteousness in everything we say and do.

May Almighty God be with us always, protect us and deliver us from all harm and from all evil, and may His blessed mother Mary always intercede for our sake, praying and beseeching for our redemption and deliverance, that God may remind us in our hearts to repent whenever we sin. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 September 2015 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 1 : 1–16, 18-23

This is the account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon.

Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been Uriah’s wife. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings : Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah.

Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob.

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus who is called the Christ – the Messiah.

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : ‘The virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means : God-with-us.'”

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Matthew 1 : 18-23

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : ‘The virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means : God-with-us.'”

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Tuesday, 8 September 2015 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 12 : 6ab, 6cd

But I put my trust in Your unfailing love, my heart will rejoice on seeing Your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me!

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Tuesday, 8 September 2015 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Micah 5 : 1-4a

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, so small that you are hardly named among the clans of Judah, from you shall I raise the One who is to rule over Israel. For He comes forth from of old, from the ancient times.

YHVH, therefore, will abandon Israel until such time as she who is to give birth has given birth. Then the rest of His deported brothers will return to the people of Israel. He will stand and shepherd His flock with the strength of YHVH, in the glorious Name of YHVH, His God. They will live safely while He wins renown to the ends of the earth. He shall be peace.

Alternative reading

Romans 8 : 28-30

We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love Him, whom He has called according to His plan. Those whom He knew beforehand, He has also predestined to be like His Son, similar to Him, so that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

And so, those whom God predestined He called, and those whom He called He makes righteous, and to those whom He makes righteous He will give His Glory.

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Saturday, 5 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how St. Paul mentioned to the faithful and the Church in Colossae in Greece, that they have been saved by the work and by the grace of God, and even though they were once delinquents, rebels and sinners, who disobeyed the Lord and lived in great wickedness, but God had made ourselves redeemed through His Son, Jesus Christ, by His sacrifice on the cross for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to realise the great love and mercy that God had given to us. He had given us a new opportunity and a new chance to redeem ourselves from our faults and mistakes. And He wants us all to be loved and to be saved, and for Him no one should go alone on His own, rejected, hungry and downtrodden. He wants us all to be loved and cared, and He wants to forgive us our sins if we sincerely look for redemption.

That is why in the Gospel today, we heard of His confrontation with the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were so transfixed on their laws, rules and regulations, so that they failed to realise and understand the true meaning, purpose and importance of the Law of God. The Law is a gift from God for us all mankind as a guide and a path for us to follow so that by walking with the Law, we may remain true to the Lord and be found righteous and worthy of being with our Lord once again.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law instead looked at the Law as something to be blindly obeyed and followed, even without proper understanding. They focused on external appearances and fulfilment of the Law without transformation of the heart, the mind and the soul. They enforced the laws of the sabbath day, where everyone was not supposed to do any work or activity, but they did so for the sake of enforcing it, and not understanding the true intention.

God did not intend for the Sabbath to oppress the people and making it a burden for them. Instead, His intention to instate such a rule is to help the people to coordinate and regulate themselves that out of their busy daily schedules, we may find the way to love our God and devote ourselves to Him, and spend some time with Him, speaking with Him, knowing Him and understanding His will rather than being preoccupied so much with our lives and our worldliness.

Ironically, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who insisted so much on enforcing the laws of the sabbath were themselves the ones who became preoccupied with themselves and worldly concerns. They wanted to be seen as holy and pious when they went about doing whatever they could to fulfil the Law’s obligations. But in fact, they were dooming themselves for failing to understand God’s true intention, and in doing so they also led the people into ruin by their false ways.

The same often happen to us all as well, and we often lose the understanding of the bigger picture of our lives for the sake of fulfilling our own ego and our own desires. It is our selfishness that is often our greatest enemy and our greatest obstacle. And today, we celebrate the feast of a holy woman, whose life had been an inspiration for countless people, and whose actions had brought a new hope to countless people who had no hope.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born an Albanian, and in her young age the desire to serve the Lord and His people grew in her heart, and she joined the missionaries and devoted herself to a life of celibacy and service. She went on to India and served there for the rest of her life. As we all should know from all that we had heard about her, she would go on to serve the poor people in Calcutta.

She established the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation devoted to the service of the least and the poorest in the society, those who had been rejected and without love, those who were suffering and on the brink of death. She brought hope to the destitute and those who thought that everything was hopeless to them. This is exactly what God had done for us, remember? He lifted us up out of the pit and the darkness, and He brought us a new hope and into the eternal life He promised to all of us.

Therefore, as we remember the examples of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, what she had done and how she devoted herself to the poor and the downtrodden without worry for herself, let us all also realise, first that God is loving and merciful, and He truly cares for all of us, and He wants all of us to be saved and redeemed from our sins and wickedness. We would have fallen into hell and eternal suffering for sure, if God did not come and help us.

Then, we have to realise that we have to let go of our own ego and die to our own selfishness if we are to be able to truly be the disciples and followers of the Lord. It was the selfishness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law that made them as hypocrites in their faith, as they served themselves first and thought only of making themselves look great at the expense of righteousness and genuine faith.

Let us all follow in the footsteps of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the many other holy saints of God, and let us all show love, care and concern for others around us. Let us all show more concern and effort to bring all of us to true and genuine life filled with the love of God, and care for one another. May Almighty God, our Lord and loving Father be with us always, love us and may He guide us always to the right path, to love Him with all of our hearts. Amen.

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Saturday, 5 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Luke 6 : 1-5

At that time, one Sabbath Jesus was going through the corn fields, and His disciples began to pick heads of grain, crushing them in their hands for food. Some of the Pharisees asked them, “Why do you do what is forbidden on the Sabbath?”

Then Jesus spoke up and asked them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his men were hungry? He entered the house of God, took and ate the bread of the offering, and even gave some to his men, though only priests are allowed to eat that bread.”

And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord and rules over the sabbath.”

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Saturday, 5 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Psalm 53 : 3-4, 6 and 8

By Your Name, o God, save me; You, the Valiant, uphold my cause. Hear my prayer, o God; listen to the words of my mouth.

See, God is my helper; the Lord upholds my life. Freely will I offer sacrifice to You and praise Your Name, o Lord, for it is good.

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Saturday, 5 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Colossians 1 : 21-23

You yourselves were once estranged and opposed to God because of your evil deeds, but now God has reconciled you in the human body of His Son through His death, so that you may be without fault, holy and blameless before Him.

Only stand firm, upon the foundation of your faith, and be steadfast in hope. Keep in mind the Gospel you have heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

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Friday, 28 August 2015 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we celebrate the feast of a great pillar of the Church, one of its original and among the greatest of the Doctors of the Church, because of his numerous and countless contributions to both the Church and to the faithful as a whole, in leading them to Christ. He is St. Augustine of Hippo, a great man and a great saint, and yet with an interesting origin and story of his life, in how he became such a great servant of God.

Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of St. Monica, his mother, a holy woman completely devoted to the Lord and to her family, particularly that of her son, St. Augustine himself. And we have to understand where they came from and what were their lives like, so that we can understand and benefit most from today’s sharing of the Scriptures and the lives of the saints.

St. Augustine of Hippo was born in a noble Roman family, between a rich Roman nobleman named Patricius who was a pagan worshipper, and St. Monica, his mother, who was already a Christian, and one who was truly devoted to the Lord. St. Augustine lived in a family well connected and in position to enjoy all the favours and benefits of worldly life, and therefore, he got the best education and treatment, and grew to be an educated person and a philosopher.

But all these could not satisfy St. Augustine, as he desired for something more to fill the emptiness in his heart. And so, influenced by his peers and friends at that time, he fell into the company of those who believed in the syncretic and pagan religion of Manichaeanism, where he gave in to the Manichaean ways and teachings of hedonism and worldliness, involving himself with various forms of the pleasures of the flesh.

Nonetheless, even though St. Augustine had started on a path towards sin and therefore towards ruination, it was the hard effort and ceaseless tears and prayers from his mother, St. Monica, who eventually turned St. Augustine back into the light. Firstly, his own father decided to be baptised on his deathbed and accepted fully the Lord Jesus as his Lord and Saviour, and then St. Augustine himself also realised the errors of his ways and repented.

St. Augustine went on to be a teacher, and growing more and more disillusioned with the ways and falsehoods of Manichaeanism, where he did not manage to find true satisfaction, he eventually gave himself to be baptised as well, as a member of the Church, and the prayers which his mother had made for his sake. And thereafter, St. Augustine dedicated himself to the service of God.

And by his many works, including the publications, the City of God and the Confessions which he had written, as well as various other discourses and traditions passed down to us by the other Church fathers, this once great sinner had indeed been transformed completely by the will and by the grace of God to be a great tool for the salvation of mankind and for the deliverance of mankind from our sins.

In today’s Scripture readings we also heard how Jesus told the people the parable of the five wise women and the five careless and foolish women. Many of us knew this story, but do we truly understand its significance? The wise women and the foolish women represent all of us, while the bridegroom represents the Lord who will come again even as He had promised all of us.

The examples of St. Augustine of Hippo should have shown us that all of us have a choice in this life, and this choice is for us to follow either the Lord and His ways, or whether we follow our own whims and our own heart’s desires. God always gives us opportunities, one after another, for He is loving as well as merciful, and despite all of our sins and wickedness, we still have the Lord on our side, holding us and keeping us against the tides of darkness rising against us.

Nevertheless, we should not take this for granted. The Lord loves all of us, for we are indeed the greatest and the most treasured and loved of all the things that God had created, but this does not mean that He just let us all be with all the things we are doing, or condoning all of our sins and wickedness. He continues to watch over us, and it is painful for Him to see how we continue to live in sin and in direct disobedience and rebellion against Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all learn from the examples of St. Augustine of Hippo and many other saints, who were once sinners and then they turned their lives around, and sought out a new life in God. This is also an inspiration for all of us to do the same. No one was born perfect, and no one was blameless, except for our Lord Jesus Himself. All of us made mistakes in some parts of our lives, but what matters, is whether we take those mistakes to task and learn from them.

May Almighty God be our help and our guide, as we walk in the footsteps of St. Augustine of Hippo, that we may also be like him and many other great saints, who took the step to get out of their past sinfulness, repent from those sins, and follow the Lord in all their ways, and by their righteousness, they were brought into eternal glory and life promised by our Lord. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 28 August 2015 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 25 : 1-13

At that time, Jesus said to the people and to His disciples, “This story throws light on what will happen in the kingdom of heaven : Ten bridesmaids went out with their lamps to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were careless, and the others were sensible.”

“The careless bridesmaids took their lamps as they were, and did not bring extra oil. But those who were sensible, brought with their lamps flasks of oil. As the bridegroom delayed, they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight, a cry rang out, ‘The bridegroom is here, come out and meet him!'”

“All the maidens woke up at once, and trimmed their lamps. Then the careless ones said to the sensible ones, ‘Give us some oil, for our lamps are going out.’ The sensible ones answered, ‘There may not be enough for us and for you. You had better go to those who sell, and buy some for yourselves.'”

“They were out buying oil when the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him to the wedding feast, and the doors were shut. Later the other bridesmaids arrived and called out, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered, ‘Truly I do not know you.”

“So stay awake, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”