holy women

by

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.

by

Thursday, 4 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, each and every one of us are reminded that we must always have faith and trust in the Lord for each and every one of us are His followers and disciples, and we are all called and expected to do what He has commanded us to do, to obey His Law and commandments and to follow Him wholeheartedly in all of our ways. Each and every one of us who have put our faith and trust in the Lord, as Christians, we must always be genuine in how we live our lives with fullness of faith in the Lord, and our lives, our every actions, words and deeds should always be exemplary and filled with God’s love and grace, as much as possible. This is our calling as Christians, and we should do well to heed it.

We heard from the first reading today from the continuation of the story of the prophet Amos and his ministry among the people of the northern kingdom of the Israelites, where today we heard of the encounter and confrontation between Amaziah, a priest of Bethel against Amos. In order to understand better the context of what we heard of this confrontation and the exchange between the two of them, we must understand the history of how the Bethel priesthood even came to be, which was actually a history spanning few centuries earlier before the time of Amos. Back then, during the time when the kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon was still united, the whole people of God, the Israelites had one King and they all worshipped the Lord in His Temple in Jerusalem, where the Ark of the Covenant was placed in.

However, once the kingdom was divided into two parts because of the sins of Solomon and his descendants, the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah respectively became embroiled in conflicts and wars, and one of the initiatives of the northern kingdom was to establish a rival priesthood and temple in Bethel to rival that of Jerusalem, obliging the people of Israel to go to Bethel instead of Jerusalem. Not only that but the then king Jeroboam also built a golden calf idol to represent their god, and this led the people of Israel into sin against God, as they came to worship false idols and pagan gods instead of obeying the Lord’s Law and commandments and worshipping Him alone as they were supposed to do. The prophet Amos was sent like the many other prophets of God before him to tell the people of Israel to abandon their sinful ways, and to bring forth the premonition and warning of the punishments they would have to endure for their disobedience.

Prophet Amos answered Amaziah’s rebuke of him with stern words of the Lord, and told him that he had been sent by God Himself to prophesy among the Israelites, with the mission from God to bring this truth and the revelations to the people who have disobeyed Him and refused to believe in Him despite the constant efforts and outreach from the Lor to them, in sending them help, guidance, reminders and assistance one after another. The Lord has always been patient in loving and caring for all of them, however, there is indeed a limit to His patience, and all the sins and wickedness that those people had committed, those things could not be ignored either. The prophet Amos told the people of their impending fate of being defeated, conquered and exiled by their conquerors, which would happen at that time, when the Assyrians conquered Israel, the northern kingdom, destroyed its cities and brought the people into exile in far-off lands.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the story from the Gospel of St. Matthew in which the Lord Jesus healed a paralysed man at His hometown, where He told the paralysed man brought to him to have faith and courage, and that he would be healed because his sins had been forgiven. This was met with an immediate criticism by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were there with Him, saying that the Lord Jesus had insulted God because of Him claiming that He had the power to forgive sins. It also happened in other occasions as recorded in the Gospels, when the Lord healed other people and told them that their sins were forgiven. They criticised Him and made noise against Him, claiming that He had committed a blasphemy.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is because they thought of the Lord as merely a Man, and they did not agree with Him on various issues, especially in how the Law of God ought to be practiced and observed. Consequently, despite having witnessed the many signs and wonders that the Lord had done before them, which confirmed what the prophets had been predicting and prophesying about the Messiah or the Saviour of the Lord, they failed to appreciate these signs and wonders and instead, they hardened their hearts, with pride and ego blinding them from seeing the truth. They likely thought that it was impossible for them to have been wrong given their knowledge and understanding of the Law and the Prophets, but the reality is that, the Lord came bearing His truth, and they refused to believe in Him just like how the Israelites refused to believe in Amos and the other earlier prophets that had been sent to them to remind and help them.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Portugal, a holy woman and devout servant of God whose faith and dedication to God should serve as a good example for each and every one of us on how we should live our own lives as Christians. St. Elizabeth of Portugal was an Aragonese princess who had a very religious upbringing, and she grew to be a woman who was very upright in her actions and very pious and close to the Lord in all things. When later on she was married to the King Denis of Portugal, she continued on with her pious way of life, caring for the needs of the sick and the poor throughout the kingdom. She was also actively involved in the maintenance of peace and harmony in the region, when she was involved in the arbitration between the neighbouring kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.

When her husband the King of Portugal passed away, the now Dowager Queen retired to a monastery where she continued to carry out pious and charitable acts, caring for the sick and the poor as much as she was capable of. She was the benefactor of many hospitals and other institutions that benefitted the people, especially those who were neglected and poor. She was also still involved in peace arbitrations, such as the one between Portugal and neighbouring Kingdom of Castile, where St. Elizabeth as the Dowager Queen helped to defuse the tensions between both kingdoms. She passed away shortly after this, but her efforts and contributions, her great piety and charity are well remembered throughout history and inspired many others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all hence be inspired by the good examples which St. Elizabeth of Portugal has shown to us all, and let us all renew our faith in the Lord, committing ourselves to live a more worthy and virtuous life, and no longer harden our hearts like our predecessors, like those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, and like the Israelites before them. Let us all be humble and allow the Lord to lead and guide us all in our journey through life, and may He continue to bless us all in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 4 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Matthew 9 : 1-8

At that time, Jesus got back into the boat, crossed the lake again, and came to His hometown. Here, they brought to Him a paralysed man, lying on a bed. Jesus saw their faith and said to the paralytic, “Courage, My son! Your sins are forgiven.”

Some teachers of the Law said within themselves, “This Man insults God.” Jesus was aware of what they were thinking; and said, “Why have you such evil thoughts? Which is easier to say : ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? But that you may know, that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,” He said to the paralysed man, “Stand up! Take your stretcher and go home!”

The man got up, and went home. When the crowds saw this, they were filled with awe, and praised God for giving such power to human beings.

by

Thursday, 4 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Psalm 18 : 8, 9, 10, 11

The Law of the Lord is perfect : it gives life to the soul. The word of the Lord is trustworthy : it gives wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right : they give joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear : they enlighten the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, it endures forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, all of them just and right.

They are more precious than gold – pure gold of a jeweller; they are much sweeter than honey which drops from the honeycomb.

by

Thursday, 4 July 2024 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Amos 7 : 10-17

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, then sent word to king Jeroboam of Israel, “Amos is conspiring against you in the very centre of Israel; what he says goes too far. These are his very words : Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall be exiled from its land.”

Amaziah then said to Amos, “Off with you, seer, go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there by prophesying. But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is a king’s sanctuary and a national shrine.”

Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet or one of the fellow prophets. I am a breeder of sheep and a dresser of sycamore trees. But YHVH took me from shepherding the flock and said to me : Go, prophesy to My people Israel. Now hear the word of YHVH, you who say : No more prophesy against Israel, no more insults against the family of Isaac!”

“This is what YHVH says : Your wife shall be made a harlot in the city, your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, your land shall be divided up and given to others, and you, yourself, shall die in a foreign land, for Israel shall be driven far from its land.”

by

Wednesday, 22 May 2024 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures we are all reminded that as Christians, God’s people and followers, we must always strive to put our faith and trust in the Lord above all the other things, and we must not let ourselves to be swayed or distracted by the many temptations of worldly glory, ambitions and desires, all of which can lead us astray and bring us away from the path of God’s righteousness and grace. If we allow ourselves to be swayed by those temptations, we may end up falling into the path towards eternal damnation and destruction.

In our first reading today, we heard of the words from the Apostle St. James in his exhortation to the faithful people of God, in which he told them all that they must not be so busy worrying and preparing for their plans in the world, with all their preoccupations and all the busy things they carried out to prepare for the next day, for the next week, the next month, and even for the next few years. All these things can prevent us from truly following the Lord faithfully and wholeheartedly, as they may end up dragging us down the path of the pursuit of worldly ambitions, fame and glory.

When we focus so much on our lives in this world and our desires for all sorts of worldly goods and matters, it is easy for us to get distracted and to abandon our faith in God, as we may end up putting our trust more in those worldly things and attachments that we have, such as money, wealth, possessions, worldly pleasures, glory, fame among many other things. Throughout history, it has been proven that many in the Church and among the faithful fell into the path of evil and wickedness because they gave in to those temptations, even those high in position within the Church, corrupted by the worldly desires and temptations.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Mark in which an occasion when the Lord and His group encountered a person who was driving out demons by using His Name, and the disciples complained about the person to the Lord, Who told them that they should not go against the person, or make complaints, as in the end, if the person was doing good works of the Lord, in accordance to the manner that God had done and taught us all, then all those works are equally valid and worthy, and God may have indeed called the person to do His will too, without us knowing about it.

What is significant from this event is that the Lord made it clear that salvation is truly meant for everyone, even if not necessarily those belonging to the group, as there might be cases and occasions when there are people whom not by their fault or deliberate action, not fully belonging to the group of the Lord’s followers. Back then, the disciples of the Lord must have been jealous and unwilling to let the others to have the same gifts, abilities and opportunities to do what they themselves had been entrusted to do. Essentially, the attitude and actions of the disciples were based on worldly desires and jealousy, and that was wrong.

This is therefore a reminder to each and every one of us that we should not allow all sorts of worldly temptations, our ego and pride, our desires for pleasure and for worldly things to sway our decisions and distract us in our path towards God. We must always be resolute in our efforts to resist those temptations and pressures, which are usually always ever present around us, so that we may continue to walk faithfully in God’s path and be the worthy and ever faithful bearers of God’s truth and Good News at all times. Through our lives and examples, we should always strive to proclaim the Lord to everyone whom we encounter in our journey throughout life.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Rita of Cascia, who was a great and holy woman, dedicated in her efforts to live a worthy and good life that is in accordance to the path of the Lord. St. Rita of Cascia was married at a young age to a nobleman despite her desire to join a convent and become a religious sister. Her husband was also known to be immoral and ill-tempered, but despite all that, St. Rita of Cascia lived her life with virtue and zeal for the Lord, and became an exemplary wife and mother to her children, amidst the then challenging landscape of the political and inter-familial rivalries rampant at that time.

One such dispute led to the husband of St. Rita of Cascia to be stabbed to death, and his grieving family desired that the sons of St. Rita of Cascia ought to follow in their father’s footsteps and continue the feud, avenging their father’s murder by the rival family. St. Rita of Cascia tried to dissuade her sons from committing such actions, which would only perpetua and worsen the conflict ever further. When she could not do so, she earnestly prayed to the Lord to take her own sons away from her, as that would have been better than to have them falling into eternal damnation because of the sins that they would commit otherwise.

God listened to her prayers, and eventually in short succession, her sons were taken from her through disease and other means, and this widow and mother eventually entered a monastery, continuing to live her life with great piety and dedication to God, caring for the well-being of the people around her, and showing truly great faith and commitment to God as well as genuine love for her fellow brothers and sisters. Not only that, but through her continued and ceaseless efforts, eventually she also managed to help resolve the feud between the rival families that had led to the murder of her own husband earlier on.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the examples and commitment showed by St. Rita of Cascia, we can see how we can also commit ourselves so that we can continue to live worthily in the path that the Lord has shown us, by distancing ourselves from worldly ambitions and pursuits, and placing our focus in life on the Lord and on doing His will rather than pursuing glory and greatness, which as we have seen from the life of St. Rita of Cascia, to be rather pointless, meaningless and futile, and which often lead us only down the path of destruction and damnation instead of the path of righteousness and virtue.

May the Lord continue to help and strengthen us in our journey, and may He continue to bless us all, empowering us to live faithfully as His good and devout servants, proclaiming His Good News and salvation to everyone. May the Lord bless our every good efforts and endeavours, and may He guide us always in our paths through life, now and always. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 22 May 2024 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Mark 9 : 38-40

At that time, John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon Your Name, and we tried to forbid him, because he does not belong to our group.”

Jesus answered, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My Name can soon after speak evil of Me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

by

Wednesday, 22 May 2024 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

Psalm 48 : 2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11

Hear this, all you peoples! Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, high and low together, rich and poor alike!

Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers ring me round – those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?

For no ransom avails for one’s life; there is no price one can give to God for it. For redeeming one’s life demands too high a price, and all is lost forever. Who can remain forever alive and never see the grave?

For we see that the wise die, and pass away like the fool and the stupid, leaving to others their fortune and wealth.

by

Wednesday, 22 May 2024 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)

James 4 : 13-17

Listen now, you who speak like this, “Today or tomorrow we will go off to this city and spend a year there; we will do business and make money.”

You have no idea what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? No more than a mist, which appears for a moment and then disappears. Instead of this, you should say, “God willing, we will live and do this or that.”

But no! You boast of your plans : this brazen pride is wicked. Anyone who knows what is good, and does not do it, sins.

by

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.