holy women

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Saturday, 1 October 2016 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Missions (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of a great saint, the Patroness of Missions and a Doctor of the Church. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, also known as St. Therese of Lisieux was a great woman, very devoted to God in her prayers and devotions, and in her many works and writings, she displayed exemplary faith and commitment which became inspiration to many others who also therefore walked in her path.

St. Therese of Lisieux was a Discalced Carmelite nun, who joined the religious life from early in her youth, desiring a life wholly dedicated to the Lord. She managed to enter the religious life early at the age of fifteen despite many obstacles and difficulties in her path at that time. She was often sickly and weak in her youth, and throughout her convent life, she was still also often bedridden and sick, but these did not dampen her bright spiritual devotion to the Lord.

The sufferings she went through were painful, but on one occasion in her life, she experienced a total conversion and change, a moment of revelation from the Lord, when she was able to overcome the obstacles and obstructions of her physical and mental state, and which would govern her way of life, thinking and action from then on. She grew ever stronger in her devotion to God, and spending many hours each day in prayer and in deep communication with Him.

She lived her life in obedience to God and to her spiritual and religious superiors, writing her experiences and visions, and discussing many aspects of the faith in her works. Many of these still inspire many people even to this day. And most famous of her works and thoughts is the ‘Little Way’ which she propagated and promoted as the way to achieve the salvation in the Lord. As such she was also known as the Little Flower of Carmel.

This little way has many meanings and aspects, brothers and sisters in Christ, but essentially, it is when we use our every actions and little, small acts in life to be showcase of our love, devotion and commitment to the Lord. It is not by great strides and mighty, proud deeds that we mankind will reach to the Lord, for all these instead will tend to cause our downfall through pride and hubris. Rather, the little way of St. Therese of Lisieux encouraged us to become smaller, humbler and like that of a child in the sight and presence of our God.

This is exactly what Jesus our Lord Himself spoke to His disciples in our Gospel passage today. We are quite familiar with that passage, as we should know that God welcomes children to His presence, and on that occasion, He chided them and rebuked them for quarrelling and disagreeing with one another just over the matter of who would be the most important in the kingdom of Heaven.

That is one of our humanity’s weakness, brethren, that we often succumb to our human and worldly desires, to the temptations of power, riches, fame and greatness or glory in this world. We bicker and fight over even the smallest of things, and we often desire what others have, be it position, honour, or appreciation from others around us.

That is why many of us have not been truly faithful to the Lord, and that is why even many Christians committed many sinful deeds that are unbecoming of them. They were unable to detach themselves from the many persuasions and temptations of the world that the devil is putting on our path, in order to make us stumble and fall into sin.

Ultimately, let us all reflect on our own actions. If we have been spending so much time thinking, worrying and trying to obtain more worldly goods, power, fame, influence and all the others for ourselves, let us then ask ourselves, what is the point of all that? If we die tomorrow, if God wills it, then none of these will be carried with us into the afterlife to come. Rich or poor, strong or weak, famous or unknown, all are equal before God, and all will be judged based on their actions or lack of actions.

If our preoccupation with all those things that distract us from the Lord and His ways have made us to ignore and abandon the plights of the weak, the needy and the poor or worse, if we have even manipulated these and made them suffer in our pursuit of worldliness, then we truly need to change our ways. And the best way is to follow the little way of St. Therese of Lisieux, the advice of our Lord Jesus, making ourselves as small as possible, like that of a child.

What does it mean? It means that rather than being swallowed by our ego and pride, we should be like a child in our faith, innocent and true, and just as a child will believe completely and strongly in something that he or she believes, we too should be pure and total in our dedication to the Lord, and not be distracted by the many concerns of the world surrounding us.

May the examples of St. Therese of Lisieux be our inspiration and guide, and may God help us in our effort to reach out to Him and to His salvation. May we all die to our greed and desires, and be reborn in our renewed faith and dedication to the Lord, that we may finally leave the temptations and the pleasures of this world aside, and commit ourselves wholly to the Lord our God. Amen.

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Saturday, 1 October 2016 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Missions (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 18 : 1-5

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you that, unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in My Name receives Me.”

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Saturday, 1 October 2016 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Missions (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 131 : 1-3

Remember David, o Lord, and all his readiness, how he swore an oath to the Lord, to the Mighty One of Jacob. I will not enter my house nor get into my bed.

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Saturday, 1 October 2016 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Missions (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 66 : 10-14

Rejoice for Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Be glad with her, rejoice with her, all you who were in grief over her, that you may suck of the milk from her comforting breasts, that you may drink deeply from the abundance of her glory.

For this is what YHVH says : I will send her peace, overflowing like a river, and the nations’ wealth, rushing like a torrent towards her. And you will be nursed and carried on her arms and fondled upon her lap. As a son comforted by his mother, so will I comfort you.

At the sight of this, your heart will rejoice; like grass, your bones will flourish. For it shall be known that YHVH’s hand is with His servant, but His fury is upon His enemy.

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Friday, 16 September 2016 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Cornelius, Pope and St. Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 8 : 1-3

At that time, Jesus walked through towns and countryside, preaching and giving the Good News of the kingdom of God. The Twelve followed Him, and also some women, who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases : Mary called Magdalene, who had been freed of seven demons; Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Suzanna, and others who provided for them out of their own funds.

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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when we all celebrate together the birthday of the Mother of our Lord, who was born of her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, and destined from the moment of her conception, immaculate and free from the taints of sin, to be the bearer of God’s salvation.

On this day, we celebrate together the birth of the one who would eventually become the Ark of the New Covenant, the bearer of the Messiah and the Saviour of the world. Today is a significant event, for the birth of Mary heralded the beginning of the time of grace, as God’s long awaited plan of salvation for His people was being fulfilled through her.

And as we listened to the message of the Sacred Scriptures, surely all of us would wonder why then the Lord would bother to go through so much trouble just in order to deal with us His people. We must be wondering why would He go through all these to help us and to bring us out from the darkness and into the light of His salvation. But that is exactly the wonder of the mysteries that God had revealed to us, that is His love.

God loves us all so much, so much so that in His love, He certainly would not want to see us suffer and perish in the darkness together with Satan and his allies who He had condemned into the eternal damnation. For us, there is still hope if we are able to commit ourselves to change our ways and to repent from all those sins and the things that kept us separated from God.

But in order to establish firmly the covenant and promise which He had made with us mankind, His beloved people, He has given us the perfect gift in His own Son, the Divine Word Incarnate, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. And as promised by Himself to us through His prophets and servants, He would Himself come and dwell among us, to be one with us, that we may be His people, and He may be our God.

If at the ancient times, God descended among His people in pillars of cloud and fire, then God has since then decided to dwell among us, to be with us His beloved ones, and what way is better than for He Himself to come down upon us and dwell among us as one of us? He took up our flesh through the intermediary of His mother Mary, that as He share in our flesh and existence, so will He share with us His glory and the eternal life He has promised us.

And through Mary, His mother and along with her, He has shown us the examples of how we ought to live our lives that we may be considered and be counted among His faithful and righteous ones. She is a role model for us all in how she had been faithful to the mission which has been entrusted to her. Mary since her birth has been a devoted servant of the Lord, pious and righteous in all her ways.

But most importantly, even though there were uncertainties and doubts in her heart, she gave her all and devote herself completely to the care and love for her Son, Jesus our Lord. She persevered through all the challenges, protecting and guiding her Son through His life. And having followed Him through her life, following Him even through the moments of His Passion, looking at His suffering at the hands of His tormentors and enemies, and eventually witnessing His death on the cross, certainly what she had done was not merely something ordinary.

Having stood by faithfully and committed herself completely to the Lord, and by being righteous, upright and just in all of her actions and deeds in life, Mary is indeed the best role model for all of us the people who are faithful to God and members of His Church. By following her, we will be able to find the best path to reach out to the Lord our God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rejoice and celebrate today in commemoration of the birth of the mother of our Lord, Mary, the Mother of God, let us all also take some time to reflect on our own actions in life, and see in what way we can emulate and follow in the footsteps of Mary. May the Lord help us in this endeavour, and guide us that we may find our way to reach Him and the salvation which He has promised us all. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : 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 od 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. There were then fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, and fourteen generations from David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the birth of Christ.

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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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : 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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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : 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, 27 August 2016 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of a great and remarkable saint, a loving and devoted mother, one of the cherished daughter of our Lord, who had given herself to serve the Lord, especially by her tireless and never-ending perseverance in trying to make her son, another very famous and important saint, to return to the faith in God and be saved from eternal damnation.

And as I will elaborate more on the matter later on, let us see how this great woman had fulfilled and done what the Scriptures today have heeded us to do, that we do the same things and commit ourselves in the same way that she has done it. It is important then that we take note of what the Lord spoke of through His Apostle St. Paul in our first reading today about whom God had chosen to be His word-bearers and tools among the nations, and what He Himself spoke about in the Gospel regarding the parable of the silver talents and the good and the lazy servants.

In the first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and to the faithful ones in Corinth, St. Paul spoke passionately about being chosen by God, and whom God had chosen to be His people, and more importantly to be those who would become His bearers of the truth that He brought into the world, that through them and their works, they might bring eternal life and salvation to all those who believe in them.

In this matter, we should see how God had not chosen by using worldly standards of power, influence, fame and wealth. God did not choose us because we are great in the eyes of this world, unlike how people in this world usually gets chosen for something important. While the world praised and glorified wealth, praising those who have been successful in getting more money and accomplishments for themselves, but God chose differently.

God chose not the powerful of the world but instead what is powerful according to His standards, that is the strength of our devotion and commitment, the strength of our faith and the love that is within each and every one of us. For God, there is no greater value in us than the love which we show back to Him, He Who has loved us all and cared for us. God values not all the riches and the wealth that this world can assemble, for these are temporary and transient in nature.

And yet, it does not mean that we should just accept God’s calling and then be passive in all things. It also does not mean that we should then lay back and do nothing since after all God does not value the wealth, riches, fame and all the other worldly things, is He not? As we then need to look deeper just beyond what St. Paul had said and link it to what we also heard in the Gospel today, where our Lord Jesus spoke about the parable of the silver talents and the servants.

In that parable, God spoke about a master who entrusted his silver talents to several servants, each of which did differently with the silver talents entrusted to them. But the gist of the matter is that while the good and devoted servants invested those silver talents which they have received, and received back not just the silver talents they invested but also even more silver talents as profit, the lazy and wicked servant just hid the silver talent, never investing them, and in the end gained nothing.

This is a comparison which we can make with our own lives in this world. We are all the servants to our Master and Lord, and we have been entrusted with different kinds of gifts that God had blessed us with, our talents and abilities, as well as the seeds of faith, hope and love that He has planted in each and every one of us. And yet, how they would come to be depends indeed entirely on us and our ability to grow them and prepare them through our work and effort.

To be a Christian means that we must be active, and indeed be actively involved in the actions that God has called us into, that is to serve and to love one another with sincerity and generosity from deep within our hearts, probably just as how much as St. Monica, the holy woman and a devoted mother had done in her own life. She devoted her life for the sake of her son, St. Augustine of Hippo, who would go on to become a great saint in his own right.

We mostly would know St. Augustine of Hippo as a very great saint who is now known as one of the four original Doctors of the Church, and who with St. Jerome is among the two pillars that helped to establish the Church in the West, that is Rome and thus what our Church today is about, and what we believe in. His writings are still widely read today and continued to inspire many, but these all would not have been possible if not for the tireless efforts of St. Monica, his mother.

St. Monica was a Christian who married a pagan husband, who was an important administrator in the public service. Their son, St. Augustine was given the best of education possible and available to him, and yet, he drifted slowly into the wickedness and the debauchery of the world, seeking pleasures and hedonistic pursuits in life, following the examples of his peers and friends.

Certainly, no mother would ever want her child to fall into the abyss, and no mother would ever want to lose her child to the darkness of sin. And as a Christian herself, we can simply imagine what kind of pain and sorrow existed in the heart and mind of St. Monica, who was faced with that great agony of seeing how both her husband, a pagan, and her son in particular, were slipping into the embrace of the devil and eternal damnation.

Then we have to note what St. Monica did ceaselessly without fear and without stop, that she prayed and hoped without end, knowing that God would answer her prayers, and rescue the soul of her beloved ones from the chasm of death. And God did answer her prayers and her charitable efforts, and touched by her loving care, first it was her husband who turned to the Lord, and then St. Augustine himself, as he felt that longing for something that he could not find in the debauchery of the world, that is God alone.

The perseverance and the love that St. Monica had shown us is truly exemplary, and she had shown us the love of a good and devoted Christian mother, as how a Christian is supposed to be like. Let us all learn from what she had done, and how she had devoted her life to God, to her husband, and more famously from these, is how she had loved her son and had not given him up to the darkness.

Therefore, shall we also do the same to our brethren around us? Shall we not show love, care and compassion for our brothers and sisters who are now struggling in the darkness? Let us endeavour to break free from our comfort zones and seek out to be the light and the bearers of God’s salvation to these brethren of ours.

May God help us in our work and efforts to bring each other closer to His presence, that all of us may be saved and may receive the glory of eternal life, just as what St. Monica had done, never ceasing to believe that her son, St. Augustine, could be saved from eternal death in sin. God bless us all. Amen.