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Pray for His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke and sign this petition!

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(Image above is courtesy of the Cardinal Newman Society)

All of you must have heard of the recent news that the faithful Cardinal Burke has been transferred from the position of the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura to the largely honorary position of the Cardinal Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

First, while the position of Cardinal Patron is largely honorary, but the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is one of the largest charity arm of the Church, and a multinational organisation with tens of thousands of members vigorously and faithfully serving the people of God around the globe. And secondly, the position of Cardinal Patron will definitely free up more of Cardinal Burke’s time to continue defending the true Faith, just as he had done so at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family which recently ended.

Cardinal Burke is still young at 66, and many bishops and Cardinals all around the world, having known who are the ones that stood up for the Faith and for the Lord, will remember what he had done, and I am certain, that he will soon be elected the Successor of St. Peter the Apostle, and be the Defender of the Faith as the future Vicar of Christ. Pray for this, and pray for the Church of God!

https://www.lifesitenews.com/petitions/thank-you-cardinal-burke-for-your-vatican-service

Please sign the above petition as well, to show our gratitude to Cardinal Burke’s often thankless and yet courageous service to God, His Church and His beloved people.

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Thursday, 13 February 2014 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 7 : 24-30

When Jesus left that place, He went to the border of the Tyrian country. There He entered a house, and did not want anyone to know He was there, but He could not remain hidden. A woman, whose small daughter had an evil spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet.

Now this woman was a pagan, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she begged Him to drive the demon out of her daughter. Jesus told her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to puppies.” But she replied, “Sir, even the puppies under the table eat the crumbs from the children’s bread.”

Then Jesus said to her, “You may go your way; because of such a response, the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And when the woman went home, she found her child lying in bed, and the demon gone.

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My Prayer Intention for Friday, 2 August 2013 and Saturday, 3 August 2013

1. For the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, my beloved Cathedral. May the Lord continue to bless all the people who come to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at this aged but wonderful church. May the Lord moved the hearts of many to donate generously to the Restoration Fund, to repair the damages that had been caused by the constructions around the Cathedral in the past few years, and made it rejuvenated once again, as the Mother church of the Archdiocese of Singapore.

2. For healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, and all involved with the care and well-being of others. May the Lord continue to bless and strengthen them in their work, that they will be able to continue to provide many with their service, which they offered to ensure that everyone has no need to worry of being sick, just as Christ once came to heal the sick and those with infirmities. May the Lord remind them always of the commitment that they have to love those who are sick, that they will truly be men and women for others, and not for the money the career offers them.

3. For our parents and elders. May the Lord bless and protect them all the days of their life. May He grant them good health and happy life, especially in their old age. For they had been our protectors and our guardians for much of the early parts of our life, even till this very moment. May He bless them just as they have blessed us, and may He protect them just as He has always protected us, giving them the same grace and love that we enjoy from our Lord today and forever.

May the Lord have mercy on us and show His love for us always, as He had done through the ultimate sacrifice of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. The victorious and triumphant cross, a sign of hope for all of us, that He, who hears all the prayers and petitions of His beloved children, will never abandon us, but will bring us all to eternal life in Him. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 28 July 2013 : 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God who is our Father is kind, and He is loving, because He is love, and true love personified, in all its perfection. The Lord cannot deny Himself, and He loves everyone without exception. This love He had poured down upon the world through the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Messiah, our Saviour. And to add to that, the numerous reminders He had sent us and His people, Israel, through the prophets and their prophecies and the visions and revelations He had given them.

He loves us all and He will surely listen to our needs, and He truly knows all that we need. That is why we should never worry, and instead we all should put our full trust in Him, for He is a loving God, who is just and righteous in all the things He does. But remember, brothers and sisters, that He is also an avenging God, just as He is loving, because He hates sin first of all things, and all things evil and abhorring in His eyes. If we sin and do not repent, we will face the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were wiped out from the face of the earth for their sins.

But our Father in heaven does not just want empty worship and prayers either, as many of us would certainly had done in the past, paying lip service to the Lord who loves us. He wants from us our hearts, our full attention and dedication, just as He Himself had paid full attention to all of us sinners, all these while. We are like lost sheep to Him, whom He cannot ignore, and He would use all in His power to bring us back, like a shepherd going all out to find even one lost sheep.

So that we would not be lost, like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were lost in their debauchery and their sinful lives, where sin had blinded and deafened them to the Lord their God, He had sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be a new light, a new hope for all of us. And one of the things that He had done to make sure that we will not be lost forever was that to teach us how to pray, how to pray to the Lord our God with all our hearts, our minds, and our full attention, that our prayer is indeed truly a prayer, pure and beautiful in the eyes and ears of the Lord.

To pray is to communicate with our Lord, and that is the key essence of what a prayer truly is. To pray is not to bring in endless litanies of requests and wishes, or bugging our Lord for His help whenever we are in dire straits. To pray is not to turn to the Lord only when we are in difficulties and in need of great help, or in the state of danger. Indeed, as the Lord has told us, and Christ His Son has taught us through His disciples, that prayer must be done, at all times, with a sincere and pure heart.

That was why Christ taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer, the very prayer that came out of the mouth of the Word of God, Christ Himself. This prayer is a perfect prayer, the most sincere and purest of all prayers that are ever be in this world, be it on earth or in heaven. The Lord’s Prayer, which we recite and pray every Mass and most likely pray every day, is the model prayer for all of us. It is a simple yet a clear-cut prayer, straight to the point in its meaning, and pure in its intentions.

Yes, a prayer must always begin with glorifying the Lord our God and praising His Name, and all His love and kindness that He had shown us, all His beloved children. A prayer must never be a litany of requests and petitions, but indeed, it must be a humble prayer, showing our sincerity and humility before the throne of God, for we are nothing and full of sin, and yet He rescued us and made us whole and pure once again, with none other than the Blood of His own Son’s sacrifice on the cross.

In a prayer, we have to listen to God just as God listens to us. A prayer is a two-way communication between God and man, the link between our Creator and us His creations. He speaks to us in mysterious ways and in the depth and the silence of our hearts. If we keep our hearts closed to Him, we will not be able to listen to Him. It is often that we have to cast away our pride and sinfulness, and the deafening noise of the world, so that we will be able to listen to our Lord, and communicate sincerely with Him through prayer.

That is why brothers and sisters, whenever we pray, we should close ourselves from the world, and take away any form of distractions which may distract us and disturb our precious link with the Lord our God. Do it in silence and in the privacy of our rooms, and it is also important that we make use of every opportunity we have to be silent, even at a workplace, to listen to the Lord speaking to us. Even that is prayer, brothers and sisters in Christ!

That is also why in the Mass, it is important to have silent moments, after the readings, during the time after we receive the Lord in the Holy Communion, and even at times before the Mass starts or after the Mass has finished. These are precious moments we can use to communicate with our God, especially if we are busy with our work in any other times. It is important, brothers and sisters, that we respond to the Lord’s calls and know what He wants us to do with our lives. Be like the prophet Samuel, who in his youth was called by the Lord and he answered to it, and listened to the word of God.

As I had mentioned, God is merciful and loving just as He is just and a punishing God. If we ask and knock at His door, He will surely listen to us and consider our repentance. You see, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord does not take pleasure in seeing the punishment and suffering of His children, and He certainly does not enjoy punishing us for our sins. Indeed, it caused Him great pain to punish mankind for their sins and their rebellions, and it is especially hard for the Lord to punish His own chosen people of Israel, when they erred and preferred the pagan gods and idols, and their constant rebellions during the journey from Egypt and after they had had the Promised Land as their own.

That is why, in our prayer, what is important is for us to recognise our own weaknesses, our own sinfulness, and our own unworthiness, that we lay them all bare before the Lord our God, that the Lord who sees all, will see our sincerity and the sincerity of our repentance, our contrite hearts, the true offering from us that He desires. Open the doors of our heart to Him, just as He opened His doors for us to enter. That we may be in Him just as He is in us.

Do not fear God and His punishment, but be courageous and approach the throne of God, the throne of mercy. For the Lord is the Divine Mercy who will embrace sinners and those who sincerely acknowledge their faults and seek to be healed. For Christ had come to save sinners and those who are sick from sin, and bring them back to health once again, that is a life of grace in God. However, He cannot do much help to us, if we ourselves did not open the doors of our heart for Him to come in.

He knocks at our doors too, brothers and sisters in Christ, just as we knock at His doors in heaven, to give Him our prayers and petitions. In the same way, the Lord too longs to speak to us all in our hearts. That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, harden not our hearts the way the Pharaoh and the people of Israel had once hardened their hearts, but open it, for the Lord who wants to come in and dwell within us. Listen to Him and do what He wants us to do, and our lives will be blessed.

May the Lord who saved us from death deliver us from evil and his corruptions, that we may not suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah, where not even ten righteous ones could be found. May He protect us from harm and bring us to the life eternal that He had promised us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord who speaks to us in silence helps us to gain greater understanding in the importance of prayer in our lives, so that we will always be attuned to Him, in line with His will, and always ever be in His grace. God bless us all. Amen!

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Tuesday, 16 July 2013 : 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ! Indeed, we are all brethren, brothers and sisters to one another, because all of us share the same Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, who is our Brother. He did not leave mankind behind when we sinned against Him and rebelled against His love and His will. Instead, as the reading pointed out today, He came to dwell among us, and be with us, that we become His brethren, and will have part in Him and His salvation.

The Lord dwells within us, because we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, which must be kept holy at all times, and free from the filth of sin and evil. To do so, we must reflect Christ in all the things that we do, in all the words that we say, and in all the works of our hands. And to reflect Christ simply means to love, loving God with all our hearts and our entire being, and also to love our neighbours, our brethren as much as we love ourselves.

If we do all these, in the complete awareness of what we are doing, which glorify Christ more and more, we will be brought closer and ever be with God. He will accept us as His own, as His brethren, and He will protect us from the harm caused by the evil one. To us, He had shown compassion and love, just as the love shown by shepherd to his sheep. If we are lost, like the lost sheep, He will do all the things He can, in order to bring us back to Him again.

But we must also remain obedient to Christ, as even if we are already saved, we can be lost once again, if we do not remain faithful to our calling in life, that is to be with Christ and to love Him with all our strength. Especially, in our world today, it is easy for one to fall away from grace, because of the increasing materialism in this world, the temptations of pleasure and false happiness that this world provide to many people, that they began to turn away from the teachings of Christ.

Doing the will of God is what God truly desires from us all, and in following Christ and His teachings, we are doing the will of God, that is love, for one another, and for God Himself. If we show love in our actions, we are doing God’s will and therefore will always remain in God’s grace, and we will be save from damnation of death and hell that awaits those who disobeyed the Lord and continued their lives in sin.

Today, we are celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, an important feast day for the Carmelites, a well-known religious order, which began at Mount Carmel itself, which is located in Israel today, the same location where the prophet Elijah contested against the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal, the pagan god, in front of the people of Israel, on who is the true God of Israel.

Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, appeared to St. Simon Stock, who was the founder of the Carmelite Order, and gave him what is well-known today as the brown scapular, closely associated with this feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The Carmelites themselves placed the Blessed Virgin Mary as the perfect role model for all faithful to follow, in their faith to the Lord, in following the example of Mary herself, in her dedication to her Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, from His birth, to His suffering on the way to Calvary and death on the cross.

So devoted is our Lady to her Son, our Lord Jesus, that she followed Him all the way through His suffering for our sake, to the cross, and stood by below Him, accompanying Him through the time of His greatest ordeal. Though sword pierced her heart, for seeing the cruel death of her Son, she persevered and our Lord gave her to His disciple, John, and gave him to His mother too.

Therefore, in the same way, our Blessed Virgin Mary had been given to us by the Lord Himself, and we had also been given to the care of our Lady, whom we celebrate today as the Lady of Mount Carmel, to be our mother and helper. Why helper? Because our Lady is the greatest of the saints, through her own position being the mother of God, but even more importantly because of her purity and dedication to the Lord and all God’s children.

Today we follow the example of the Carmelites, to give our love and dedication to the Lord, through His mother, our Blessed Virgin Mary. Because, just as the Carmelites stress in their formations and principles, there is no better way to the Lord other than through Mary, His mother. Mary is our greatest intercessor before the Lord for His mercy and help, because, just as at the wedding at Cana, Jesus did listen to His mother, when she pleaded with Him to help the wedding brides despite Him telling her explicitly that the time has not yet come for Him to reveal His power.

That is why we dedicate ourselves in prayer through the Blessed Virgin Mary, who became a guide in our journey towards the Lord. She helps us through her prayer, and because she is closest among the saints in heaven to the Lord, our prayers will be heard, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

That is why it is good for us to follow the example of the Carmelites and indeed, of our Lady herself, in their dedication to Jesus our Lord, on the love they have to our Lord and Saviour. Jesus did not mean any disrespect when He seemingly rebuked His own family when they were waiting for Him as told in the Gospel today. Indeed, Jesus actually affirmed the honoured position His mother had, because Jesus told the people that whoever does the will of God and do things for the sake of the Lord, they are His brethren, His family. Who else is more faithful and more obedient to the will of God other than Mary, our Lord’s own mother? The Virgin who readily accepted her role in the salvation of all mankind by accepting the Lord’s will for her, to be the vessel that brought the Saviour into this world.

Surely, today we must rejoice, that we have our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to intercede for our sake before her Son, our Lord and God. Through her we can be closer to Christ, and through her prayers for our sake, all of us who are sinners have greater hope of salvation, because Christ Himself will surely be moved by the petitions and pleas of His own mother, who cares for us just like her own children. Remember, when Christ gave His mother to John to be cared for, He also gave her to us, that we become her own, and receive the love and care that she had once shown Jesus.

May our Lady of Mount Carmel, our Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, pray for us and protect us from the harm of evil that is in our world, and through her, may we be able to get closer and reach higher to Christ, her Son, that in the future, we will be able to praise Him together with her, and all the saints and holy people of God in heaven. Amen.

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Tuesday, 21 May 2013 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Sts. Christopher Magallanes, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs (Scripture Reflection)

Be humble, brethren, and you will be great in God’s eyes. For humility is one of the most difficult virtue to be achieved by us mankind, because of our frailty and susceptibility to the temptations of power, our natural sense of pride, and the sense of arrogance, which prevents us from stooping down and be humble before another person, which in this case, especially is the Lord our God Himself.

Humility is a great virtue, and the Lord is pleased with those who are humble. Even God Himself, in Christ, was truly humble. After all, what kind of humility can be ever greater than the humility that our God Himself had done when He lowered Himself so much to be born as a lowly and mortal man, through the Virgin Mary?

Love one another and do not contend with your brethren for power and personal glory, for what is our glory and achievements compared to the glory of God, that is the real glory? What is our minute achievement compared to the achievements and wonders created by our Lord and God? And with a single sacrifice on the cross, with the outpouring of His Most Precious Blood, He cleansed all creations of all time from their faults and sins, making everything good and worthy again of the Lord.

Do not fear for God is always with us, and He will continue to accompany us, as long as we are willing to hear Him and listen to His words. That is why humility and readiness to submit and listening capacity are important because pride and arrogance often cloud our perceptions and close our hearts from the words of the Lord.

Remember that Satan, the devil himself was born out of pride, out of jealousy of the Lord’s almighty power and authority, wishing to gain such powers for himself and unseating God to be the Lord of all creation. Thus was how Lucifer, the former lightbringer fell, and fell hard he did, from the most beautiful and mighty of all creation, to become the lowest and most despicable of all.

That’s the same with how the Lord will bring down the proud and the haughty ones, bringing them low, and at the same time, lifting up those who are humble and meek, and give them the authority even over those who are filled with their own arrogance and confidence in their own power. This is because they trust in their own power and abilities, and not in the power of the Lord who saves.

Today, we also celebrate the feast day of Saints Christopher Magallanes and his companions, who were martyrs of Mexican persecution of the Catholic Church in the early twentieth century. Mexico became a hotbed of anti-Church sentiments and even the government became very hostile to the Church and particularly to the clergy, resulting in massive persecution of the Church there and the martyrdom of many of the clergy, which includes Saints Christopher Magallanes and his companions.

Saint Christopher Magallanes and his companions resisted the opposition by the Mexican government by opening alternative seminaries when the government closed down a seminary intended for the preparation of new clergy. He preached against rebellion against the government by the faithful, but yet he was falsely accused of plotting in rebellion and was martyred. He remained steadfast and faithful till the end with his companions, who was martyred with him.

Saint Christopher Magallanes might just be a simple country priest in Mexico, but through his courageous actions and his zeal, and through his defense of the faith and the Church till his death, God elevates him to the glory of sainthood, and he is now there in heaven interceding for us before the Lord.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today strive to be more humble, to humbly submit our sinful selves before the Lord our God, asking Him for forgiveness and clemency. Let us also follow in the footsteps of Sts. Christopher Magallanes and his companions, in their zeal, their humility, and yet courageous defense of the faith, that we too can become brave witnesses of Christ and the Gospels, and will not buckle despite temptations by the devil and the world. May God bless us all in this journey.

Saints Christopher Magallanes and companions, pray for us! Amen.