religious

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Friday, 8 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Mark 12 : 28b-34

So a teacher of the Law came up and asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the first of all?”

Jesus answered, “The first is : ‘Hear Israel! The Lord, our God, is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ And after this comes a second commandment : ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these two.”

The teacher of the Law said to Him, “Well spoken, Master; You are right when You say that He is one, and there is no other besides Him. To love Him with all our heart, with all our understanding, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves is more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.”

Jesus approved this answer and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.

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Friday, 8 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Psalm)

Psalm 80 : 6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17

Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. I relieved your shoulder from burden; I freed your hands. You called in distress, and I saved you.

Unseen, I answered you in thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, My people, as I admonish you. If only you would listen, o Israel!

There shall be no strange god among you, you shall not worship any alien god, for I the Lord am your God, who led you forth from the land of Egypt.

If only My people would listen, if only Israel would walk in My ways, I would feed you with the finest wheat and satisfy you with honey from the rock.

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Friday, 8 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (First Reading)

Hosea 14 : 2-10

Return to your God YHVH, o Israel! Your sins have caused your downfall. Return to YHVH with humble words. Say to Him, “Oh You who show compassion to the fatherless forgive our debt, be appeased. Instead the bulls and sacrifices, accept the praise from our lips. Assyria will not save us : no longer shall we look for horses nor ever again shall we say ‘our gods’ to the work of our hands.”

I will heal their wavering and love them with all My heart, for My anger has turned from them. I shall be like dew to Israel, like the lily will he blossom. Like a cedar he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow and spread.

His splendour will be like an olive tree, his fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar. They will dwell in My shade again, they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like a vine, and their fame will be like Lebanon wine.

What would Ephraim do with idols, when it is I who hear and make him prosper? I am like an ever-green cypress tree; all your fruitfulness comes from Me. Who is wise enough to grasp all this? Who is discerning and will understand? Straight are the ways of YHVH : the just walk in them, but the sinners stumble.

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Thursday, 7 February 2013 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

The Lord in today’s reading sent out His disciples to begin spreading His work across broader spectrum of the society of Israel. This is also the base of the authority that our priests and bishops today have, since the Lord has commissioned the Apostles to heal the sick and cast out demons, with authority that came directly from Himself. Through the Apostles, in an unbroken chain of succession, this authority is passed down to our bishops today, and thus to all our priests. It is in this authority that our priests today exercise many of the similar faculties as those of the Apostles.

Our priests are also important in the Church, since they administer to us spiritual healing of our soul, they listen to our sins and by the authority given to them by our Lord through the Apostles, our sins can be forgiven in the confession, if we truly repent and vow to change our sinful ways. They also can cast out demons with the authority of the Lord, in what we know as exorcism. Although this rarely happen today, but it does still happen, and we must always keep each other strong in faith that we do not allow evil to dwell within us, and exploit the absence of light in our hearts.

Sadly, despite the good works that Christ has commissioned the Apostles to, and therefore, the missions that our priests and missionaries have, many still reject the approaches that the Lord has made. Ironically, even many of these rejections also come from ourselves, from those who believe in the Lord. It does not mean that once we are baptised and in the Church, that we no longer need to listen to the Word of God, and receive God’s good graces and work through the priests. We still need these, and indeed, it is important that we read the Scripture and reflect on it daily, in order to gain our daily ‘food’ of the Word of God.

The priests too, by the same power and authority, conduct the Transubstantiation, which is the turning of the bread and wine into the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the same Sacrifice that the Lord made once and for all in Calvary, the very blood that Christ, the Lamb of God, poured down on us, and being a blood more worthy than all others, even that of Abel’s, this perfect offering is accepted by God, and thus, also the Precious Body and Blood on the Altar at the Mass, for our salvation and redemption from sin.

Therefore, let us strive to regularly and frequently receive the Lord into ourselves, and make ourselves always ready and worthy to receive Him into ourselves. That Jesus will be in us, and we in Him, and through Him, we are justified in our faith. Let the Lord to reside in us, and keep ourselves also nourished always with the words of the Holy Scripture, keep ourselves holy, and anchor all our actions in love, in the love that is of the Lord.

Let us pray together too, my brothers and sisters in Christ, that the Lord will ignite the hearts of those whom He called, to be priests of the Lord, and ministers to all the faithful in Christ. Remember that while the harvest is truly plentiful, but we do not have good labourers and workers to harvest them. We need holy, young, and faithful young men blessed and called by the Lord to be His missionaries, just like how Jesus sent the Twelve Apostles. We pray for all the seminarians and those who are on their journey towards the priesthood, that God will bless them and keep them holy and faithful in their journey.

We also pray for ourselves, that all of us can also increase further in faith, in love, and in our dedication to God and to the mission that has been entrusted to all of us. Help one another, and support one another in faith, through love. May God bless all of us, and bless His most holy Church, all the priests, religious, and our Pope, Benedict XVI. Amen.