salvation of souls

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Sunday, 31 August 2014 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 16 : 21-27

From that day Jesus began to make it clear to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem; that He would suffer many things from the Jewish authorities, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law; and that He would be killed and be raised on the third day.

Then Peter took Him aside and began to reproach Him, “Never, Lord! No, this must never happen to You!” But Jesus turned to him and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an obstacle in My path. You are thinking not as God does, but as people do.”

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If you want to follow Me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. For whoever chooses to have his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for My sake will find it. What will one gain by winning the whole world if he destroys his soul? There is nothing you can give to get back your soul.”

“Know that the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels, and He will reward each one according to His deeds.”

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Dedication and Prayer for those who had passed away in various circumstances

St. Augustine of Hippo once said, “He who sings prays twice.” Thus, with the limitations and the resources I have, I would like to dedicate these in prayer for the sake of those who had gone before us in various circumstances.

I would like in particular to commend someone who was known to me and who just passed away due to accident a few days ago, and I also would like to commend in prayer those who have perished and suffered from various persecutions and torture throughout the Middle East conflict, as well as any victims of injustice and violence throughout the world. And lastly, all others who had also passed away before us, and who now keep us in their prayers before God.

May God hear our prayers and guide their souls into His presence and kingdom in heaven, that they may receive eternal rest and glory at His side. And pray for us, brethren! Pray for us sinners who are still walking about in this world.

 

In paradisum (translation: “Into paradise”)

Lyric:

In paradisum deducant te Angeli;

May the angels lead you to paradise;

 

in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,

upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you,

 

et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem.

and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem.

 

Chorus angelorum te suscipiat,

May the ranks of angels receive you,

 

et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.

and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.

 

 

Amazing Grace

Lyric:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall profess, within the vail,
A life of joy and peace.

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Thursday, 21 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Pius X, Pope (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of a great saint, the Pope of the Holy Eucharist as he is famously known, namely Pope St. Pius X, the first Pope to be elected in the twentieth century, and a great reformer of the faith who brought great rejuvenation both to the Church and to God’s people. Pope St. Pius X had done a great deal of goodness for the Lord and His people, and the effects of what He had done can still be clearly felt today.

Pope St. Pius X was the one who reformed much of the liturgy and the celebration of worship in the Church, and he made the Gregorian chant once again the predominant hymn and song used in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Through his contributions, he made the liturgy of worship to God much richer and more beneficial for the growth of the faith and devotion among the faithful. Numerous other contributions he had made to the benefit of God’s people.

And his greatest contribution was the great improvement in the accessibility and focus on the Most Holy Eucharist, the very Precious Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who had given us these freely as He offered Himself humbly to the Lord as the sacrifice for the sake of our salvation, which we celebrate regularly in the Holy Mass. This is the centre of our faith, and the very foundation of what we believe in God.

In addition, if we today know the Holy Communion as something we always do every time we attend the Holy Mass, and if we can remember the time when we first received the Holy Communion in our early youth, then all of these could be attributed to the works of this holy Pope, Pope St. Pius X, and this is why he is also known famously as the Pope of the Eucharist. Why is this so? Let me elaborate further.

Pope St. Pius X encouraged frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist by the faithful, and he also lowered the minimum age required for the reception of the first Holy Communion, bringing the Lord closer to even young children. This reminds us clearly of what the Lord Jesus had said to His disciples and followers, that all of us ought to imitate the faith of children, and we should not prevent children from coming to the Lord.

With that consideration, what Pope St. Pius X had done was truly exemplary, allowing children, provided that they are at an age when they are already able to discern about the Lord, to receive the Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist, certainly at an age significantly younger than what was previously stipulated and practiced in the Church. This helps many of the youths and children to be close to the Lord for the important years when their faiths in God are developing and taking roots.

And ultimately, today we will focus on the role of this holy man and shepherd of the Church, in how he transformed and brought the Lord and His fullness of truth into the centre of the faithful’s attention, by emphasizing strongly on the importance of worship and the properness in worship of the Lord, in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we also celebrate today, but which in many places had notably dropped in terms of our ability to appreciate how important it is to properly worship the Lord.

This relates precisely to the reading of today, in which Jesus told His disciples a parable, which described the wedding feast organised by a king for his son, and how the guests whom the king had invited to the feast refused to come to the feast prepared for them. Those guests were given what they had deserved, and they were cast down.

And when the king invited new groups of people who were then invited to the wedding banquet, he found someone who was not wearing the garments appropriate for the wedding feast, and consequently he was thrown out of the banquet and cast into the darkness to suffer the penalty of his actions and his ignorance.

How is this relevant to us and our faith? Precisely because the Holy Mass is the wedding banquet of the Lord, when the Lord comes to be one with us and to dwell among us, none other than through His Most Holy Presence in the Eucharist, bread and wine transformed completely into the Most Precious Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And our focus should indeed be on the action of the guest who had come into the banquet not wearing the appropriate wedding garment. This in fact reflects on those among us, and many of us indeed, who did not take the celebration of the sacrifice of our Lord seriously. It reflects clearly on our part when we are not serious about our part in the celebration of the Holy Mass. And in particular, in the recent years, more and more abuses of worship and of the celebration has occurred.

How many of us would come to the Church properly dressed and with a proper heart and mind? That means, how many of us actually prepare ourselves thoroughly to attend the Holy Mass and participate with the fullness of our hearts? Many of us often did not do so, and conveniently ignored these, and ended up physically and spiritually unprepared to be with the Lord in the Mass. In this, we are no different from the person who attended the king’s banquet without a proper clothing.

The Mass is truly great and holy, because in it we celebrate the very sacrifice that our Lord had made that day on the hill of Calvary, when He was hung on the cross between the heavens and earth, and for what? For our sake, brethren, that is for our salvation. He died so that He may break us free from the bonds of death and destruction that await us and bring us into life. And in that, He offered Himself through the Body and Blood He gave us, which through His priests, who transformed the bread and wine into that of our Lord’s Body and Blood for us to receive and eat, and drink.

If it is the Lord Himself who is present in the Holy Mass, then why did we not worship Him? Why did we not respect Him? Why did we blaspheme against Him by our words and actions? And why did we ignore Him and attend to our own needs and to our own human arrogance? I am talking about how many people increasingly lost their focus, and especially in the Mass, and they end up not worshipping God and His love, but instead praising themselves.

This is evident from the rise of unorthodox and heretical practices in the Holy Mass, which in many places, particularly in the West, but also widespread in other places, of inappropriate actions by both the laity and the priests, who did not give glory to God through their actions, but instead glorify and praise themselves. The practices of ‘liturgical dance’, speaking in tongues, use of inappropriate music in the celebration of the Mass and many other liturgical abuses of the Mass, unlike the attitude of the man without a proper garment in the banquet.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this great occasion of the feast of Pope St. Pius X, let us ask for his kind intercession and help, so that the Lord may strengthen the faith in us, and hopefully we may learn to know how to properly prepare and place ourselves in the worship of our great Lord and God. Let us all redirect our attention away from ourselves back towards the Lord. Let us all restore the solemnity and holiness in the celebration of the Holy Mass. Let us all work together to make our celebration of the Mass be truly heaven on earth, and get rid of any forms of abuses that still mar our spirit of celebration of this great banquet of the Lord.

May Almighty God guide us on our efforts, strengthen our faith and renew in us the love that we have for Him. Let us strive to make our worship a true worship once again, gaining inspiration from what Pope St. Pius X had once done for the good of the souls of the faithful. God be with us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 16 August 2014 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the essence of today’s Scripture readings that we heard is that we have to cast away our old lives and habits filled with sin. We have to seek the Lord with a faith much like that of the faith of a children. And why children? This is because, as we all know, a children’s heart, mind and soul are pure and immaculate as on the day when they were born, and they had not yet been corrupted by the many evils in the world, which had turned many people away from God and into destruction.

Jesus told His disciples to have faith like that of a children, and rebuked them for being angry with children coming towards Christ. Indeed, the faith of a child is a pure faith and one that is genuine and devoted in fullness of the heart, and also of the mind and soul. And thus, we too should also be like those children, who come and seek the Lord with true and genuine intentions, for them to come and approach the Lord with love and desire to be with Him.

It is much too often for us, for all mankind to be so engrossed with many things in our lives that we have often forgotten about God, our loving Lord and Father. And not only that, we also often forget about the laws and precepts of the Lord, and instead we grow fond of our own way of life, and how we see others live in this world, and therefore we end up defiling ourselves with sin and impurities that made us incompatible with the goodness of the Lord.

However, this does not mean that we have no hope or that we should despair over our conditions. What is necessary is that we are awakened and become aware of our shortcomings and sinfulness, so that we may know of the urgency with which we should act in seeking the Lord and asking for His forgiveness for our sins. Repentance and honesty in seeking forgiveness is the key, and this is very important for us to realise before it is too late.

God desires not our destruction, for each and every one of us are truly dear and precious to Him. We have been created as the greatest of His creations, with His own image printed on our faces and with the breath of His spirit within us, giving us life and strength. He has blessed us with much goodness and blessings, and we have been given so many opportunities to make use of whatever guidance He had provided us along the way that we may find our way towards Him.

Therefore, it is important for us to learn to use these opportunities given to us to help ourselves to escape from the trap and the temptation of sins, and look towards the light that is in the Lord. And today we celebrate the feast of a saint, who helped to bring many people, namely his people to the Lord, repenting from their great sins and come into the light of the Lord in faith.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen of Hungary, who was also the very first king of Hungary, the one who brought the faith to the people of Hungary, who was once the barbarian tribe of the Magyars who came to settle in the land of what is today’s Hungary over a thousand years ago. He was the first of the leaders of Hungary who was devoted to the Lord, and throughout his long reign, he established much of the structures of the Church in Hungary, bringing more and more people towards the faith.

St. Stephen of Hungary was truly a devout servant of the Lord, who worked hard to bring better lives to all of his subjects, and to bring them closer to the Lord through numerous initiatives designed to strengthen the faith via numerous missionary works and charitable acts, of which many were done by the king himself. The king generously donated much properties to the Church that they were able to build up a healthy and sizeable services to the faithful. More and more souls in the end were saved because of the works of St. Stephen.

Therefore, today, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all invited to reflect on our current lives and the state of our souls, hearts and minds. Have we all been like those children who freely and sincerely sought the Lord Jesus without any reservations or doubts, and whether we have practiced what the Lord taught us through His disciples in our actions and in our words.

Hence, brethren, let us all once again seek the Lord and help one another to reach out to the Lord. Let us also never bar anyone from reaching out to the Lord, especially not those who truly and sincerely want to find God and follow Him. Let us ask for the intercession of St. Stephen of Hungary, that we may also follow his examples in piety and charity.

May Almighty God be with us this day, open our hearts and minds, that we may grow to love Him more and more, seeking Him with every moments of our lives. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 7 July 2014 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through Jesus, we have been granted healing and renewal, just as He had once brought the daughter of the synagogue official from death and healed the afflictions of the woman with haemorrhage. The same healing and renewal He also therefore offers us if we are to put our trust and faith in Him, just in the same way as the woman had done.

Our world today lacks the faith that the woman had, and many of us had lost faith in the Lord and chose to walk on their own path, and more often than not, this led them to be lost forever into eternal damnation. We prefer to trust in ourselves and in the desires and wants of our hearts rather than trusting in the wisdom and love of our God, which He offered to us freely to help us on our way to Himself.

Our attitude is often like those mourners who mourned the departure of the daughter of the official, thinking that we have absolutely no hope, and therefore that all is lost, hence we submit ourselves into doing things evil in the eyes of God. Or our attitude is like those who refuse to seek the Lord and prefer to keep things to ourselves, fearing His wrath and retribution for our sinfulness.

We cannot remain like this, brothers and sisters in Christ, for it is imperative that we seek the Lord with the faith like the woman with the bleeding problem. She had so much faith that she said to herself, that if only that she touched the fringe of the cloak of our Lord, she would be healed, and indeed, because of her faith, she was healed. If only that this world and all the people living in it has such a faith! Yes, this world would have been a much better place.

Faith is what is often lacking in this world today, and it is more urgently so, because we live today in a time when there is an ever greater need for true piety and faith in the Lord. Our world is growing deeper and deeper in darkness and evil, and the ways of this world is increasingly more and more wayward and distanced from the Lord and His ways. And many increasingly lose their way in the dark tangles of the devil’s works.

Many resigned themselves to a seemingly dark and hopeless despair, not knowing that there is indeed hope, and one indeed that we cannot lose sight in. And there are also those who willingly gave themselves up to the allures of the pleasures of the world, giving in to the demands of their hearts’ desires and greed. And the devil rightly uses that opportunity to snare these people deeper and deeper into his hands.

We often conveniently forget that we have hope, and that hope will not fail us if we do not give in first to despair and hopelessness. Yes, and we have that hope in Jesus Christ, the hope of all creations, whom God had sent into the world in order to bring hope and healing to all of us, who had been under the poison of sin and the slavery of death ever since the days of Adam and Eve, our ancestors.

Death, sickness and despair had been our staple ever since the beginning of mankind’s days. We cannot really separate the realities of life from all these occurrences. That was what happened to the daughter of the official, who was sick and then died, and many despaired in sorrow for her seemingly unfortunate fate. But Jesus came to show that death does not have the final say over things.

Mankind are often too preoccupied with their own self-preservation, always thinking of ways to prolong their lives and make their lives better with various treatments and other things, which all are really born of one thing, that is our fear of death and our despair over the lack of hope for our future after that death. And all these are again because we have little to no faith in Jesus our Lord and our only Hope.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, is it too difficult for us all to put our hope in Jesus our Lord? Is it too difficult for us to trust Him with all our concerns and desires? If history and experience had justified all things past, then we know that trusting ourselves with all these unnecessary desires did not work well for us, and we ended up ruining ourselves more often than not.

Our Lord knows all that we need, and He will provide for us in His own way. In that way we need not worry any longer. Indeed, as He said, that worrying over our future or having more concerns, desires and wants do not increase the length and happiness of our lives a single bit. In fact, those things will likely speed up our descent into damnation and eternal despair.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from now on change our perspectives in life. Let us begin to put our hope and trust in Christ, and cast away all worries and all unnecessary desires, greed and wants from our lives, so that gradually we may become more and more like the children of God, whom we are supposed to be.

Let us also help one another to grow in faith, hope and love, that in all the things we do, we always do it in the loving embrace of God, and keep ourselves close to Him and to His most loving heart. May Almighty God continue to keep us close to Him and bless us and our works in this world, bringing more and more souls back to Him. Amen.

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Saturday, 17 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 13 : 44-52

The following Sabbath almost the entire city gathered to listen to Paul, who spoke a fairly long time about the Lord. But the presence of such a crowd made the Jews jealous. So they began to oppose with insults whatever Paul said.

Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out firmly, saying, “It was necessary that God’s word be first proclaimed to you, but since you now reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we turn to non-Jewish people. For thus we were commanded by the Lord : I have set you as a light to the pagan nations, so that you may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Those who were not Jews rejoiced when they heard this and praised the message of the Lord, and all those destined for everlasting life believed in it. Thus the Word spread throughout the whole region.

Some of the Jews, however, incited God-fearing women of the upper class and the leading men of the city, as well, and stirred up an intense persecution against Paul and Barnabas. Finally they had them expelled from their region. The Apostles shook the dust from their feet in protest against this people and went to Iconium, leaving the disciples filled with joy and Holy Spirit.

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Wednesday, 14 May 2014 : Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of St. Matthias, one of the Twelve Apostles, although originally he was not included among the Twelve, until after Judas Iscariot had betrayed the Lord and committed suicide for his sins against the Holy One of God. Only then that Matthias was selected, as we heard how it went in the first reading today, to replace Judas so that the number of the Apostles will always be full, that is twelve.

There are great symbolisms behind the number twelve chosen by the Lord to be the chief among His disciples and followers, and He set them aside to become His Apostles, to be the ones who led in the evangelisation of the Gospel and the spreading of the Good News to many nations. The number twelve is often associated with the number of the tribes of Israel, the sons of Jacob to whom the Lord had bequeathed the Promised Land long ago after their exodus from the land of Egypt.

The Apostles, if we read the Book of Revelation, are the ones who will judge the people and the tribes of Israel, at the end of time, and Jesus Himself said that they will be the judges of the people of God. They were the chief assistants of the Lord, to whom Jesus even promised that He went ahead of them to prepare the places for them. Such a good life for them, is it not?

But, brethren, you have to look at what they have to face in life, as they proceed on with what they had been entrusted with. They were charged to bring the people of God from many nations and return them to the embrace of God, their loving Father. This was no easy task, and they had enormous challenges in their ministry, facing rejection after rejection, and the open and blatant hostility of the Jewish leaders and priesthood, as well as opposition from various groups of people who refused to listen and believe in the truth.

And eventually they also met their end in various means, through martyrdom and suffering, in different parts of the world, when the people to whom they had dedicated themselves to, turn their back on them, rejecting them, and murdered them, shedding the Apostles’ blood, which in turn became the seed for the faith of more Christians, as inspirations for even more martyrs to rise up and defend their faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what St. Matthias had been chosen for. It was not an easy task, but he and the other Apostles persevered nonetheless, and  they served as an inspiration for all of us. So how is this relevant to us who live in this modern era, in this modern day world? It is relevant because we are all also charged with the same mission to evangelise the world, to spread the Good News to all men.

And even these days, it does not mean that this work is getting any easier. On the contrary, it is getting more and more difficult, with challenges and oppositions from every possible sources and corners of the world, from both outside the Church and even from within the Church. Being a missionary and a worker of the Lord like the Apostles is not easy, but arguably, it is truly worth doing. Why? Because the Lord takes good care of all those who believe in Him and those who do His will, like the Apostles did.

Let us therefore be encouraged, that we will be faithful and committed to the cause of the Lord, that we may be fruitful in our attempts at evangelisation, and bring more souls closer to the salvation in God. May the Lord protect and guide us on our way, that through the help and intercession of St. Matthias the Apostle, we may become ever better disciples of God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 May 2014 : 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 10 : 1-10

Truly, I say to you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. But the shepherd of the sheep enters by the gate. The keeper opens the gate to him and the sheep hear his voice; he calls each of his sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but rather they will run away from him, because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.

Jesus used this comparison, but they did not understand what He was saying to them. So Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, I am the gate of the sheep. All who came were thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through Me will be saved; He will go in and out freely and find food.”

“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness.”

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Friday, 9 May 2014 : 3rd Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the conversion of St. Paul that we heard in the first reading today. As we continue with the celebration of Easter, we learn more and more what the disciples of Christ did after Jesus had ascended back to the Father in heaven, including that of Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, who was once Saul, the archenemy of the faithful and the Church and the great persecutor and scourge of the same faithful.

The conversion of Saul was the great turnaround moment, when the great enemy and persecutor of the faithful, turned into the great champion of the faith, and the one to bring the light of God to many nations, and the one whose letters and writings made up the bulk of our New Testament today. And this also highlight an important facet of our faith, that no one is beyond redemption and forgiveness. There is always a chance for repentance while we are still in this world.

Yes, brethren, God does not hold back against us, and He gives us many chances after chances, and opportunities after opportunities to seek Him and return to Him after we have wandered away in the wilderness of this world. He gave us many opportunities and second chances to allow us to discard our old life of sin and embrace the new life of goodness and grace He offers us through Jesus His Son.

The same, He did for Paul, when He appeared to Saul, his former persona, on the way to Damascus. That moment, Saul was still filled with anger, anguish and much negative emotions, and filled with the lies of the world, misguided in his passion for the faith, and misunderstood the true intentions of the Lord because of his strict adherence to the Pharisees’ view of the world and the faithful.

In his mistaken zeal and passion, he hunted down many of the faithful and the saints, who went into hiding in fear of Saul and his ‘crusades’ against the faithful. At that time, being a follower of the Lord and meeting Saul means almost certain suffering and even possibly death. Saul himself took part in the stoning and death of Stephen, the first martyr of the faith. As such, you all can see how great were the sins that Saul had.

But remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, for God, there is no such thing as eternal grudge or total and complete hatred for the faults that we have made. As I had mentioned, He wants for us to try again, and attempt again where we have failed in this life. He wants us, just as what He had done to Saul, to be able to make a conscious and real change from our sinfulness into grace and love.

And remember, brethren, that we are all sick, all sick of this illness and affliction called sin! And it is this sin that makes us sick and unable to join our Lord in the glory and happiness He had prepared for us. It is also causing us to be blinded against the love and light of God. The blindness of Saul after he met the Lord on the way to Damascus is the symbolic representation of this blindness. His healing and the return of his sight by Ananias is then a representation of the revelation of truth.

Yes, for when we receive the truth and resolve to accept it fully and completely, in fact, we are healed of the blindness of our souls, that we are changed from the state of inability to recognise the good works of the Lord into one that is completely in tune with God and His grace. Such is the thing that had happened to Saul, the sinner turned repentant, and from there brought much goodness and graces to the people of God and the world.

We must never condemn or exclude sinners, brothers and sisters in Christ, as the examples shown today, truly show the true intention of the Lord for us. He desires us to be saved and to receive life, and not to suffer death. How do we gain life then, from the Lord? None other through the gift of His own Precious Body and Blood as He had mentioned in today’s Gospel.

Hence, brethren, let us from now on give all respect, honour and proper worship to the Lord, particularly in the Eucharist, which He had given us Himself, His own essence to us so that we may be saved. He has given us His life, His entire devotion to us, and so many opportunities for us to reform ourselves and return to His embrace. We must not waste this, and indeed, we should help one another to embrace the Lord’s mercy.

Remember, if we can overcome our fears and sins, we will be great in God, just as Saul did. Saul became Paul, an important tool for salvation of mankind in the hands of God, even though he was a great sinner. Never give up brethren, but let the Lord to work His graces through us, that we may be the channel through whom God may work even greater works in our world, and save more souls from damnation. God be with us all, just as He had been with Paul and his works. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 May 2014 : 3rd Sunday of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 15 : 1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Keep me safe, o God, for in You I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “O Lord, my inheritance and my cup, my chosen portion – hold secure my lot.”

I bless the Lord who counsels me; even at night my inmost self instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; for with Him at my right hand, I will never be shaken.

My heart, therefore, exults, my soul rejoices; my body too will rest assured. For You will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will You suffer Your Holy One to see decay in the land of the dead.

You will show me the path of life, in Your presence the fullness of joy, at Your right hand happiness forever.