servants of God

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Monday, 9 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Kings 17 : 1-6

Now Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As YHVH, the God of Israel whom I serve lives, neither dew shall drop nor rain fall except at my command.”

Then the word of YHVH came to Elijah, “Leave this place and go eastward. Hide yourself by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook and, for your food, I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

So Elijah obeyed the word of YHVH and went to live by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan. There the ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.

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Sunday, 8 June 2014 : Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 103 : 1ab and 24ac, 29bc-30, 31 and 34

Bless the Lord, my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour. How varied o Lord, are Your works! The earth full of Your creatures.

You take away their breath, they expire and return to dust. When You send forth Your Spirit, they are created, and the face of the earth is renewed.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works! May my song give Him pleasure, as the Lord gives me delight.

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Thursday, 15 May 2014 : 4th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 13 : 13-25

From Paphos, Paul and his companions set sail and came to Perga in Pamphylia. There John left them and returned to Jerusalem while they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they entered the synagogue and sat down.

After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent this message to them, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the assembly, please speak up.”

So Paul arose, motioned to them for silence and began, “Fellow Israelites and also all you who fear God, listen. The God of our people Israel chose our ancestors, and after He had made them increase during their stay in Egypt, He led them out by powerful deeds. For forty years He fed them in the desert, and after He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He gave them their land as an inheritance.”

“All this took four hundred and fifty years. After that, He gave them Judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, and he was king for forty years. After that time, God removed him and raised up David as king, to whom He bore witness saying : ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all I want him to do.'”

“It is from the descendants of David that God has now raised up the promised Saviour of Israel, Jesus. Before He appeared, John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel. As John was ending his life’s work, he said : ‘I am not what you think I am, for after me another One is coming whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.'”

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Saturday, 10 May 2014 : 3rd Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 9 : 31-42

Meanwhile, the Church had peace. It was building up throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria with eyes turned to the Lord and filled with comfort from the Holy Spirit.

As Peter travelled around, he went to visit the saints who lived in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas who was paralysed, and had been bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!” And the man got up at once. All the people living in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

There was a disciple in Joppa named Tabitha, which means Dorcas or Gazelle. She was always doing good works and helping the poor. At that time she fell sick and died. After having washed her body, hey laid her in the upstairs room.

As Lydda is near Joppa, the disciples, on hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.” So Peter went with them. On his arrival they took him upstairs to the room. All the widows crowded around him in tears, showing him the clothes that Dorcas had made while she was with them.

Peter made them all leave the room and then he knelt down and prayed. Turning to the dead body he said, “Tabitha, stand up.” She opened her eyes, looked at Peter and sat up. Peter gave her his hand and helped her up. Then he called in the saints and widows and presented her to them alive.

This became known throughout all of Joppa and many people believed in the Lord because of it.

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Tuesday, 6 May 2014 : 3rd Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Continuing from yesterday’s catechesis, again I have to emphasize, brothers and sisters, that we have to stand firm to the faith, and keep this faith we have in our Lord up and strong. The living God, who gave us His life that we may live, who suffered for our sins that we who believe will not suffer the consequences of our sins, and finally, the One who gave us the promise of eternal life, in all of us who receive Him and His ultimate gifts, which is none other than His own Precious Body and Blood.

Yes, in the Eucharist we receive the very essence of our Lord, which He gave to us as the bread of life and the wine of eternal salvation, that all of us who partake on Him will receive life in us, and as long as we remain bound in faith and truth to Him, we shall live and not die an eternal death, that is the eternal damnation of our souls to hell. In the Eucharist we have the promise of eternal life and eternal providence by our Lord and loving God.

We have to open the doors of our heart wide for Christ to come into our hearts and transform it profoundly, that He may also transform our whole beings, from beings of darkness and apathy into beings of light and love. Allow Christ to come into us, unworthy as we are, that He may help us to root ourselves in the way of truth that we may not fall into the eternal darkness and damnation.

Do not be like those who persistently refused to listen to the Lord, who persecuted Stephen the holy disciple, who persisted in his teachings and testimonies of the living God. Do not be like them who kept their ears shut against the words of truth, and kept their hearts closed against the Lord who ceaselessly tried to knock at the doors, to allow them to open those doors for the Lord to come in.

As Pope St. John Paul II had said, let us not be afraid, but open wide the doors, the doors of our hearts to the Lord. Do not close it and allow the Lord to come into us and transform us into beings of light and love, that we may be found worthy, and not only that, we may also be examples and role models for others who see us and therefore also believe in God. Let us keep our faith in God ever strong and living. We cannot have a static faith, but we must have one that is always based on love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, remember always that Christ our Lord died for us and gave us His own flesh and blood, which He shed as He walked down that path to the cross, and hung upon the cross unto death. He suffered all those grievous wounds and sufferings for our sake. We are all condemned to die ever since our first ancestors first disobeyed the Lord. And that disobedience turned into sins, which corrupted us severely even until today.

This corruption mars our soul and destroys us even as we speak. However, as I had mentioned, all is not lost because Christ gave His all for us. He brought us from the depth of darkness, lift us up back into the light. And those of us who believes in Him, died to our past and old lives, and then, through the resurrection of our Lord, we also were brought up from the depths into a new life filled with love and the light of God.

We have to walk always in the light, and show our faith in God through all of our words, actions and deeds. Let us all use the opportunities we have to be the bearers of God’s truth that had been revealed to us. Be like Stephen who was courageous and faithful even unto the end. But remember, in charity and mercy, let us also follow his footsteps. Forgive those who persecute us and keep showering them with love.

May the Lord continue to guide us as we walk through this life, that our lives may ever be a reflection of the Lord. May God protect us and shield us from harm, and keep us always in His grace, and brings more souls to Himself. Amen.

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Monday, 28 April 2014 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis M. Grignion de Montfort, Priest (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we learn two very profound and important things for our faith. First of which is that God is with us if we rely on Him and put our trust in Him, and this is achieved through strong, genuine and dedicated prayers that the Lord hears in their entireties. Then, we also heard about being born again in the Lord and His Spirit as a prerequisite of salvation.

First of all, regarding prayers. It is important for us to keep a good and healthy prayer life at all times to ensure that we keep our faith in God strong and firm despite all the oppositions and difficulties that may be present in our way. It is essential for us to keep our links and ties with God strong that we may anchor ourselves firmly in Him, that whatever temptations or tides and difficulties that come our way, we will be able to handle them and persevere.

Our prayers must be genuine and dynamic, that is we have to be in genuine and sincere conversation with God and not just chanting the prayers without thoughts for God in our hearts. A prayer is, as we all know, a two-way conversation between God and us, and this should not be undermined in any way, as many of us had done.

For many of us, prayers had ended up becoming a litany of demands and wishes, where we bombard God with our human desires and wants, and when we do not get what we want, we become angry and abusive towards God, and not few even lost hope in God and veered away from God’s way into the darkness of the world. These are all because we have not yet understood the true meaning of prayer and we have also not yet understood well our relationship with God.

God loves us, yes, and He cares for us, yes, and He wants to guide us at all times, but this does not mean that He is a generous provider for all the things that we need or even worse, if we expect miracles to happen just because we think that the Lord can do everything for us. God will intervene in our lives, yes, when He deems it necessary for Himself to come and make a difference in our lives, but this again does not mean that we should be lazy or idle.

Instead, we should take upon the examples shown by the Apostles, who courageously stood up for their faith against those who opposed the Lord and testified for the sake of the Good News of God. The Apostles in the first reading today prayed, because they sought the Lord’s guidance and help in fulfilling their mission to spread the Good News, especially among those who opposed the Lord. They sought courage and strength to carry out their appointed mission, that they will not easily give up against the opposition and forces piled up against them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when we pray, we have to open ourselves entirely to God, that we may truly listen to God speaking to us in our hearts. We have to stay connected to God at all times, for we are beings weak and prone to temptation. The devil awaits us at every corner waiting to tempt us away from the path to righteousness and into damnation, and his weapons are plentiful.

We cannot be complacent, and we have to be always ready to seek the Lord whenever we are in doubt or great fear, as the Apostles had done, by praying together as one asking the Lord for His help. That is what we have to do as well, brothers and sisters in Christ. And for us all, we have been sealed in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, and therefore had been claimed for the Lord.

That is the meaning of being born again, according to Christ, as He explained to Nicodemus, by being ‘born again’ of the Spirit. The waters of baptism mark our rebirth in the Lord, as from that moment on, we are born in the Spirit of God. Many misunderstood this and in the separated and heretical Protestant communities, they interpreted this as all of us having to be born again, even after baptism, which is the mistake of their literal understanding of the words of Jesus.

Being born again is equivalent to our baptism, when we were truly spiritually reborn again, our second birth, when our past selves and sinful selves are cleansed and purified into a new being filled with the light and the love of God, no longer unworthy of the Lord but now worthy of His everlasting grace. However, this does not mean that we can just be easygoing and disregard all the laws of God after our rebirth, as we are still prone to sin, as long as we are in this body of flesh, in contact with the impurities that are in this world.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we ought to do our best, to be strong in our faith, through prayers, genuine and living, and through our actions, that we resolve to follow the Lord and listen to His will. In doing so, we will walk in the favour and grace of God, and in the end, receive the everlasting reward and glory of heaven.

Today, brethren, we also celebrate the feast of two renowned saint, one that is St. Peter Chanel, a priest and martyr of the faith, and the well-known St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Monfort, the founder of the Monfortian religious order, which is involved in many aspects of Christian charity and education even today. Through the works of these two great saints many had benefited and were brought closer to God.

St. Peter Chanel was born in France about two centuries ago, and he was noted for his drive towards missionary work and desired since his youth to be a missionary of the faith to bring the light of God to many nations who have yet to receive the word of salvation. He went on to become a priest and a missionary, working in many places, preaching the Good News to many who then accepted baptism and were born again in the Spirit.

When he went on a mission to the Pacific islands in Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, St. Peter Chanel met his martyrdom there in the midst of his good works of faith. He worked hard for the faith and managed to gain converts for the Lord, yet because of the opposition of those who did not know the Lord, he met his end, and yet, St. Peter Chanel remained truly faithful to the end. Even those who persecuted and murdered him repented in the end and were accepted into the faith.

St. Louis-Marie de Monfort had a different life experience from St. Peter Chanel, but he had led an equally holy and devoted life, dedicated in its entirety to the Lord and to His mother Mary, of whom St. Louis-Marie de Monfort was particularly dedicated to. St. Louis-Marie de Monfort became a great preacher of the faith, dispersing the Good News to many, and his holiness became an example to many.

St. Louis-Marie de Monfort was notably known for his great devotion to Mary, the mother of God, that influenced many later faithful and the Popes for their extensive and various Marian devotions, and help spread the popularity of devotions and prayers to the mother of our Saviour for her intercessions on our behalf before her Son.

Through the hard works of these two saints whose lives we celebrate today, we gain much graces and blessings, that all of us get closer and closer to the mystery of our God, to His love and mercy. Through the examples of these two saints, we have a clearer image and understanding of what we should do, in order to achieve holiness necessary for us to be worthy of heaven and of God’s everlasting reward.

May Almighty God continue to guide us in our lives, that we may realise how much we depend on Him, and how much we need to align ourselves to His will. May all of us grow stronger in our faith and be more dedicated to God, day after day. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 28 April 2014 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis M. Grignion de Montfort, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 3 : 1-8

Among the Pharisees there was a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus. He came to Jesus by night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God to teach us, for no one can perform miraculous signs like Yours unless God is with Him.”

Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again from above.”

Nicodemus said, “How can there be rebirth for a grown man? Who could go back to his mother’s womb and be born again?” Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you : No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Because of this, do not be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again from above.'”

“The wind blows where it pleases and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

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Monday, 28 April 2014 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis M. Grignion de Montfort, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 2 : 1-3, 4-6, 7-9

Why do the nations conspire? Why do the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth brace themselves and the rulers together take their stand against the Lord and His Anointed. They say, “Let us break their bonds! Let us cast away their chains!”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord looks at them in derision. Then in anger He speaks to them, terrifying them in the fury of His wrath : “Behold the King I have installed, in Zion, upon My holy hill!”

I will proclaim the decree of the Lord. He said to Me, “You are My Son. This day I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall rule them with iron sceptre and shatter them as a potter’s vase.”

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Monday, 28 April 2014 : 2nd Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr, and St. Louis M. Grignion de Montfort, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Acts 4 : 23-31

As soon as Peter and John were set free, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard it, they raised their voices as one and called upon God, “Sovereign Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, of the sea and everything in them, You have put these words in the mouth of David, our father and Your servant, through the Holy Spirit : ‘Why did the pagan nations rage and the people conspire in folly? The kings of the earth were aligned and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against His Messiah.'”

“For indeed in this very city Herod with Pontius Pilate, and the pagans together with the people of Israel conspired against Your Holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed. Thus, indeed, they brought about whatever Your powerful will had decided from all time would happen.”

“But now, Lord, see their threats against us and enable Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and to work signs and wonders through the Name of Jesus Your holy Servant.”

When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered together shook, and they were all filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.

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Thursday, 17 April 2014 : Chrism Mass on Maundy Thursday (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in this Holy Mass we celebrate the occasion of the Chrism Mass, during which the holy oils used for baptism, confirmation, and the anointing of the sick are blessed. This oil is called chrism, and is the reason why this Mass is called Chrismal Mass.

On this occasion, priests and those who dedicated themselves to God in holy orders renew their vows and devotions to God, and united with the bishop, the shepherd, renew their commitment to the service of God and to the service of His people.

They have been called to be the holy priests of God, the ministers of the Lord Most High as the anointed and ordained ones of God. Through the laying of the hand and the anointing with the holy oils blessed today, the priests share in the same ministry as the priests of Israel of old, and also ultimately in the High Priesthood of Jesus.

Through the ministry of the priests, the ministry of Jesus in this world is continued, just as the Apostles had been charged to carry on the works of Christ and spread the Good News to all the ends of the earth. Hence, the bishops, priests and other servants of the Lord also continue this good work of the Lord.

Much had been entrusted to the servants of the Lord and much had been granted to them. The same that had been given to Christ as the Saviour and Redeemer indeed, as written in the Book of the prophet Isaiah. The authority to forgive sins and to heal the sick and their infirmities, and the authority over spirits has been given to them and they are empowered to be the shepherds of God’s peoples.

But remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we too have been anointed with oil of the chrism on the day of our baptism, and also after we have been confirmed in the faith through the Sacrament of Confirmation. Therefore, we too take part in and share in the same mission that God had appointed His disciples for, to bring renewal and the light of Christ to all mankind.

Brethren, today therefore, as we celebrate the blessing of the chrism, we have to remember that we too have our calling and our mission entrusted by God to us, that is to help guide one another and reach out to those who are lost and away from the salvation in God. This is our mission, which had been given to us since the day of our baptism, when God claimed us as His own.

We do not have to do great things in order to fulfill this mission. What we have to do is simple steps, and things that we can indeed make a difference of, in the life of those around us. Who are these if not for our own families and friends, and all those dear and known to us? Our mission is to bring them to the light of God if they have wandered off into the darkness.

Hence, in order to do that, we have to first be aware of our actions and our deeds, that in whatever we do, we will always do the will of God and remain always in His grace. May the Lord guide us and our acts, that we will be ever faithful and committed to God. Amen.