Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 112 : 1-2, 3-4, 5a and 6-7
Alleluia! Praise, o servants of YHVH, praise the Name of YHVH! Blessed be the Name of YHVH now and forever!
From eastern lands to the western islands, may the Name of YHVH be praised! YHVH is exalted over the nations; His glory above the heavens.
Who is like YHVH our God, Who also bends down to see on earth as in heaven? He lifts up the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap.
Liturgical Colour : White
Galatians 4 : 22-24, 26-27, 31 – Galatians 5 : 1
It says, that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by the free woman, his wife. The son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but the son of the free woman was born in fulfilment of God’s promise.
Here we have an allegory and the figures of two Covenants. The first is the one from Mount Sinai, represented through Hagar : her children have slavery for their lot. But the Jerusalem above, who is our mother, is free. And Scripture says of her : Rejoice, barren woman without children, break forth in shouts of joy, you who do not know the pains of childbirth, for many shall be the children of the forsaken mother, more than of the married woman.
Brethren, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Christ freed us, to make us really free. So remain firm, and do not submit, again, to the yoke of slavery.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded yet again that as Christians, each and every one of us have been made righteous and just in Christ our Lord. Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world has made us whole and liberated us from the sins of our ancestors and that of our own, that is through His great and ultimate love shown through the sacrifice of the cross.
And yet, we mankind have responded to God’s love with scorn and contempt. We refused and rejected God’s love because of our pride, and because of our inability to wrench ourselves away from the temptations of pleasure and the persuasions and lies of the evil one. We are easily tempted by our weaknesses and our vulnerabilities and proneness to sin and to the wickedness of the flesh.
And it is all these which have separated us from the love and grace of our God. And one example was shown by the people of Israel themselves, ever since when they escaped from the land of Egypt. God showed His might to them, liberating them from the hands of the Pharaoh by the Ten Plagues that struck down the Egyptians, from their mighty Pharaoh to the smallest and least of the Egyptians and their animals.
Yet, even though God had rescued them and brought them into freedom, opening the seas and destroying their enemies before them, these people were very stubborn and rebellious. They complained and resisted the authority of Moses and all those whom God had entrusted with their care. They gave in to the temptations of their stomachs, the temptations of pleasure and easy life, and they ditched the Lord on many occasions and instead worshipped the idols.
These were those whom God had punished through death and pestilence, as His anger raged amongst them, and many did die, as the whole rebellious generation of Israelites would show, when they perished in the desert and did not enter into the Promised Land. Only those who obeyed the Lord received His grace and allowance to settle in the land of milk and honey.
It was the same with the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who despite having witnessed the miracles and the healing works, the wondrous deeds of Jesus and His disciples, still refused to believe in Him, doubted Him and tested Him to the very end, when they mocked Him hanging on the cross to rescue Himself if He was truly the Messiah. This attitude of lack of faith and stubbornness are really a characteristic of us mankind.
And as they continuously mocked the One Whom God had sent into the world in order to save it, including these very people, they were not forgiven their sins and they were considered as true sinners, even as they themselves liked to parade around their piety and deeds and looked down on others whom they considered as sinners, the prostitutes and tax collectors. And yet, as Jesus Himself said, that these people were going faster towards the Kingdom of God because they repented from their sins.
In Jesus we have our hope of salvation and liberation, and thus, we should try our best to resist the temptations of this world, so that we may be able to truly accept the Lord in our hearts and not harden our hearts and closed our minds as those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done. In His holy Name we shall find our succour and liberation from these darkness and the threats of the devil.
St. Teresa of Jesus, who was also known as St. Teresa of Avila after her birthplace in Avila, Spain, who is our saint of this day, is a strong proponent of renewed faith and commitment to our Lord through strong spirituality and devotion to God. St. Teresa of Jesus was renowned as the founder of the Discalced Carmelite order with St. John of the Cross, and both of them were strong and dedicated reformer of the faith and the Church.
At that time, the Church, the Faith and the faithful people of God were under great threat from the massive heresy of Protestantism, which was called by the heretics as ‘reform’, and yet, in the false teachings it proposed, it has led into many people of God to fall away from the path towards salvation, and through the devil and his works in the false prophets like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli and many others, many had been cast down into hell for their sins.
It was a time of great distress for the Church and for the faithful. But there were many courageous and devoted servants of God who worked hard to stem the tide of heresy and bring back many thousands and more to the true faith in God. St. Teresa of Jesus was among them, a great visionary and mystic, a great writer and contributor to the teachings of the Church, and a strong proponent of an active spiritual life dedicated to God.
St. Teresa of Jesus devoted her whole life to the Lord, as well as for her religious congregation, persuading many and pushing for reform and change in the way how many of them lived their lives, deepening their spirituality and relationship with the Lord their God. She purged worldly elements and unworthy conduct from amongst her fellow religious, and wrote extensively on the matter, on how to become ever more devoted and holy in the sight and presence of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all devote ourselves wholly to the Lord in the same manner as that of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Teresa of Jesus, as well as the many other saints, holy men and women of God. Let us no longer be stubborn and wicked in our hearts, but be converted thoroughly to the Lord. May the Lord bless us all and keep us in His love at all times. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 12 : 8-12
At that time, Jesus said to the people and to His disciples, “I tell you, whoever acknowledges Me before people, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the Angels of God. But the one who denies Me before others will be denied before the Angels of God.”
“There will be pardon for the one who criticises the Son of Man, but there will be no pardon for the one who slanders the Holy Spirit. When you are brought before the synagogues, and before governors and rulers, do not worry about how you will defend yourself, or what to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you have to say.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 8 : 2-3a, 4-5, 6-7
O Lord, our Lord, how great is Your Name throughout the earth! And Your glory in the heavens above. Even the mouths of children and infants exalt Your glory in front of Your foes.
When I observe the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars You set in their place – what is man that You be mindful of him, the Son of Man, that You should care for Him?
Yet You made Him a little lower than the Angels; You crowned Him with glory and honour, and gave Him the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet.
Liturgical Colour : White
Ephesians 1 : 15-23
I have been told of your faith and your affection towards all the believers, so I always give thanks to God, remembering you in my prayers. May the God of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Father of Glory, reveal Himself to you and give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know Him.
May He enlighten your inner vision, that you may appreciate the things we hope for, since we were called by God. May you know how great is the inheritance, the glory, God sets apart for His saints; may you understand with what extraordinary power He acts in favour of us who believe.
He revealed His almighty power in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and had Him sit at His right hand in heaven, far above all rule, power, authority, dominion, or any other supernatural force that could be named, not only in this world but in the world to come as well.
Thus has God put all things under the feet of Christ and set Him above all things, as Head of the Church which is His Body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.
Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate a great feast of one of the most renowned and greatest saints of the Church, namely St. Teresa of Jesus, also known as St. Teresa of Avila after her birthplace, where she was born in the city of Avila in the Kingdom of Spain about five centuries ago, and she lived during one of the most turbulent times in the Church, in the midst of the raging, so-called Protestant ‘reformation’.
During that time, across the heart of Christendom, the European continent was rocked by the scandal of heresy and disobedience against the true teachings of the Lord as espoused and taught by the Church that He had established. Many people fell into the trap of their own vanity, personal desire, selfishness and the inability and blindness to the truth and reality which God wanted to reveal to all mankind through His Church.
The Church was split apart by those who have preferred to walk in the path of sin and worldliness. And on the pretext of reforming and helping the Universal Church which at that time was indeed beset with troubles and issues, they waded their own paths and radically tried to pull as many of the faithful and as many souls as possible from the path towards salvation into the myriad paths that lead to somewhere else.
St. Teresa of Jesus was one of the several holy, devoted and committed servants of God who dedicated themselves to help save all those lost souls that had gone astray from the Lord and His Church. She was one of the spearheads of the Church in what was to be known as the Counter-Reformation movement and action, where the Church went on the counteroffensive against the forces of Satan and his agents, and by ceaseless prayers, ministries and works, they managed to stem the tide of heresy and destruction, and called many souls back to God’s salvation.
St. Teresa of Jesus was renowned for her exemplary and incredible piety, the prayer life she led and the spirituality she espoused in her life was truly commendable. She grew to understand the nature of mankind’s sins and wickedness, and how these become barriers and obstacles in one’s journey to attain the salvation in God, and how there is indeed a need for us to subject ourselves to God’s mercy, repenting and changing our sinful ways.
In this, we see the wisdom of God as revealed through Jesus His Son in the Gospel today. In that Gospel passage, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in a series of woes and curses arrayed against them because of their actions and their failures in acting and behaving as those whom God had appointed to be shepherds and guides to His people.
They have not been righteous and true to their faith, and they have fallen on the path of God’s righteousness, and they became people engrossed and obsessed with their own vanity, with their own glory and greatness, and as a result, they became judgmental and oppressive upon all those who have differing views and ideas from them, including the prophets and messengers whom God had sent to remind them to stick true to the way of truth.
They thought of themselves as above the Law and as the only ones righteous and just, and because they thought that by living their lives and observing the Laws as they had done, they were pious, favoured and glorified before the Lord, but in reality, they have veered far away from the path of God and into sin, for they were too deep in their own pride and distracted by the sins.
This was just how it was during the time of the Protestant ‘reformation’, when those who have become haughty and proud in their way, forced it upon themselves and others to follow their way and their methods, disobeying the way of the Lord, and leading others into sin and wickedness. This is what St. Teresa of Jesus had worked all her life so hard in order to reverse, for the sake of the countless souls in the danger of damnation.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to renew our commitment to the Lord in our actions and deeds, and we are all called to become less and less attached to our pride, ego and greed, and instead, grow ever stronger in our humility before God and in our love for one another. Let us be ever more committed to God and His ways, be true to the way He had shown us and commit ourselves to walk in the footsteps of St. Teresa of Jesus and the other holy saints and servants of God.
May Almighty God bless us all in all of our endeavours, and may He keep us ever in His grace, and may all of us come to realise ever more the love and compassion He wants to show us and give to us. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : White
Luke 11 : 47-54
At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, “A curse is on you, for you build monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them!”
“For that reason the Wisdom of God also said : I will send prophets and Apostles and this people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all.”
“A curse is on you, teachers of the Law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.” As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to harass Him, asking Him endless questions, setting traps to catch Him in something He might say.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-7a
Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord, o Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.
If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, and for that You are revered.
I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than watchmen the dawn. O Israel, hope in the Lord.
Liturgical Colour : White
Romans 3 : 21-30a
But, now it has been revealed altogether apart from the Law, as it was already foretold in the Law and the Prophets : God makes us righteous by means of faith in Jesus Christ, and this is applied to all who believe, without distinction of persons.
Because all have sinned and all fall short of the Glory of God; and all are graciously forgiven and made righteous through the redemption effected in Christ Jesus. For God has given Him to be the victim whose blood obtains us forgiveness through faith.
So God shows us how He makes us righteous. Past sins are forgiven which God overlooked till now. For now He wants to reveal His way of righteousness : how He is just and how He makes us righteous through faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our pride? It is excluded. How? Not through the Law and its observances, but through another Law which is faith.
For we hold that people are in God’s grace by faith and not because of all the things ordered by the Law. Otherwise, God would be the God of the Jews; but is He not God of pagan nations as well? Of course He is, for there is only one God and He will save by faith the circumcised Jews as well as the uncircumcised nations.
