Thursday

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Thursday, 10 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 6 : 27-38

At that time, Jesus said to the people and to His disciples, “But I say to you who hear Me : Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who treat you badly.”

“To the one who strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek; from the one who takes your coat, do not keep back your shirt. Give it to the one who asks, and if anyone has taken something from you, do not demand it back.”

“Do to others as you would have others do to you. If you love only those who love you, what kind of grace is yours? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do favours to those who are good to you, what kind of grace is yours? Even sinners do the same.”

“If you lend only when you expect to receive, what kind of grace is yours? For sinners also lend to sinners, expecting to receive something in return. But love your enemies and do good to them, and lend when there is nothing to expect in return. Then will your reward be great, and you will be sons and daughters of the Most High. For He is kind towards the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

“Do not be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack a good measure, pressed down, full and running over. For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.”

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Thursday, 10 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 150 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in the vault of heaven. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him for His own greatness.

Praise Him with trumpet blast; praise Him with lyre and harp. Praise Him with dance and tambourines; praise Him with pipe and strings.

Praise Him with clashing cymbals; praise Him with clanging cymbals. Let everything that breathes sing praise to the Lord. Alleluia!

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Thursday, 10 September 2015 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Colossians 3 : 12-17

Clothe yourselves, then, as is fitting for God’s chosen people, holy and beloved of Him. Put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience to bear with one another and forgive whenever there is any occasion to do so. As the Lord has forgiven you, forgive one another.

Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. May the peace of Christ overflow in your hearts; for this end you were called to be one body. And be thankful.

Let the word of God dwell in you in all its richness. Teach and admonish one another with words of wisdom. With thankful hearts sing to God psalms, hymns and spontaneous praise. And whatever you do or say, do it in the Name of Jesus, the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

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Thursday, 3 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard the Lord who showed to His Apostles and inspired them to be the fishers of men. Through the miracle of the fish caught on the net, God showed them what they would do to bring glory to God and what they would do to bring many lost souls to the grace and the presence of God. And through all these, God wants to show us what all of us can do to be part of this mission He had given all of us as well.

The example shown in the Gospel today represents the world as it was, and also even now, as it is today. The Apostles fishing for the fish represent the disciples and followers of the Lord, members of His Church, which is represented by the boat. Indeed, the Church of God is often likened to a boat, an ark, similar to the Ark of Noah of old. The Church is the new Ark bringing all mankind to the salvation from God, away from all the storms and troubles of the world of darkness and sins.

The fishes refer to all of us, big and small, of different kinds and shapes, all of us mankind with all of our uniqueness and specialties, and from our various origins and backgrounds. And all of us are gathered together into the net into the boat, that is the Church of God, by the hard works of the Holy Apostles and the disciples of Christ. This is the mission which God had given to them before He went back to heaven at His Ascension, and this mission continues still even to this day.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is because there are still so many people who have not yet heard of the truth of Christ, of His Good News and salvation, which He readily provided for all those who trusted in Him. God wants to save all of us, and through His servants, He brought the wonderful salvation to all of us. Many people still live in darkness and in the ignorance of the revelation of truth, which God had made to them, and they still dwelled in their old, sinful lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we all have to realise what a great love and devotion that the Lord our God has for all of us. When the disciples had not been able to get any fishes throughout the entire night, they were tired and exhausted, and they certainly would have wanted to give up the fishing entirely. Who after all, in a right mind, would want to try again after many hours of fruitless effort?

But the Lord did not give up on mankind, for He told the disciples to cast out into the deep, in Latin, ‘Duc in Altum’, which means that cast into the deep, placing the net further out and deeper into the waters. Thus, instead of backing out or giving up, the Lord went on to push even harder and worked even harder for our salvation. It is only by reaching out further and with greater effort that many of the souls can be saved.

Today, we celebrate the feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great, San Gregorio Magno, one of the greatest Popes that the Church had that he was honoured as the few Popes who were granted the title ‘Great’. But this greatness did not come about from his status or standing in the society, and neither did it come from wealth or any forms of worldly possessions.

He was great because of the contributions which he had made for the sake of the Church and for the sake of the faithful ones entrusted under his care as the chief shepherd of all of Christ’s flock. He was credited with the great reform of the faith, especially in terms of Christian monasticism and lifestyle, regulating the way how the faithful lived their lives faithfully, and then more importantly, in the way how the faithful worship the Lord.

Pope St. Gregory the Great was credited with the reform in the liturgy of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, codifying and developing the parts of the Holy Mass that truly bring the Holy Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ truly real and alive in the Mass, and making the Holy Mass itself like the personification of heaven brought down to the earth.

Pope St. Gregory the Great’s greatest contribution is in the area of Church and worship music, where his name was immortalised in the Gregorian Chant, the immemorial and immeasurable treasure of the Faith and the Church, which we still use even until today in our worthy praise of the Lord in the noble and holy celebration of the Mass.

Through all these contributions, and principally through the Gregorian Chant, indeed Pope St. Gregory the Great had shown us great examples on how to be a devoted and faithful servant of God, in reaching out to the lost souls and those who have dwelled long in the darkness of this world. Indeed, to reach out further into the deep, ‘Duc in Altum’, as an inspiration for us to also do the same for the sake of our brethren in need.

Therefore, let us all walk in the footsteps of Pope St. Gregory the Great and the Holy Apostles and disciples of Christ. Let us all increase further the reach of the Church and get as many as possible to the salvation which our Lord is offering us, and gather them together as one people, all rescued from sins and the darkness of the world. May God our Father unite us all in His grace and love, and bring us all into the joy of eternal life. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 3 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 5 : 1-11

At that time, one day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around Him listening to the word of God, He caught sight of two boats, left at the water’s edge by fishermen, now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to pull out a little from the shore. There He sat and continued to teach the crowd.

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if You say so, I will lower the nets.” This they did, and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

They signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both boats almost to the point of sinking. Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made, and so were Simon’s partners, James and John, Zebedee’s sons.

Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on.” So they brought their boats to land and followed Him, leaving everything.

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Thursday, 3 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 97 : 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6

The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love nor His faithfulness to Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.

With melody of the lyre and with music of the harp. With trumpet blast and sound of the horn, rejoice before the King, the Lord!

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Thursday, 3 September 2015 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Colossians 1 : 9-14

Because of this, from the day we received news of you, we have not ceased praying to God for you, that you may attain the full knowledge of His will through all the gifts of wisdom and spiritual understanding.

May your lifestyle be worthy of the Lord and completely pleasing to Him. May you bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. May you become strong in everything by a sharing of the Glory of God, so that you may have great endurance and persevere in joy.

Constantly give thanks to the Father who has empowered us to receive our share in the inheritance of the saints in His kingdom of light. He rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. In Him we are redeemed and forgiven.

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Thursday, 27 August 2015 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we commemorate the feast day of a saint whom many of us may not be familiar with, as we are likely to be more familiar with her son, St. Augustine the Great, or known also as St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest saints of the Church. But without the actions and the hard works of the holy woman, whose life was dedicated both to the Lord and to her own son, St. Augustine of Hippo would not have been great and so influential.

St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo was a very devoted mother and a faithful servant of God, and it was her tireless and continuous dedication to St. Augustine, her ceaseless prayers for his conversion that has brought about such great merits and good things upon the faithful and upon the souls that were lost but then were brought to the salvation in God.

St. Monica showed us the examples of being a good role model for the faithful, and how mothers should be, devoting themselves to the Lord and to their families, not giving up on any of them should any of them fell into sin and darkness. She continued to pray for his conversion, for St. Augustine in his youth was a great sinner, which fell into the many wicked ways of the world, engaging in debauchery and various sins horrible in the eyes of the Lord.

She prayed for him, and eventually her prayers and her faithful devotion to her son helped him to see the light and helped him to set his path on the path to righteousness and to salvation in God. And from then on, the great sinner was turned into a great tool for the salvation of many, as St. Paul had done before St. Augustine was born.

In this, as we see in the Scriptures today, especially the Gospel, when the Lord Jesus shared the parable on the wise and wicked servants and stewards, whose actions were contrasted to each other, as representative of what we are celebrating today. The master is the Lord, and the stewards represent all of us, and indeed we all have a choice, on whether we should be a faithful and wise servant, or whether we should follow the path of the wicked and lazy servant.

St. Augustine once walked in the path of the wicked servant, filling himself with all the pleasures of the world and disregarded the ways of the Lord, being lost in a world of desire and hedonism, embracing false gods and idols, and lazing himself in a world of ignorance and in pursuit of worldliness. And many of us also walk in the same path, even now, and we are truly heading for trouble, for indeed, the parable reminds us that the master, our Lord can come back at any time, especially at times we do not expect.

And therefore, we should remember that, the lesson which we can learn today, is that God shows His mercy and love in myriads of ways, and one example which He had given is the example of St. Augustine of Hippo, as great saints were once great sinners too. What matters is that, those sinners chose the right path, repented from their sins and walked once again on the path of righteousness towards the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the examples and by the dedication shown by St. Monica, we too should follow in her footsteps, in how we care for our own brethren who we see around us and beyond. Let us all be concerned about those around us who are still living in the darkness of the world, and who are still like St. Augustine in his youth.

Let us all pray for them, and let us also show them the path to the Lord by our action. May our loving God and merciful Father forgive us all our sins, and help us all to find our way to Him. May God bless us all in our endeavours. Amen.

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Thursday, 27 August 2015 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 24 : 42-51

At that time, Jesus said to the people and to His disciples, “Stay awake then, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Obviously, if the owner of the house knew at what time the thief was coming, he would certainly stay up and not allow his house to be broken into. So be alert, for the Son of Man will come at the hour you least expect.”

“Imagine a capable servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them food at the proper time. Fortunate indeed is that servant, whom his master will find at work when he comes. Truly I say to you, his lord will entrust that one with everything he has.”

“Not so with the bad servant who thinks, ‘My master is delayed.’ And he begins to ill-treat his fellow servants, while eating and drinking with drunkards. But his master will come on the day he does not know, and at the hour he least expects. He will dismiss that servant, and deal with him as with the hypocrites. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

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Thursday, 27 August 2015 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Monica (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 89 : 3-4, 12-13, 14 and 17

You turn humans back to dust, saying, “Return, o mortals!” A thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has passed, or like a watch in the night.

So make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart. How long will You be angry, o Lord? Have mercy on Your servant.

Fill us at daybreak with Your goodness, that we may be glad all our days. May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us; may He prosper the work of our hands.