Thursday

by

Thursday, 6 March 2025 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 9 : 22-25

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the elders and chief priests and teachers of the Law, and be put to death. Then after three days He will be raised to life.”

Jesus also said to all the people, “If you wish to be a follower of Mine, deny yourself and take up your cross each day, and follow Me! For if you choose to save your life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for My sake, you will save it. What does it profit you to gain the whole world, if you destroy or damage yourself?”

by

Thursday, 6 March 2025 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the man who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of YHVH and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For YHVH knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

by

Thursday, 6 March 2025 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Deuteronomy 30 : 15-20

See, I set before you on this day life and good, evil and death. I command you to love YHVH, your God and follow His ways. Observe His commandments, His norms and His laws, and you will live and increase, and YHVH will give you His blessing in the land you are going to possess.

But if your heart turns away and does not listen, if you are drawn away and bow before other gods to serve them, I declare on this day that you shall perish. You shall not last in the land you are going to occupy on the other side of the Jordan.

Let the heavens and the earth listen, that they may be witnesses against you. I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life that you and your descendants may live, loving YHVH, listening to His voice, and being one with Him. In this life for you and length of days in the land which YHVH swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

by

Thursday, 27 February 2025 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Abbots)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for us to distance ourselves from the corruption of sin and evil, resisting the temptations of worldly desires, pleasures and ambitions, all the things that can lead us astray in the journey towards the Lord and His salvation. We are called to remain vigilant and be constantly on guard so that we do not end up being easily tempted or persuaded to abandon our faith in the Lord and embracing instead the wickedness of worldly vices and evils, all of which may indeed be very tempting and convincing in making us think twice about following the Lord and His path. As Christians, we should be good role models in leading the path, showing the way for others to follow in focusing our lives in God.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Sirach we heard the words of the prophet reminding the people of God of the dangers and all the harm caused by sin and all the temptations to sin, and also for the people not to test God’s patience and mercy. The prophet Sirach reminded the faithful that while God is indeed loving, compassionate and full of mercy, but at the same time He is also a good and just God Who despises the corruption and wickedness of sin and evil in our actions and waywardness. Therefore, we must not take for granted the love and mercy which God has generously given to us, and we must make good use of the opportunities and chances that He has given us to repent and to turn away from our path of sin and wickedness, and to embrace His mercy and love wholeheartedly.

The prophet Sirach was preaching especially to a population of the descendants of the Israelites, which during his time, at the height of the Hellenistic era, about two centuries before the coming of Christ, was increasingly influenced by the Greek ways and pagan ideals, a society of God’s people being torn between the Law and traditions of the Israelites and the innovations and ways of the Greeks that were becoming increasingly popular among them at the time. That was why the prophet Sirach reminded the people of God not to test God and His patience and mercy, and exhorting them all to turn once again to the way of the Lord, abandoning their wickedness and sins, which their ancestors had been punished for, and which the Lord wanted His people to stay away from.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist in which the Lord told His disciples with rather blunt language telling them to avoid committing sins and wickedness in their lives or else they might end up being condemned in the eternal damnation in Hell because of their sins and what they had done. The Lord made it clear with those vivid representations that sin is truly something dangerous and what we must be careful with or else, we may end up falling down the path towards damnation. But we must not misunderstand what the Lord said as literally meaning that we should chop off our hands and legs, or tear off our eyes if they were to lead us to sin. Rather, what the Lord wanted to highlight is the severity of sin such that it is really important that we take the necessary steps to keep ourselves free from it, or else, we may indeed fall into eternal damnation.

Our body itself, our hands, legs and eyes, and our other body parts are themselves neutral and not evil in nature. It is our thoughts, minds and hearts that can either bring these body parts to be used for good purposes or for evil. That is why we are all reminded that we should keep ourselves free from sin by resisting the temptations to do so, and to do whatever we can to perform good deeds and actions in accordance to God’s will, obeying His Law and commandments in everything that we do, so that by our lives and examples, we may truly be good role models and inspiration for everyone to follow, to be the shining beacons of God’s light and truth in our world today, bringing forth His righteousness and truth to everyone around us, and hopefully through our good and faithful lives, we may touch the lives of many others in the good way.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Gregory of Narek, a renowned holy man and Abbot from the Armenian Church, also known as Gregor Narekatsi, as he was stationed in the region of Lake Van in historical Armenia, a place known as Narekavank. He was born as the son of a local bishop, who was suspected of Chalcedonian beliefs and was persecuted for that faith. The young St. Gregory of Narek and his brother was sent to Narekavank for his education and upbringing, and eventually was ordained a priest and became a monk and abbot of that institution in Narekavank, which was why he was later on known famously as St. Gregory of Narek. This holy man of God devoted his whole life in teaching theology at the area and also wrote extensively many theological works and other books related to the Christian faith.

The many writings of St. Gregory of Narek in various areas and philosophical discourses, as well as the works on theology and other commentaries on the Scriptures are very influential in the Armenian Church and beyond, and after he passed away, many people venerated this holy man of God who devoted his life to the study of the faith, and who was also personally full of faith and piety in God. He also showed all of us Christians what it truly means for us to walk in the path of God’s grace and righteousness, rejecting the temptations of worldly glory, ambitions and fame, the allures of sin and evil. All of us can learn well to follow the good examples that St. Gregory of Narek has shown us through his life and works, and we should follow in his footsteps in our own daily living as Christians.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all as Christians be good role models of our faith in how we live our lives in each and every moments, even in the smallest and least significant things that we do, so that by our every good actions and examples we may inspire many more people to come and believe in God as well. Let us all therefore commit ourselves to a life of virtue and righteousness, doing our best so that our every actions, words and deeds will be truly worthy for us as Christians, like that of St. Gregory of Narek before us, and our many other holy predecessors. May the Lord be with us always and may He continue to guide us all in our lives so that we may always be full of faith and virtues in all things. Amen.

by

Thursday, 27 February 2025 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Abbots)

Mark 9 : 41-50

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear His Name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward. If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.”

“If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand, than with two hands to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out. And if your foot makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot, than with both feet to be thrown into hell.”

“And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell, where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out. The fire itself will preserve them.”

“Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”

by

Thursday, 27 February 2025 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Abbots)

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the law of the Lord and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

by

Thursday, 27 February 2025 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Abbots)

Sirach 5 : 1-8

Do not rely on your wealth. Do not say, “I am self-sufficient.” Do not let yourself be carried away by greed and violence; they would make you their slave.

Do not say, “Who can stop me?” For the Lord has power to punish you. Do not say, “I have sinned and nothing has happened!” For the Lord bides His time.

Do not be so sure of pardon when you are heaping sin upon sin. Do not say, “His compassion is great! He will forgive the vast number of my sins!” For with Him is mercy but also anger; His fury will be poured out on sinners.

Do not delay your return to the Lord, do not put it off from day to day. For suddenly the anger of the Lord will blaze forth and you will perish on the day of reckoning. Do not rely on riches wrongfully acquired for they will be of no use to you on the day of wrath.

by

Thursday, 20 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for us to actively live the part of the Covenant which God has lovingly made with each and every one of us, His beloved children and people, and we have to be courageous in standing up for our faith, in resisting the temptations of the evil one who has always been ever active in trying to lead us all into our downfall and destruction by tempting us with all sorts of falsehoods and lies, all sorts of worldly pleasures, desires and glory, all the things which had prevented so many of us and our predecessors from coming close towards the Lord, towards His love and the eternal life that He has promised to all of us.

In our first reading passage today, taken from the continuation of the Book of Genesis on the account of the Great Flood during the time of Noah and its aftermath, we heard of the moment when the Lord made a Covenant with Noah and his descendants, that is all of us living today in this world. This is because the Great Flood had wiped out all of mankind in the whole world and many other living things save those that took refuge in Noah’s Ark, the great ship that God had commanded Noah to build. Noah and his family were in that ship, as well as two each of the different kinds of animals, and all of them were spared the destruction of the Great Flood by God’s grace and mercy. God therefore made a new Covenant with the people whom He loved and had created, establishing with them that firm link and connection through that same Covenant.

A Covenant is a solemn pact between two parties and in such a pact, both of those who are involved are expected to fulfil their obligations and duties to the Covenant that had been established between them. And since God had made this Covenant between Himself and all of us mankind, we heard in that passage from the Book of Genesis today of exactly what these obligations, details and other things about this Covenant are. The Lord entrusted this world and all of the things He had created to us, and He will also continue to bless us all and guide us all, giving us all the means to carry out our lives and to enjoy the wonderful graces and blessings that He had granted us, which He has always intended for all of us. After all, God created us all not to suffer hardships or trials in this world but to enjoy the bounty and the fruits of His labours.

However, as a Covenant is a two-way process and commitment, we are required to commit ourselves to follow the Law and commandments which God had provided to us, and which God mentioned to Noah as a precursor to this Law that He would later reveal to his descendants. He reminded from Noah and his family, and all of their descendants the respect for the rules and laws He had set, and to obey the manners which He had provided and taught them, respecting the lives of one’s fellow mankind, and how to keep themselves free from corruption, sin and evil. This is important as it was the sins of mankind that had led to the destruction by the Great Flood in the first place, and it was God’s love and mercy that had made Him to spare the righteous ones amongst them.

Unfortunately, due to our refusal to obey the words of the Lord, our stubbornness and obstinate behaviour in rejecting God’s most generous love and kindness, His compassion and mercy, love and all the things He has provided us with freely, we have often fallen away from the path of righteousness and ended up in the path of sin again and again. We have not done what is right and proper according to what the Lord had commanded us to do. We frequently kept allowing the temptations of this world, the temptations of worldly pleasures and desires to lead us all astray, embracing our greed and desires, and all the attachments that we may have to the pleasures and comforts of life around us. And that may prevent us from fulfilling our part of the Covenant with God.

Now, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard of the interactions between the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples, as He asked them all about His identity and what they all believed about Him. We heard about all the manners of things which people at that time often believed about Him, that they considered the Lord as the Prophet or the Man of God, promised to bring salvation to the people, or that of Elijah or any other earlier prophets returning back. But St. Peter, the leader of the Apostles, spoke courageously and firmly that he and the others believed that the Lord was truly the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, the One Whom all the prophets and many others had spoken about.

This was then immediately followed by a curious exchange between the Lord and the same St. Peter, who protested when the Lord revealed to him and the other disciples that He would face lots of hardships and persecutions from the Jewish leaders and authorities, stating how He would face sufferings and eventually even to die because of the rejection by all those leaders. St. Peter likely gave in to fear and doubt, and hence, allowed Satan to make use of him to try to dissuade the Lord from doing what He had said He would be doing. But the Lord Jesus would not allow this to happen, and He rebuked Satan acting through St. Peter, and through this, He showed all of us an important reminder that we must always have strong faith in Him, not allowing the evil one to manipulate and mislead us down the wrong path. And it was by obeying His Father’s will, that our Lord had renewed the Covenant between us and God into one new and eternal Covenant.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore remind ourselves today that we should strive to live our lives in each and every moments with faith and trust in the Lord, and following His Law, obeying all His commandments and all the things that He had taught and shown us, fulfilling the part of the responsibilities and obligations required in the Covenant which God had made, established and renewed constantly with us. God has always been faithful to this Covenant that He made with us, and He has always loved us patiently despite our rebelliousness and disobedience. Let us all therefore not take this love and generosity for granted, and instead, appreciate all the opportunities which we have been given. May the Lord continue to help and strengthen us in our journey towards Him, and may He bless us all in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 20 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 8 : 27-33

At that time, Jesus set out with His disciples for the villages around Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He asked them, “Who do people say I am?” And they told Him, “Some say You are John the Baptist; others say You are Elijah or one of the prophets.”

Then Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” And He ordered them not to tell anyone about Him. Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. He would be killed, and after three days rise again.

Jesus said all this quite openly, so that Peter took Him aside and began to protest strongly. But Jesus turning around, and looking at His disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as people do.”

by

Thursday, 20 February 2025 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 101 : 16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23

O Lord, the nations will revere Your Name, and the kings of the earth Your glory, when the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in all His splendour. For He will answer the prayer of the needy and will not despise their plea.

Let this be written for future ages, “The Lord will be praised by a people He will form.” From His holy height in heaven, the Lord has looked on the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoners, and free those condemned to death.”

Your servants’ children will dwell secure; their posterity will endure without fail. Then the Name of the Lord will be declared in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship Him.