Thursday

by

Thursday, 12 December 2024 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Our Lady of Guadalupe)

Psalm 144 : 1 and 9, 10-11, 12-13ab

I will extol You, my God and King; I will praise Your Name forever. YHVH is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.

All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o YHVH, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom; and speak of Your power.

That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign, and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age; Your dominion endures, from generation to generation.

Alternative Psalm (Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe)

Judith 13 : 18bcde, 19

My daughter, may the Most High God bless you more than all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who has led you to behead the leader of our enemies.

Never will people forget the confidence you have shown; they will always remember the power of God.

by

Thursday, 12 December 2024 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Our Lady of Guadalupe)

Isaiah 41 : 13-20

For I, YHVH, your God, take hold of your right hand and say to you : “Fear not, I am your assistance.” Fear not, Jacob, poor worm, and you, people of Israel, so frail. I am your Redeemer, says YHVH, the Holy One of Israel, your Helper.

I will make you a thresher, new and with sharp double teeth : you will thresh hills and mountains, crushing them and reducing them to chaff. You will winnow them, the wind will carry them off and the storm will scatter them. But you will rejoice in YHVH and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

The poor and the afflicted seek water, and find none. Their tongues are parched with thirst. But I, YHVH, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up streams over the barren heights and let the rivers flow through all the valleys; I will turn the desert into lakes and brooks and the thirsty earth into a land of springs.

I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle and the olive; I will plant in the wasteland fir, cypress and pine – that all may see and know, consider and understand, that the hand of YHVH has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe)

Zechariah 2 : 14-17

Sing and rejoice, o daughter of Zion, for I am about to come, I shall dwell among you,” says YHVH. “On that day, many nations will join YHVH and be My people, but My dwelling is among you.”

The people of Judah will be for YHVH as His portion in His holy land. He will choose Jerusalem again. Keep still in YHVH’s presence, for He comes, having risen from His holy dwelling.

Alternative reading (Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe)

Revelations 11 : 19a and Revelations 12 : 1-6, 10

Then, the Sanctuary of God, in the heavens, was opened, and the Ark of the Covenant of God could be seen inside the Sanctuary.

A great sign appeared in heaven : a woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant, and cried out in pain, looking to her time of delivery.

Then, another sign appeared : a huge, red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and wearing seven crowns on its heads. It had just swept along a third of the stars of heaven with its tail, throwing them down to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman, who was about to give birth, so that, it might devour the Child as soon as It was born.

She gave birth to a male Child, the One Who is to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre; then, her Child was seized, and taken up to God, and to His throne, while the woman fled to the desert, where God had prepared a place for her. Then, I heard a loud voice from heaven : Now has salvation come, with the power and the kingdom of our God.

by

Thursday, 5 December 2024 : 1st Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord contained in the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for each and every one of us to have a strong faith that is truly rooted and anchored in the Lord, and not to have the kind of empty and superficial faith that will not be of use to us at all and which will not justify us on the Day of Judgment. All of us must nurture in us the strong love and devotion to God, and build in us the strong and lasting foundation by our enduring faith and commitment to God. This is what we are being reminded of today by listening to the words of the Scriptures presented to us, that there is only firm and sure hope in God alone and that if we depend on worldly means and provisions we are likely to be disappointed in the end.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which God spoke to His people, the people of the kingdom of Judah about His promises and reassurance to them that He would protect and guard them against their enemies, and He would make their cities and towns secure again, setting up His strong wall against all those who would rise against them. The prophet Isaiah also spoke of the firm foundation in God, the firm and steady foundation Rock for all the people of God. This assurance indeed came at the right time for the people of God in Judah and they themselves at that time had likely witnessed in person what God had done for those who were faithful and beloved to Him against their enemies who tried to strike them down and destroy them.

We can understand this better by referring to the historical and Scriptural evidence of the time when the Assyrians came up to Jerusalem under their King Sennacherib, with his mighty army in the hundreds of thousands, after the Assyrians earlier on had destroyed and conquered the northern half of the kingdom of the people of God, the kingdom of Israel. At that time, during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah, the people of God and their king must have been fearful of the might of the Assyrians who were very powerful and undefeated those days, conquering many states and territories around the kingdom of Judah itself, and eventually they also came for Judah and Jerusalem. If we read the story contained in the Book of Kings, that Assyrian king Sennacherib even boasted against the Lord and ridiculed the faith of the people of Judah.

It was there and then that, having kept their trust and faith in God, the prayers of the people of Judah and their king, Hezekiah, who was faithful and obedient to God, led to the Lord sending His mighty Angels to strike upon the vast hordes of the Assyrian army, leading to the death of a hundred and eighty-five thousand men among them, a truly colossal devastation that God had brought upon the Assyrians and their proud and haughty king. Certainly, the people of Judah had witnessed all these happening before their very own eyes, and believed in God. In the same manner therefore, I decided to bring up this history and evidence to help us all to realise for ourselves just how great God’s providence and love for us are. We must not forget how blessed we are to have God Who has always been so loving and so patient in caring for us.

Then, from our Gospel passage today taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Evangelist, we heard of the words of the Lord telling and in fact warning His disciples and the people listening to Him that not everyone who claim to know Him and who says, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will be saved or worthy for eternal life. This was immediately followed by the parable of the foundations in which the Lord compared between the ones who built the foundations for their houses on the loose sand against those who have built their houses on the solid foundation from strong and firm rocks. This parable is meant to highlight to us all what it means to put our faith and trust in God as opposed to putting our trust in the many worldly means and alternatives that we have all around us, our wealth, property, abilities and all the worldly attachments we have.

The loose foundation is a reference to the trust that we have in our worldly means and abilities, as all those things while they may provide us temporary help, assurance and means to survive and prosper, but they will not last forever. Eventually none of those things will last and even the greatest of wealth and worldly property, belongings and treasures can be destroyed in the blink of an eye, no matter how careful we have taken care of them. And ultimately, none of us can bring any of these to the life that is to come. No amount of wealth, worldly possessions, fame, glory, worldly achievements and talents, all the things we have amassed in this world can be brought with us past the gates of death. Even the mightiest and richest ones among us go to the afterlife with the same things that the poorest and the weakest among us bring with them, that is no other than their bodies and their souls.

Before God all of us are equals and we are all equally beloved by Him. And in Him alone we can find true assurance and perfectly lasting happiness and joy. For it is in Him alone we can truly depend on and will not be disappointed. And while we may have to face difficulties, struggles and challenges in this life, but as long as we keep our faith in God and continue to love Him, anchoring ourselves and our lives very deeply in His love and providence, then everything will be well for us in the end. Just as the Lord has repeatedly promised, reassured us all and shown to His beloved ones throughout time, He is always ever faithful to the Covenant which He has made with us, and all of us who are faithful to Him, without exception, shall share in the eternal and true glory and joy with Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect upon these words of the Scriptures and what we have just discussed with regards to what we can do going forward in life, and especially in the short term for our Advent preparations and observances. Let us all continue to commit ourselves ever more strongly to the Lord, doing whatever we can so that by our good examples and commitments, by our faithful obedience and continued trust in God, we will always have that firm foundation in Him that will be unshakeable no matter what challenges and hardships we may be currently facing in our lives and whatever we may encounter from now on. Let us all inspire one another and encourage ourselves to be always faithful as well. May God be with us all and may He bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 5 December 2024 : 1st Week of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 7 : 21, 24-27

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My heavenly Father. Therefore, anyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts according to them, is like a wise man, who built his house on rock. The rain poured down, the rivers flooded, and the wind blew and struck that house. But it did not collapse, because it was built on rock.”

“But anyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act accordingly, is like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain poured, the rivers flooded, and the wind blew and struck that house; it collapsed, and what a terrible collapse that was!”

by

Thursday, 5 December 2024 : 1st Week of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 117 : 1 and 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a

Alleluia! Give thanks to YHVH, for He is good, His loving kindness endures forever. It is better to take refuge in YHVH than to trust in the help of humans. It is better to take refuge in YHVH than to trust in the might of princes.

Open to me the gates of the Just, and let me enter to give thanks. This is YHVH’s gate, through which the upright enter. I thank You for having answered me, for having rescued me.

Save us, o YHVH, deliver us, o YHVH! Blessed is He Who comes in YHVH’s Name! We praise You from the house of YHVH. YHVH is God; may His light shine upon us.

by

Thursday, 5 December 2024 : 1st Week of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 26 : 1-6

On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah : We have a strong city, He Himself has set up walls and fortifications to protect us. Open the gates! Let the righteous nation enter, she who is firm in faithfulness. You keep in perfect place the one of steadfast mind, the one who trusts in You.

Trust in YHVH forever, for YHVH is an everlasting Rock. He brought down those who dwell on high, He laid low the lofty city, He razed it to the ground, levelled it to the dust. Now it is trampled, the poor and the lowly tread upon it.

by

Thursday, 28 November 2024 : 34th 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 Scriptures, we are reminded by the Lord through His Church yet again towards the end of this current liturgical year that as we continue to live on with our lives, in each and every moments, we will always keep in mind our relationship with God and our state of life in the world today. All of us are reminded that tribulations and hardships will likely be part of our journey towards the Lord, but if we remain firm in our faith towards Him, in the end, we will share in His ultimate triumph and victory against the forces of evil, sin and darkness. We must always have faith in the Lord and believe that no matter what obstacles and hardships we may encounter in our journey, we will be able to overcome them with God’s help and guidance.

In our first reading today, the continuation from the Book of Revelations to St. John the Apostle, we heard of the story of the great triumph, after all the tribulations, hardships and challenges facing all the faithful people of God by Satan, the great enemy, the Antichrist and all those forces of evil and wickedness arrayed against the faithful and holy ones of God. During those days in the final moments of the current world we are living in, Satan and all of his forces made a final attempt at us all, and in their attempts, they tried to bring us all down into damnation by striking at us, tempting us and coercing us into following their false and wicked paths, persecuting and oppressing all those who have been faithful to the Lord and His truth. But we are all reminded through this reading today that we should not easily give up the struggle or surrender to the demands of the evil ones, because ultimately we will be triumphant with God.

This Revelation received by St. John the Apostle came at the time when the Church and many of the faithful were encountering great hardships and persecutions for their faith in God, with the Apostle himself being persecuted and exiled at the island of Patmos when he received this series of visions and revelations from God. According to historical evidence and Sacred Tradition, this persecution which had begun under the Emperor Nero, became more intense under the succeeding Emperors, and this particular episode of persecution happened during the reign of the Emperor Domitian who ruled the Roman Empire about five and six decades after the death of Christ, His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. Many of the Apostles except for St. John had died as martyrs, and many more early Christians had become martyrs as well.

They all persevered in faith and refused to obey the Emperor’s command for them to worship him as a god. They refused to worship the pagan gods and offer sacrifices to these gods and false idols, and especially in the case of the Emperor Domitian, known in history for his megalomania and claim to divinity which was scandalous and controversial even to the Romans and the pagan believers at the time. But knowing this fact makes us realise just how dire the situation was for the Church and many of the early Christians who suffered greatly for their faith in God. But the Lord strengthened and encouraged them through His servants and all the reassurances that He has given them, including this Revelation of the ultimate triumph and victory the faithful shall all have in God, just as ultimately the Christian faith triumphed over the pagan idols and Emperor worship of Ancient Rome.

Then from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the Lord Who foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, its Temple and the entire city that would happen soon sometime in their lifetime. He told them all about the signs of things around them and for them all to be prepared for the time of tribulation and hardships. This prophecy would indeed come true a few decades later, when the Romans came to besiege Jerusalem and eventually conquered it from the Jewish rebels who had risen up in rebellion due to instigation from the extremist factions within the Jewish community who sought to liberate themselves from the rule and dominion of the Romans. But for all the efforts that they had made, they all came to nothing as they were defeated and their rebellion crushed, and Jerusalem itself and the Temple were destroyed and burnt to the ground, leaving only a small portion of the Temple complex wall remaining, which is now known as the Western Wall.

All these are clear reminders for us that there will be hardships and trials facing us, and there is no guarantee that can be found in the world, as our only source of Hope and strength can be found in God and in Him alone. Those Jewish people living during the time of the Lord and His disciples, the Apostles and the first Christians of the early Church, they all believed in the Temple and the priesthood, the Law and the commandments so much so that that adherence and attachment to the Temple made them to forget their true devotion and focus on the Lord, their God. And when the Temple of Jerusalem, the grand Temple rebuilt and expanded by King Herod the Great was torn down and destroyed, those people lost their faith and their focus in life, forgetting that God alone is their true focus and the source of all their hopes.

It is a clear reminder for all of us that we should not easily give in to the temptations of worldly glory and the falsehood of earthly treasures. Instead we must renew our commitment, faith and trust in God. We must always have faith that the Lord will be triumphant with us in the end, and the sufferings that we are facing now, are what He Himself has suffered even more, as He has suffered the worst of sufferings, humiliations and pains, the worst that this world can project upon anyone, and yet, He endured it all because of His love for us, and He triumphed in the end. It is also normal for us to struggle with those sufferings and pains, and our hardships are real sufferings, but we must always remember that we do not suffer alone, for the Lord Himself is journeying by our side, bearing our crosses with Him, as He will always support us all the way.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have discussed and discerned earlier from the readings of the Scriptures and from what we have been reminded, of the need to have firm trust and strong faith in God, let us all therefore renew our faith in Him and do our very best to glorify God by our every actions, words and deeds that are truly worthy of Him. May the Lord continue to strengthen us all and encourage each one of us in our respective journeys in life, so that hopefully by our own good role model and inspirations, we may help each other in this difficult but ultimately rewarding journey towards God. May God bless us all and our every good works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 28 November 2024 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 21 : 20-28

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that the time has come when it will be reduced to a wasteland. If you are in Judea, flee to the mountains! If you are in Jerusalem, leave! If you are outside the city, do not enter it!”

“For these will be the days of its punishment, and all that was announced in the Scriptures will be fulfilled. How hard will it be for pregnant women, and for mothers with babies at the breast! For a great calamity will come upon the land, and wrath upon this people. They will be put to death by the sword, or taken as slaves to other nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled upon by the pagans, until the time of the pagans is fulfilled.”

“Then there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish of nations, perplexed when they hear the roaring of the sea and its waves. People will faint with fear at the mere thought of what is to come upon the world, for the forces of the universe will be shaken. Then, at that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

“So, when you see things begin to happen, stand erect and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is drawing near.”

by

Thursday, 28 November 2024 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 4, 5

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name.

For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.

by

Thursday, 28 November 2024 : 34th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Revelations 18 : 1-2, 21-23 and Revelations 19 : 1-3, 9a

After this I saw another Angel coming down from heaven. So great was his authority that the whole earth was lit up with his glory. In a strong voice he cried out : “Fallen is Babylon the great! Fallen! She has become a haunt of demons, a lodge for every unclean spirit, a nest for any filthy and disgusting bird.”

A powerful Angel picked up a boulder the size od a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “With such violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, never again to be seen. Never again will tunes of harpists, minstrels, trumpeters and flutists be heard in you. Never again will an artisan of any trade be found in you. Never again will the noise of the mill be heard.”

“Never again will the light of a lamp shine in you. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never again be heard in you. Because your traders were the world’s great and you led the nations astray by your magic spell.”

After this I heard what sounded like the loud singing of a great assembly in heaven : “Alleluia! Salvation, glory and might belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just. He has condemned the great harlot who corrupted the world with her adultery. He has avenged His servants’ blood shed by her hand in harlotry.” Once more they sang : “Alleluia! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever!”

Then the Angel told me, “Write : Happy are those invited to the wedding of the Lamb.”