triumphant

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Tuesday, 23 July 2013 : 16th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious (First Reading)

Exodus 14 : 21 – Exodus 15 : 1

Moses stretched his hand over the sea and YHVH made a strong east wind blow all night and dry up the sea. The waters divided and the sons of Israel went on dry ground through the middle of the sea, with the waters forming a wall to their right and to their left.

The Egyptians followed them and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and horsemen moved forward in the middle of the sea. It happened that in the morning watch, YHVH in the pillar of cloud and fire, looked towards the Egyptian camp and threw it into confusion. He so clogged their chariot wheels that they could hardly move. Then the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites for YHVH is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Then YHVH said to Moses, “Stretch your hand over the sea and let the waters come back over the Egyptians, over the chariots and horsemen.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. At daybreak the sea returned to its place. As the Egyptians tried to flee, YHVH swept them into the sea.

The waters flowed back and engulfed the chariots and horsemen of the whole army of Pharaoh that had followed Israel into the sea. Not one of them escaped. As for the Israelites they went forward on dry ground in the middle of the sea, the waters forming a wall on their right and their left.

On that day YHVH delivered Israel from the power of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore. They understood what wonders YHVH had done for them against Egypt and the people feared YHVH. They believed in YHVH and in Moses, His servant.

Then Moses and the people sang this song to YHVH : “I will sing to YHVH, the Glorious One, horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.

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Friday, 5 July 2013 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Psalm)

Psalm 105 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

Alleluia! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His love endures forever. Who can count the Lord’s mighty deeds, or declare all His praises?

Blessed are they who always do just and right. Remember me, o Lord, when You show favour to Your people.

Rescue me when You deliver them, let me see the triumph of Your faithful, let me share the joy of Your nation, and join Your people in praising You.

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Monday, 17 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He had 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.

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Tuesday, 11 June 2013 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle (Psalm)

Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3c-4, 5-6

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

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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Saturday, 18 May 2013 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. John I, Pope and Martyr (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters, God our Lord loves us, and He sent us His Son, Jesus Christ, to show that perfect love that He has for us. Jesus came that He may bring salvation to all mankind. He gave Himself for us on the cross, that through His sacrifice as our Paschal Lamb, we are purified from our sins and our unworthiness before the Lord.

He gave us His new commandments of love, that through His disciples, we receive the commandments to love one another, and to love God with all our beings, with all our attentions. He gave us these that we may have love in all of us, and therefore worthy of Him who created us, because God is love, and without love, we cannot be with Him.

He did not leave the Apostles empty handed either, when He departed from them and ascended into heaven. He gave the Apostles, and from them to us, the very Advocate, the Holy Spirit that is from God, that the Spirit would come and transform this world, with the power of God. The Holy Spirit came over the Apostles and energised them, and gave them the courage to preach the Good News of the Lord.

Through the Apostles, we too receive the Holy Spirit, which is descended to us through a continuous succession of shepherds in the Church, to our priests and bishops today. In the sacrament of baptism that we received, either directly after our birth or in our adulthood, we were welcomed into the Church of God, and be reunited with God through the waters and baptism, and we also receive the Holy Spirit, which is then strengthened by the conferring of the sacrament of confirmation.

The Holy Spirit empowers us and gives all of us the strength to be disciples and missionaries of the Lord, and that allows us to follow through Jesus’ mission to us, that is to evangelise to the entire world. We are today called to be messengers of God’s word. But brethren, we have to make sure that we ourselves are properly placed to proclaim God’s words to the nations, like St. Paul once did, to the people of Rome and beyond.

We have to follow the Church’s teachings and commandments of the Lord as taught by the Church. Listen to the homilies of our priests in the Mass, read the Scripture with commentaries on the passages, and learn more about our faith through reading of sources such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which contains basically everything that we need to know about our faith. Also understand and learn more on the history of the Church, which had existed since it was established by Jesus Christ Himself and which He had built on Peter, which the Pope, who is his successor, represents Christ in this world and act as the leader and shepherd of all God’s sheep and flocks.

Be careful not to spread false teachings and follow the false prophets that run rampant in our world today, as the Scripture is easily misinterpreted, and the witness to the faith as represented by St. John the Evangelist in his Gospel of John, which we read today, can easily be used by Satan to turn the word of God and twist it to serve his own purposes. Remember that Satan himself used the words of the Scripture in his attempts to tempt Jesus in the desert.

Pray and pray, and make sure that we have a healthy spiritual life, and feeding constantly on the word of God that provides us with spiritual sustenance, and receive often the Lord in the Most Precious Eucharist, and allow Him to dwell into ourselves, that the Holy Spirit that dwells within us can truly exercise its power and bear fruits of the Holy Spirit, such as love and compassion.

Jesus too did not leave us without hope, as through John too, He gave to us the vision of His second coming, of His long-awaited return to this world. This time not as a humble king, but as a terrible judge and triumphant King who would judge all creations and separate the good from the bad. He gave that vision to John, so that we will be ready and not be complacent, that when He comes, we will not be caught unprepared like the five unwise women, who did not bring extra oil with them. Be rather like the five wise women who stood ready with extra oil, that when the time comes, we are ready for the Lord.

Today, we celebrate the memorial and feast of a great Pope and saint of the early Church, that is Pope St. John I. Pope St. John I was an upright and faithful man, dedicated to the Lord, and was chosen to lead the Universal Church due to his holiness and love for the Lord, and prolonged service for the sake of the Lord and the Church. He was forced by the secular authorities, who have fallen to heresies, to gain moderation for the punishment for heresy, and despite the Pope’s opposition, he was forced to do so, and yet, when he had successfully done so, he was imprisoned for treachery and plotting charges against that secular ruler.

Despite the betrayal, and the imprisonment, Pope St. John I did not falter but remain steadfast to his death, as a  martyr of the faith. He is a role model, an upright person, whose faith in God and steadfastness is an example to all of us, to be more courageous like him in spreading the Good News of the Lord. We have to be courageous, to spread the message of God’s love, and may God be with all of us in this mission, which Christ had entrusted to us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 10 May 2013 : 6th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, praise the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, at all times, always! For He is our great King of glory, who was glorified by the Father in His resurrection, and then elevation to heaven in the Ascension. He is the only one worthy of praise, and worthy of worship, for through Him the world had seen its salvation and the hour is truly coming very close that Christ will come once again to justify those whom He had chosen, and those who had remained faithful to Him.

The world rejoices while the faithful in Christ are in sorrow, that is because the world does not belong to God, but instead belong to the evil one, from where all evils sprang from. The world therefore has hated those who are upright and righteous before God, since the beginning of creation, when men first fall into sin, and Satan first had his hold over mankind.

The faithful ones in Christ now is represented by the Church, the one and only Church of all the faithful ones in God, that is our One, Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. If you had heard many of the negative publications and bad news on the Church and portraying the Church in a bad light, that is exactly what Jesus meant with the world rejoicing while we are in mourning. Because the world will definitely try its best to denounce the Church and portray it as evil and irrelevant, exactly as what happened in our world today, in the direct and indirect persecution of the Church and the faithful ones in Christ, many of which are persecuted and ridiculed daily for their faith in God.

For, there are increasingly many who heed the call of Satan through the world and all its attractive seductions and temptations, either through false sense of happiness, joy, and through material goods and possessions, that often ensnared mankind into senseless greed for more and more material possessions, that they end up losing sight on the true goal of their life, that is to follow Christ, to remain faithful to Him, and become His disciples in spreading His Good News to all the peoples in all the nations.

The world today offers us much opportunities and goods that for many of us are simply too much to resist. Many also had fallen into the temptations and submitted to the devil, for temporary pleasures and false sense of joy, while straying from the path which Christ had shown to all of us. They had chosen evil over what is good, and abandoned the One who loves them so much that He gave up His life even for them.

Evil sees truth in the Church, truth that is of the Lord, and truth that can save mankind from eternal damnation with evil itself. Unwilling to see mankind saved from their seemingly unavoidable destiny, that is to perish with Satan in the eternal hell, he uses all his might through the world to prevent mankind from being saved, one of which is through seducing susceptible mankind, which in fact includes everybody, to stray from God’s path, and the other is by attacking the Church, that font of truth, out of which comes the only possibility of salvation. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, there is no salvation outside the Church.

We will be persecuted, ridiculed against, and attacked, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, for holding fast to our faith in Christ crucified, in Christ resurrected, and in Christ the Son of God, the One triumphant against evil, sin, and all of evil’s insidious plans. But if we remain strong in our resolution and standing, and steadfast in our faith, we will not falter in our path, and despite all the hardships, the sorrows, and the sadness, we will eventually triumph with Christ.

Remember that with every cloud there is always a silver lining. Hope never dies, and hope will always be there, as long as we believe in it. In Christ lies our only hope, and in Him, salvation of the world can come. He had been triumphant, and we will be victorious with Him when He comes again to judge the world, and find us worthy, while those who rejected Him will end up in the eternal condemnation that is due for them and the devil and his fallen angels.

God be with us all, and remain within our hearts, forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 8 May 2013 : 6th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we belong to God, and we are His alone. Why is this so? Because we are created by Him, He who is our Creator, who created all the universe and gave life to all things that have life, including all of us, to whom He gave the greatest love of all. For in Christ’s words Himself, He said that there is no greater love than for one to give up his life for the sake of his friends. And that exactly what God has done.

Out of His infinite love, God came down to this world and walked among us as lowly humans like us. He gave Himself fully for our sake, and He did not even shirk from giving us His own flesh and blood in the ultimate gift of love, not only so that we may not die from the death that we deserved for the evils that we had done, but also that we may have nourishment and strength in life, that we can become truly the children of God.

By His blood that flowed down the cross on Calvary, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God had marked all of us as His own, and the Father recognises all of us the faithful ones in Christ because of that. This blood is no different from the young lambs sacrificed during that first Passover in Egypt, when the people of Israel was being delivered from their torturer and their slave masters. God showed His might and brought His people out of Egypt by punishing hard on those who persecuted His beloved people.

But different from that earthly blood of the lamb, which was splattered on the doorposts of the believers, that the angels of death would not kill the firstborn children of the people of Israel, the perfect and precious Blood of the Lamb of God not only marked the people of God, and differentiating them from those who placed their trust in the evil one, but the Blood also cleanses and purifies our beings from sins and faults, making us righteous and perfect once again, and worthy of God our Father who is good and perfect.

By this Blood had the martyrs and the holy people of God washed their clothes white again, that is with the Blood of the Lamb, just as St. John the Evangelist had seen in heaven in his Book of Revelation. We too, who had been persecuted for our faith in Christ in this world, those among us who had been ridiculed and ostracised by our steadfast belief in the truths of the Lord, had been marked by this precious Blood, which we also receive through the Eucharist in the Mass.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, remain steadfast and unflinching in our faith and dedication to our Saviour and our God. Do not let the devil, his lies and temptations disturb us or cause us to go astray from our path towards righteousness in the Lord. We had been marked by God through baptism, when we are washed from our impurities, sins, and unworthiness, and like His saints, we had receive a new gown of purity, washed by the Blood of the Lamb, as a sign of our salvation, that the angels of death seeking the destruction of the sinful ones will ‘pass over’ us.

This is our Christian Passover, that is Easter, when we celebrate Christ resurrected and triumphant over death and evil. May all of us be granted courage, faith, and strength at all times in our lives. God bless all of us. Amen.

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Tuesday, 7 May 2013 : 6th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Follow the Lord! For He is justice and truth embodied!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear the word of God, proclaiming that in Christ our Lord, lays true justice and the truth itself, however hard it is for this evil-laden world to comprehend and accept. Even among us, there are many who still do not believe truly in God, and put our trust in His justice and have faith in the truths He had taught us through His apostles.

For Christ is our great judge, who will judge every being and every mankind at the end of time, when it is time once again for Him to descend onto this world in His glorious Second Coming, when He will vindicate all who keep their faith in Him and do not give it up for the temptations and seductions of the evil one. He will reward all those who remain faithful in Him, and punish all those who stray from His way, the true way, the path of salvation.

This great judgment will separate the good ones from the bad ones, the worthy ones from the unworthy ones, like the harvester separate the good wheat from the chaff and the husks, and like the shepherd separating the goat from the sheep. So will all of us be separated based on our virtues, and whether we have faithfully kept God’s commandments in our deeds and in our daily lives.

Would we want to be separated as the bad goats as compared to be like the good sheep? Would we want to endure the eternal suffering of separation from God and His infinite love? Never forget that the true suffering in hell is not the physical fire and the torture of the flesh that is always depicted in the secular illustrations, but hell is in fact a state of eternal damnation and suffering when one is truly, completely, and forever separated from God.

It is difficult to believe in God, especially in our increasingly secular world today, as God becomes ever more distant in mankind’s hearts, when world’s increasingly seductive temptations exert greater and ever greater pull on many, steering them away from the true faith and from the righteous path in Christ. This is why the world is sinful, and it is most sinful in what is called disbelief. Not only because it has not believed in God, and had rejected the One whom God had sent, but also that it had made many to lose their faith and belief in God, because it has offered the falsehoods that Satan has offered.

Let us not be perturbed, my brethren. Let us not be shaken in our faith, and doubt our God not for even a single moment, for He is constant, and He is faithful. He is God who keeps His promises, who loves those who also love Him, and those who obey the commandments He had set, and those who follow in His way. Remember, the path of Satan, and what the deceiver offers us, may look good, but it offers only temporal satisfaction. Remember Adam and Eve, our ancestors.

True salvation, true joy, and true glory lie only in God, our one and only God and Lord. To no other being should we bend our knee to in worship, other than to He who had come down from heaven, who had lived amongst us, who died for us, that we may live, and who had risen in glory, in triumph, and conquered death. Amen.

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Saturday, 4 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we who believe in Christ, and put our trust in His words, and place ourselves in His great love, do not belong to this world, which is owned by the evil one, with the sole intention of steering all of us away from the true path, that is the way of Christ. This they have done together by tempting the faithful ones in Christ, God’s sheep with the false promise of earthly pleasures and false joy and happiness.

Do not fear though, my brethren in faith, for Christ, our Lord Himself had also suffered such temptations and yet He won, because of His obedience to God His Father, and His unshakeable faith. We too ought to have that kind of faith and love for God, that we can deny the evil one, a passage into our hearts. Do not let the devil dwell inside us, but rather, let us put God at the centre of our very being, making our own body into a Holy Temple of His Presence.

God has made all of us His own, and gave Himself freely for our sake, giving His own flesh and blood that we can live eternally with Him in eternal joy and bliss. Not the temporary and false joy and happiness that this world can offer, but the lasting happiness of heaven. True happiness, and true joy, that the world cannot give, for there is only true joy when we are together and united with Christ our Lord and God, never again to be separated from Him.

The world hates the Lord, because it belongs to the devil, and therefore it will hate all of us too, who keep the faith in God strong. But if we remain faithful to the Lord, the devil and this world will have no power over us. We must keep our faith in God strong, and how to do this? By constant and healthy prayer life, to anchor ourselves in God, by being in constant direct line to God, we can keep ourselves from the power of evil. We also should receive the Lord regularly in deep devotion during the Mass, by attending Mass frequently, and devoutly receiving the Lord in the Eucharist.

The Eucharist, that is our Lord’s Precious Body and Blood will transform us into a Holy Temple of His divine Presence, as He enters our own unworthy bodies, and from the inside, He would transform us and made us worthy of Him, but only if our minds, our hearts, and our soul are open to Him and willing to accept Him.

Let us put our trust in God, who is our divine Master and Lord, who had triumphed over death, and who had won for us the fight against evil, and banish evil forever into the ultimate fate that awaits him, that is the lake of fire. Let us not fear evil and the world anymore, but continue to put our trust in God and love both Him and our fellow men. Keep our guard up, that the evil one will not ‘steal’ us from under God’s watch, but we need not fear if we stay in our faith in Him. God bless us all. Amen.

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Faith, prayer, and service (Fides, Ora, et Labora)

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You man of little faith, why are you afraid? (Add : ‘That’s why you’re sinking!’), as Jesus said to Peter when He appeared to the disciples in the storm, as the disciples feared they would sink, and Peter sank while he attempted to reach to the Lord on the water.

That’s why, keep your faith strong! Prayers, service, and love for God and our fellow men, but most importantly, before we go out and serve others, make sure that our prayer life is good and strong. There is no Ora et Labora without the Ora, and without the Ora ‘prayer’, our service is meaningless, since we then tend to associate our actions with ourselves, becoming object of self glorification rather than give glory to God, even if we are doing good things to others.

Appreciate the beauty of prayer and worship, and seek out to learn more about our worship, our Mass, from your priests, or any qualified liturgists around, who can help all of us understand about how beauty of the liturgy of the Mass can bring heaven closer to earth, and bring God’s divine glory closer to us, unworthy men.

In our worship we bring glory to God, and we profess the glory of the Risen Lord, victorious and triumphant, and in service, we bring glory to God, the humble and suffering Lord, who through His death on the cross, brought the ultimate service and love to all.

Non nobis, Domine, sed Nomini tuo da gloriam – Not to us, o Lord, but to You, we give glory.

Yours in Christ,

Ut Omnes Unum Sint, ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
(That they all may be One, for the greater glory of God)
+Peter Canisius Michael David C. Kang
Servus Servorum Dei