Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9
Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.
Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.
Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Daniel 3 : 25, 34-43
Azariah stood up in the midst of the fire and prayed aloud : “Do not abandon us forever, do not reject Your covenant for Your Name’s sake. Do not withdraw Your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, Your friend, of Isaac, Your servant, of Israel, Your holy one, to whom You promised to multiply their race as the stars of heaven and the sand on the shore of the sea.”
“Lord, see, we have become the least among the nations in all the world, and we are humiliated because of our sins. At this time, we no longer have a king, or prophet, or leader. We cannot offer You holocausts, sacrifices, offerings, or incense. We have no place to present to You the first fruits of our crops, and so obtain Your favour.”
“But at least when we present ourselves with a contrite soul and humbled spirit may we then be acceptable to You, more than by offerings of rams and calves as holocausts, and of thousands of fat lambs. May this sacrifice of ours today obtain for us Your favour for we know that those who trust in You shall never be disappointed.”
“And now, we serve You with our whole heart, we fear You and we seek Your face. Do not leave us on our humiliation, but treat us according to Your kindness and Your great mercy. Free us in keeping with Your wonders, and give us the glory of Your Name, Lord.”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, the message of the Holy Scriptures to us is very clear. And it is calling for us to repent from our sins, turn from all the wickedness we are committing, and turn a new leaf, finding our way in the Lord, and no longer disobeying His laws and commandments, let us all go on in our lives with a new purpose, that is to serve the Lord and to love His people, our fellow brethren.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Gospel today spoke of the matter of human pride, selfishness and greed, when Jesus talked about the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who liked to flaunt the rich display of their faith in public, so that the whole people might see their supposed piety and devotion to the Law of God. But they did so seeking not the approval of God, but instead, the approval of men.
Yes, they prayed and worshipped in public places, making a great scenery with loud voices and displays, so that they might be praised for whatever they had done. It was not because they truly loved the Lord or wanting to obey Him and His commandments that they had done so, but they rather loved themselves more, and wanted themselves to enjoy the satisfaction of power and pleasure of the flesh, satiating their own ego and greed.
To them, the laws of God represented an opportunity to do so, which they gladly accepted and made full use of. And thus, they misused what God had given them to be a guide for the people of God to find their way to the Lord Himself, and instead using them to further their own human agenda. They did not truly care about those whom God had entrusted to them, as leaders and shepherds to guide them to the way of the Lord.
And as a result, they sinned not just because they have not done what the Lord had expected of them as those entrusted to shepherd God’s people, but also because they had misled them and acted wickedly for their own self benefits. And that was why Jesus was so critical at them. He rebuked them harshly because of their own self-serving actions that were incompatible with what God teaches us to do.
It is difficult indeed in our world today for us to live faithfully in accordance with the will of God, and we have the tendency to be swayed and to be tempted and pulled into the lures of the devil, who with his allies and forces in this world is always trying to lay trap for us, and to bring us into our downfall that we may share with him the fate of eternal fire and damnation. And in order to do this, he is making use of our own pride, our own greed and desires, and all the things that keep us tied into the immorality of this world.
This is why it is important for us, during this season of Lent, to practice the method of self-restraint and abstinence, and as we do our fasting and abstinence, and by expanding our good works and charity, we limit and restrain our own ego, our own human pride, greed and desire, resisting the temptation of the evil one to us, and therefore gain for ourselves the rewards for our righteousness and faith to the Lord.
Today, we also celebrate the feast day of St. Polycarp, a holy bishop and martyr of the Church and the Faith. St. Polycarp was told to be the disciple of St. John the Apostle, the youngest of the Twelve Apostles of Christ, and who was appointed as the overseer or bishop of the region in Roman Asia known then as Smyrna. He ministered to the faithful there and helped to establish the foundations of the Church.
But he did not have an easy time, as many oppositions and challenges faced him, the Church and the faithful entrusted under his care. Nevertheless, St. Polycarp continued to work hard for the benefit of the faithful, the flock of the Lord placed under his care as their shepherd. It was told that he met his martyrdom at the hands of those who forced the faithful to reject the Lord and to offer sacrifices to the Roman Emperor, and St. Polycarp remained resolute and strong in his commitment to the Lord and to his faith.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all take note of the examples of St. Polycarp, and let us live our lives with the same kind of courage and strength, to resist the temptations of the world to defile ourselves, and thus, deliver ourselves free from all the bonds of sin that had held us back all these while. Let us resolve to live our lives free of sin in this season of Lent, and by striving to deepen our faith and spirituality, let us draw ever closer to our Lord and to His salvation.
May God strengthen us in faith and love, and may in all of our actions, we continue to show our faith, through our charities and care for our fellow brethren. May God be with us all in all of our endeavours. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 23 : 1-12
At that time, Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees have sat down on the chair of Moses. So you shall do and observe all they say, but do not do as they do, for they do not do what they say. They tie up heavy burdens and load them on the shoulders of the people, but they do not even raise a finger to move them.”
“They do everything in order to be seen by people : they wear very wide bands of the Law around their foreheads, and robes with large tassels. They enjoy the first places at feasts and reserved seats in the synagogues, and they like being greeted in the marketplace, and being called ‘Master’ by the people.”
“But you, do not let yourselves be called Master, because you have only one Master, and all of you are brothers and sisters. Neither should you call anyone on earth Father, because you have only one Father, He Who is in heaven. Nor should you be called Leader, because Christ is the only Leader for you.”
“Let the greatest among you be the servant of all. For whoever makes himself great shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself, shall be made great.”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 49 : 8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23
Not for your sacrifices do I reprove you, for your burnt offerings are ever before Me. I need no bull from your stalls, nor he-goat from your pens.
What right have you to mouth My laws, or to talk about My covenant? You hate My commands and cast My words behind you.
Because I was silent while you did these things, you thought I was like you. But now I rebuke you and make this charge against you. Those who give with thanks offerings honour Me, but the one who walks blamelessly, I will show him the salvation of God.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 1 : 10, 16-20
Hear the warning of YHVH, rulers of Sodom. Listen to the word of God, people of Gomorrah. Wash and make yourselves clean. Remove from My sight the evil of your deeds. Put an end to your wickedness and learn to do good. Seek justice and keep in line the abusers; give the fatherless their rights and defend the widow.
“Come,” says the Lord, “Let us reason together. Though your sins be like scarlet, they will be white as snow; though they be as crimson red, they will be white as wool. If you will obey Me, you will eat the goods of the earth, but if you resist and rebel, the sword will eat you instead.” Truly the Lord has spoken.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about God Who came into this world to bring it to salvation, and we heard about God Who is indeed our loving Father, Who always look down at us from heaven above, and He Who does not abandon us in times of distress. God is our Father, Who cares for us all just as all fathers care for their children.
God does not let us all to suffer alone in the darkness, and He Who created us with love, wants all of us to be reunited with Him and to be gathered back into His embrace and into His presence, no longer scattered and lost, but reunited and be freed from our bonds of sin and from our attachment and defilement by wickedness and by the darkness of this world.
And through Jesus, God had made His love evident and real in this world. He was the Son of God, Whom He had granted to the world, that all of us mankind might be saved through His works and intercession. And Jesus then showed us all how to pray to our Lord and Father, Who is always listening to us and to our petitions and words, because He is indeed longing to speak with us, to converse with us and to communicate with us.
And in this season of Lent, all of us should spend more time with our Father in heaven, praying to Him and speaking with Him, spending our moments with Him and withdrawing ourselves for a while from the daily business and the daily occupations we had, that we may discern and reflect from our encounter with the Lord in prayer. That is the problem with many of us, that we have spent way too short a time in prayer.
But whenever we pray, do we pray in the proper way, brethren? Or were our prayers filled instead with litany of wishes, petitions, desires, wants, or even demands? This is what our prayers tended to be, and many of us might even have the misconception that when we pray, we are asking the Lord to do us a favour, or even that He would listen to us and grant us what we asked of Him.
That is why when we do not get what we wanted, then we become angry at God, and we even abandon Him for some other things which we think as those that can provide us with what we wanted. But this is not what we ought to be doing, brothers and sisters in Christ. In this season of Lent, a season of renewal, repentance and forgiveness, it is a time for us to understand what it truly means to pray to our Lord and God.
To pray to God means to open ourselves, our hearts, minds and entire being to God, so that He may come in us and speak deep in our hearts. God is always trying to contact us, to touch us and to impact us with His words, and He desires always to communicate with us, for that is what prayer is, that is communication between us and God. And just as in our communication with each other, we talk and at the same time also listen to another person we are talking to, we should be doing the same with the Lord our God too.
That is why we should see how our Lord Jesus prayed to His Father in heaven, which we know now as the Lord’s Prayer, or the Pater Noster, the prayer addressed to God Who is our Father. When we pray, we should first give glory to God, and thank Him for all the blessings which we had received from Him, and even if we are in the direst and the most difficult of moments, we should still always be thankful for the very life which He had given to us.
Let us all rediscover our faith in this time, the time of mercy and forgiveness, and let us approach our Lord, God our Father, and spend more time with Him, communicating and talking with Him in prayer, a pure prayer not made up of our petitions, wishes and wants, but rather a prayer of the love and desire which we have to be loved by our Lord, and to receive His everlasting mercy.
May God bless us and strengthen our resolve to lead an ever more righteous life in this season of Lent and beyond, and may He keep us strong in our faith as always. May He keep us on the path to salvation and everlasting life. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 6 : 7-15
At that time, Jesus said to the people and to His disciples, “When you pray, do not use a lot of words, as the pagans do, for they believe that the more they say, the more chance they have of being heard. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need, even before you ask Him.”
“This, then, is how you should pray : Our Father in heaven, Holy be Your Name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, just as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. Do not bring us to the test, but deliver us from the evil one.”
“If you forgive others their wrongdoings, your Father in heaven will also forgive yours. If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive you either.”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 33 : 4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19
Oh, let us magnify the Lord, together let us glorify His Name! I sought the Lord, and He answered me; from all my fears He delivered me.
They who look to Him are radiant with joy, their faces never clouded with shame. When the poor cry out, the Lord hears and saves them from distress.
The eyes of the Lord are fixed on the righteous; His ears are inclined to their cries. But His face is set against the wicked to destroy their memory from the earth.
The Lord hears the cry of the righteous and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves the distraught.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 55 : 10-11
As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return till they have watered the earth, making it yield seed for the sower and food for others to eat, so is My Word that goes forth out of My mouth : It will not return to Me idle, but It shall accomplish My will, the purpose for which It has been sent.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 