way of the Lord

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Sunday, 22 November 2015 : Thirty-Fourth (34th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday marks the last Sunday of the current liturgical year, where the cycle of the Church’s liturgical celebrations reached a culmination in the celebration of Christ our Lord and King, as the One Who is the true ruler and authority over all things throughout the universe. Today we mark the occasion of the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Lord and Master of all things that are in existence.

Through the Scripture passages today, we heard about the Lord Jesus Who is a King, and the One True King from Whom all authority, power and wisdom came from. Yet, His kingship is not akin to one that is of the world, that is, His kingdom is not like the kingdoms that exist in this world. On the other hand, His kingship and His kingdom transcends the worldly boundaries of power, authority and majesty.

Why is this so? That is because the kingdoms of this world, their rulers and masters are all very bound and affected by the worldly aspects of glory, of fame, of influence and affluence, of human praise and positions of fame, and they continue to strive ever more for the greatness in accordance of human measures, and that is why the kingdoms and the powers of this world are ever concerned about the self-aggrandisement and gathering of more power and glory for themselves.

Human and worldly powers are always fragile and temporary. These powers did not last beyond certain criteria and requirements that need to be met in order to preserve the powers in accordance with the ways of this world. This is why much misery, sufferings and injustice occurred in the world, both past and present, because of the tempting nature of having in possession such power and authority, and thus our reluctance and unwillingness to let them go from us.

Just for an example, the kings, princes, dukes and other worldly powers went to war with each other because each of them wanted to increase their dominion, influence and power. And because they have given themselves in to the ways of this world, therefore, accordingly, they wanted to preserve what they had, even at the expense of morality and justice.

This is why, if we look at the many rulers and governments that are maintained with iron fist, they are always in constant fear of losing their power to those who do not belong to the ruling elites. And they would use all things and armaments in their disposal in order to protect themselves and avoid their own fall from power and glory. This was exactly what Jesus said to Pilate, about if His kingdom were to be of this world, His supporters would have gone out all the way to save Him.

Instead, Jesus clearly stated that His kingdom and His kingship are different from all that, from all the traditional notions of power and glory that we mankind and this world are familiar with. This is because His kingdom is a kingdom of truth, of justice, of righteousness, and ultimately His kingdom is a kingdom of love. He leads as a King, not by fear and tyranny, nor by anger or hatred, but through genuine leadership shown through example and perfect love.

We have to realise that all of us are truly fortunate to have been placed under the grace and sovereignty of our Lord’s eternal and universal kingship. His kingship is eternal because it is a kingdom which reign and rule will never end, and God’s rule will persist forever without end. And His great rule will extend all over the entire universe, over all of creation and over the entire existence, since He has created all things, and therefore rightfully, He also lords it all over all of them.

But He did not despise all those that He had created, nor did He oppress them and treat them as if they were slaves. This is unlike the common action and perception of the kings and princes of this world, who stand above the rest of their respective peoples and treat them as subjects and subordinates that need to serve their needs in all things.

Instead, God is a loving Master, Who had not just expected from us obedience and genuine faith, but He also gave us the love, care and commitment that is equivalent if not greater than the obedience, faith and commitment that He is expecting from us. His kingship is a kingship of love and justice, and He as the King, leads all by His examples, through servant leadership.

Do we all still remember what Jesus frequently told His disciples about Himself? That He came into this world to serve and not to be served, meaning that even though He is King, and truly the King and Master of all the universe, but all these did not make Him proud or haughty, but instead, in order to fulfil perfectly the love and compassion which He has for us, He came down into this world, not as a great conquering King, but instead as a humble and poor Man.

Yes, and He came offering Himself to be our Deliverance and as our Saviour, to save us from our distress, and by giving Himself up, He showed us an example how a leader should lead others, by example and not by power and tyranny. We know the phrase that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a reminder that we should not be obsessed with worldly power but rather we should look up at our Lord and see His good examples.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how is this relevant to us? It is very relevant indeed, since all of us by partaking in our Lord and as we become the members of His Body, we have also shared in His divine and eternal kingship. We have been called to be a shepherd, priest and king through our baptism, and in the divine kingship we share with our Lord, we have our responsibilities to play.

And it is that all of us should live righteously before the Lord, leading one another by example through our own actions, that in all the things we do, we become paragons of righteousness, virtue, love and justice. Let us all remember this even as we rejoice and honour our Lord Jesus Christ, King of all kings and King of all the universe, that we also have a share in His kingship, both in the privilege and honour, as well as in its responsibilities.

May our Lord Jesus Christ, our King, Lord and Master be with us always, and may He guide us on our path, that we shall become ever better guides for our own brethren, and may through our actions and deeds, more souls shall come closer to the Lord and His salvation. Be with us, Lord, our Master and King. Amen.

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Sunday, 22 November 2015 : Thirty-Fourth (34th) Sunday of Ordinary Time, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King, Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 92 : 1ab, 1c-2, 5

The Lord reigns, robed in majesty; the Lord is girded with strength.

The world now is firm, it cannot be moved. Your throne stands from long ago, o Lord, from all eternity You are.

Your decrees can be trusted; holiness dwells in Your house day after day without end, o Lord.

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Saturday, 21 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we commemorate the feast of the dedication and presentation of the Blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day, we remember the time, just as His Son Jesus was presented before God at His Temple, she was also presented in the same manner, just as the Law of God revealed through Moses had prescribed.

In the Scripture reading of today that we have heard, we witnessed how mankind fell into sin through the instigation of the devil who persuaded them to sin by disobedience against the Lord, tempting them with false promises of power and greatness that would be ours if we would just eat of the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, without knowing the consequences of such disobedience would bring us.

But God Who punished them for their sins and disobedience did not entirely gave them up to destruction and condemnation. Instead, He gave them a new opportunity, the chance for them to change their ways, turn around from their sinfulness and rebellion, and therefore regained the favour of God and from their position of shame and from the punishments they endured, they would emerge triumphant of having resisted the temptation of Satan unto the end.

And God promised to mankind that deliverance and hope would come, and even though Satan would have the first bite at us, inflicting upon us, generations upon generations of mankind, the bitterness of the sufferings of the world because of our sins, just as the Lord had said that there would be bitter feud between the sons of men and the forces of the evil one, therefore, the salvation would come through the Woman whom God had promised to be the one through whom the Saviour would come forth into the world.

And this Woman is Mary, the special one among mankind whom God had prepared since the beginning to be the one through whom the salvation of the world would come, that is in Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, born from her through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the Will of God the Father. But it was not because of Mary’s own might and power that she had done all these, but rather through her humility and obedience to the will of God.

Yes, Mary is the new Eve just as Christ is the new Adam according to St. Paul. While the old Eve, the first woman sinned and disobeyed the Lord because she was unable to hold her desires, the new Eve, that is Mary was obedient to God in all things, and she accepted fully the role she was to play in the salvation of all mankind.

Both Eve were born without sin, for Eve was created by God from the flesh and bones of men without the taints of sin, for creation was pure and without sin in the beginning. Meanwhile, Mary was specially prepared by the Lord to be immaculate, free from the taints of sin in any form from the very moment of her conception. This is because she was to be the mother of the Lord God of all creations, and the Lord most holy, Who certainly would not deserve a vessel tainted by sin.

Yet, if we notice, it was the choice that the new Eve took that differentiated her from the very first Eve, who chose the other option. The first Eve chose the world and all of its glories, the temptation of knowledge and power that tempted her and turn her away from the way of the Lord. But Mary, the new Eve did not choose that path. Instead, she chose obedience and complete submission to God.

Therefore, as we celebrate today’s feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when Mary the mother of our Lord, the new Eve was presented pure and blameless before the Lord on His Temple, let us all also commit ourselves to the Lord, renewing our faith and our dedication to the Lord our God. We all also need to model ourselves after our role model in faith, Mary, whose faith in the Lord was truly remarkable.

It is not impossible for us to walk in her ways, as we lead our lives on in the path of God. What we need is conviction and genuine desire for us to lead a life that is in accordance to God’s will, and be thoroughly and completely devoted in our ways, so that in all the things we say and do, we always do them or say them in the Name of the Lord and for the greater glory of God.

May Almighty God be with us all, forgive us all our sins, and may He guide us on the path to His everlasting happiness and glory. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Saturday, 21 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Matthew 12 : 46-50

At that time, while Jesus was still talking to the people, His mother and His brothers wanted to speak to Him, and they waited outside. So someone said to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside; they want to speak with You.”

Jesus answered, “Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?” Then He pointed to His disciples and said, “Look! Here are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is for Me brother, sister or mother.”

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Friday, 20 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture readings are perfectly unanimous in their messages, which the Church intended for us all to know and understand, so that in our own respective lives we may grow ever more faithful and devoted to Him Who is present in us and Who dwells in all of us, the Holy Temple of His most Holy Presence.

In the first reading, we heard about how the forces of the faithful Israelites led by the Maccabee family retook the Temple of God in Jerusalem which had been captured by the Greeks earlier on and made into an abomination of the pagan gods and idols. The faithful removed all the wicked things and vile idols from the Temple, tore down the old and defiled altar and rebuilt a new altar in its place.

Then in the Gospel reading, we heard about how Jesus our Lord became angry because of the merchants, money changers, all the sins and the vileness of human greed that took place in the courtyard of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, where many people cheated each other in money and possessions, and where greed had no bounds, without due regards for the Lord’s House and its sanctity.

Therefore God was right to be angry and His wrath was justified, for all these people had defiled His House, His sanctuary and His dwelling place, just as those Greeks under king Antiochus IV Epiphanes had done many years before the birth of Jesus. He cast them all out with a whip, and with that purified the Temple of God from all the evils of the world, the evils of money, of greed and of boundless pride, the pride of men before God.

But all these readings will not make sense to us, and neither will they be beneficial to us, if we do not understand their true significance, their important meaning and what they wanted to convey to us. It is the very fact that because all these abominations and evils had corrupted the Temple of God in Jerusalem that God had been angry with, sending His faithful and later even His own Son, to be the ones to cast out all of the wickedness away from His holy Presence.

And that Temple of God built first by Solomon, and later rebuilt by the priest and prophet Ezra, and built to a new height of architectural glory and fame by the king Herod the Great, all these in their magnificent appearance, all the gold, silver and precious items within, all these cannot be compared to the new Temples of His residence which God has decided to dwell in, no longer in the Temple of God in Jerusalem, but in the hearts of His faithful.

Yes, lest we are all unaware of this fact, and lest that we have been deceived into thinking otherwise, we have to remember what St. Paul mentioned in one of his letters, reminding us the faithful that we are all the Temples of the Holy Spirit, for as with the Apostles who received the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost day, from them, we have received the same Spirit as well.

And do not forget that we have also received in the Most Holy Eucharist, our Lord’s own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, and therefore, we dwell in Him and He is dwelling in us, in body, spirit, mind, heart and soul. Thus all of us are the essence and substance of His new dwelling in this world, and there can be no compare between the temples built by the kings and the prophets which were made from stones and precious items of the earth, but not from the very creation of God, made in His own image, that is us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be ever vigilant, that in all of our words, actions and dealings, all of us will be always faithful to our Lord without exception, and always try to keep our body, our mind, our heart and our soul free from the taints of sin as much as possible, so that the Lord Who sees all hearts and minds, will find us worthy and bless us. For otherwise His righteous anger will be upon us, and we will be cast out forever from His presence into eternal damnation.

May God bless us always, and help us to keep our ways righteous, just and holy, so that our Temple of His presence, our own bodies, minds, hearts and souls will be pure and holy and worthy to be His dwelling on earth. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 19 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings we heard about the tribulations that continued to face Israel at the time about a hundred and fifty years before the birth of Christ, as we continued from the narrative told from the Book of the Maccabees, of the Jewish rebellion against the tyranny and pagan rulership and imposition by king Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire and his successors.

We heard about how the king enforced the decree of pagan worship and submission to the Greek culture and way of life to his entire kingdom, including the people of Israel who lived in territories ruled by the king. As a result, dilemma and conflict arose, as there were those who readily and willingly accepted the king’s order and gained important court position and influence as a result, and those who refused to follow the king’s orders.

The king and his officials ordered the people of God to abandon their righteous and devoted ways, and instead of sacrificing to the Lord and worshipping God alone, they were compelled and forced to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods of the Greeks at the time. And this is a perversion and aberration to the rule that God had established with His people, that they ought to have no other gods beside Him and worship Him alone.

Yet, there were those who followed the king’s commands and succumbed to either the pressure and threats given by the king’s officials, or they were bought over by the temptations of pleasures and wealth that accompanied their acceptance into heresy and darkness. But in this, we saw how the righteous servant of God, Mattathias, in his great anger, struck at those who have betrayed the Lord and rejected Him.

In the Gospel today, our Lord Jesus lamented over Jerusalem and all the terrible things that would happen to it in the near future of His time. He was telling the people of the upcoming downfall and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans which would happen about four decades after Jesus had prophesied about the downfall of the holy city to the forces of the enemies of the faithful.

The city of God was besieged by the Romans just as it had been during the days of the Babylonian invasion under king Nebuchadnezzar. And on both occasions, the city was destroyed, its walls and gates were thrown down, the buildings, houses and palaces were destroyed, and most important of all was that the Temple of God, the Dwelling place of our Lord were torn down and destroyed.

These reminds us that living righteously in a world filled with sin and darkness will not be easy, and indeed is not easy. There will be opposition, struggle, resistance and suffering for our contrasting ways as compared to those of the world’s. But if we persevere, the rewards will be great and God will bless us without compare. He is always rich with His mercy and blessings for those who have kept their part of the covenant with Him.

Now we are all the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Temple of God’s Holy Presence, for God Himself dwells in us, as we have all received His Most Precious Body and Blood into ourselves. Let us make ourselves worthy, honourable and holy so that we shall be ever worthy of the Lord and will always receive His grace at all times. Shall we commit ourselves to actions that are in accordance to His will and be ever loving and faithful in all of our actions? Let us all do this, for the sake of the salvation of our souls. May God bless us always, now and forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Dedication of a Basilica)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we commemorate the great celebration of the anniversary of the dedication of the two great Houses of God, two churches dedicated to the two greatest saints of Christendom, the patron saints of the very heart of Christendom, and God’s most esteemed servants, the chiefs of the Apostles.

St. Peter the Apostle and St. Paul the Apostle were two of Christ’s most important disciples, and they were the ones whose works and dedications resulted in the establishment of the Church as we know it today. They helped laid the foundations and the structure from which the Church of God would grow and enabled the faithful to assemble together in the Church of the Lord.

St. Peter the Apostle was the chief and the first among all of Christ’s Apostles and disciples, and he was given the direct command from the Lord Himself, to be the shepherd of shepherds, as the leader of leaders of the faithful, as none other than the very Vicar of Christ Himself on earth, the chief representative of our Lord and the head of the Universal Church, the Body of Christ, which Jesus our Lord is the true Head.

Meanwhile, St. Paul the Apostle was the Lord’s chief evangeliser and the bearer of the Word of God, the Good News to the many nations, the Apostle to the Gentiles. While many of the disciples of the Lord in the beginning preached only to the Jews and kept the word of salvation only to the sons and daughters of Israel, it was St. Paul who took one of the first steps of the Church’s outreach to the non-Jews, the Gentiles, especially to the Greeks.

These two faithful servants of the Lord were very important in their respective roles, St. Peter as the head and leader of the Church, uniting the many and diverse leaders and elders of the Church, establishing many of the churches himself as he went about his missions to many places, and while St. Paul preached to the many nations including the Greeks, and bravely stood up for the faith against the opposition of the Jews and the Roman authorities.

Both of them eventually ended up making the fateful journey to Rome, the centre and heart of the Roman Empire, the superpower at the time, which would eventually persecute the faithful and the Church for many, many years and brought martyrdom to countless faithful souls. The two great Apostles would lead the way in becoming the very first martyrs among them, standing up for their faith.

St. Peter the Apostle would be crucified for his faith, and opting to be crucified upside down for his great humility of not wanting to die in the same manner as his Lord and God had died. St. Paul the Apostle would be beheaded by the orders of the Emperor, both likely blamed for a great fire that occurred in Rome in the year AD 64, which became one of the first official great persecutions against Christians.

Their blood, the blood of their martyrdom became the seeds and inspiration for the future generations of the faithful, many of them also martyred in the same manner, defending their faith courageously against the world. But both of these holy men were not called holy and great, as these two Apostles were themselves once struggling with their faith and weak in their hearts.

If we remember the story of St. Paul, we would know how he used to be a great persecutor of Christians himself, as the champion and zealous defender of the Jewish traditions against the Christians whom he saw as heretics and their teachings as heresy and perversions of the Jewish faith in God. But God made him to see his errors when He showed Himself to him as he was on the way to Damascus, and from a persecutor of Christians, St. Paul, once known as Saul, became a great champion and defender of the Christian faith.

Meanwhile, St. Peter himself was a humble fisherman who plied daily along the lakeshore of the lake of Galilee, spending his time with St. Andrew his brother and the other fishermen catching fishes from the lake into the boats. He would never have dreamed on the task that he would carry out in the name of God. But Jesus did tell him that he would no longer be a fisher of fishes, but instead as a fisher of men from then on.

And we know that St. Peter was not very steady in terms of his faith, just as we saw in the Gospel today, as he was sinking out of fear because his faith in God was shaken up. And we know how St. Peter betrayed Jesus three times during the times of His Passion, when out of fear and self-preservation, He refused to acknowledge Jesus in front of His persecutors, refusing to admit that he was one of His disciples.

Yet, God forgave him and made him the greatest of His disciples, entrusting to him nothing else than His entire flock on earth, the Church itself, and he became the very first Pope. This is because of the love and dedication that St. Peter had shown, as if we notice, St. Peter was almost always the first to go forth and seek the Lord, as shown at the time when He made a miracle for them on the boat, making them catch so many fishes, and on another occasion when Jesus had risen from the dead.

This tells us that, as we commemorate the dedication anniversary of the two great Basilicas dedicated to these two great saints and Apostles of our Lord, that Jesus did not come to call the great and the mighty to serve Him, but rather, He called the simple and the ordinary, sinners and weak people alike, to make them great and mighty, not in the force of might and strength, but in the force of word and faith.

Let us all follow in their footsteps and realise that we still have so much to do as the modern day Apostles and disciples of our Lord. Let us all commit ourselves to bring the Good News, the words of the Gospel to the nations. May all of us be able to share the joy of our faith with one another, and be the light to all the nations, that through our works, just as St. Peter and St. Paul had done, we may bring God’s salvation to many more souls. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Dedication of a Basilica)

Psalm 16 : 1, 5-6, 8 and 15

Hear a just cause, o Lord, listen to my complaint. Give heed to my prayer for there is no deceit on my lips.

Hold firm my steps upon Your path, that my feet may not stumble. I call on You, You will answer me, o God; incline Your ear and hear my word.

Keep me as the apple of Your eye; under the shadow of Your wings hide me. As for me, righteousness in Your sight, I shall see Your face and, awakening, gaze my fill on Your likeness.

Alternative reading (Mass for Dedication of the Basilicas)

Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-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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Tuesday, 17 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we witnessed the story of Eleazar the elder, faithful and devoted servant and follower of the Lord, who loved during the time of the persecution of the faithful Jews by the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ruled over the Seleucid Empire. The king enforced a common religion and customs for all of his subjects, and many of the Jews who were faithful only to God, refused to follow the orders of the king.

And Eleazar in today’s first reading showed us an example of the dilemma facing all those who want to remain faithful to the Lord, and yet the worldly authorities had a different opinion, that is wanting the people to abandon His ways and to betray Him for the ways of this world. That is the dilemma and the conflict, knowing that to accept the world, we would reject the Lord, and vice versa.

And grievous sufferings and pain awaited all those of Eleazar’s time who were not willing to abandon their faith. Eleazar’s fate was just one of the many examples. In the other passage from the Book of the Maccabees, we witnessed how a mother with her seven sons were martyred for their faith, because they refused to follow the king’s orders, and even despite persuasions and temptations by the king and his officers, they adamantly remained true to their faith in God.

They suffered for remaining true to their faith, as they have chosen the lot of the Lord rather than the lot of men. Had they chosen the path of the king, they would have been saved from the sufferings and the pains of death they had encountered, and they would receive much riches and wealth, the blessings of the world bestowed and promised to them by the king. However, to be saved temporarily in the world is not worth the loss of eternal salvation.

We have to remember in this case, what Jesus told His disciples about those who try to preserve their lives and thus lose their lives in the world that is to come, and also those who have lost their lives for the sake of the Lord, and therefore regain those lives manyfold, by the blessings of God’s eternal life. That was what Eleazar and the other faithful people of his time had done, enduring the sufferings of this world and its rejection that they might receive God’s grace and eternal glory.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who was a Hungarian princess renowned for her great piety and many charitable acts throughout her life, and even though she encountered great anguish of losing her husband and being widowed at a young age, she continued her life in a life dedicated to the Lord and used whatever wealth and possessions she had to help the poor.

It was not a way that was the norm in the world at that time, just as such behaviour is also not a commonly acceptable way in our world today. Our world always teaches us to be selfish and to think first of ourselves and all the goods we have before we think of others around us. This is just as what the king Antiochus tried to persuade the faithful with, in abandoning their faith.

The king promised riches, wealth and position in his government, his friendship and all the honour associated with it, if they would dishonour the covenant which God had made with them and followed the pagan ways and worshipped the pagan idols of the Greeks. But these goods, wealth and materials are all truly temporary and will not last. Neither will the happiness and the joys, the pleasures of this world will last forever.

That is why, for us the path is clear, but is not an easy one. We are easily tempted and lured away from the true path that leads to the Lord. And if we are not careful, we will be dragged into the inescapable path of destruction that lands us in eternal hell, the suffering from which there is no escape. Now we have to ask ourselves, whether we want for ourselves a temporary salvation from the sufferings of the world, or an eternal salvation with God.

Let us all devote ourselves more to the Lord and commit ourselves to Him in our actions, words and deeds. Let us not worry about acceptance by the world and any persecution or suffering that will come our way when we act in ways in accordance to the Lord’s bidding and against that of the world. Do not fear those that can only inflict destruction on the flesh, but fear more He Who can bring about eternal suffering and destruction of body and soul, when He rejects those wicked ones and cast them into hell.

May God bless us in all of our endeavours, and may He continue to guide us in this life, providing us with encouragement and blessings for all that we do, that we may be righteous, just and true to our faith in Him. May God bring us to the eternal life and the blessings He had promised us. Amen.

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Tuesday, 17 November 2015 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 3 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7

O Lord, how great in number are my foes! How numerous are they who rise against me! How many are they who say of my soul : “There is no help for him in God!”

But You are my shield, o Lord, my glory, You lift up my head. Aloud I cry to the Lord, and from His holy hill He answers me.

If I lie down to sleep, again I awake, for the Lord supports me; no fear of the thousands standing against me.