Weeks of Easter

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Friday, 23 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 15 : 12-17

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “This is My commandment : Love one another as I have loved you! There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; and you are My friends, if you do what I command you.”

“I shall not call You servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learnt from My Father.”

“You did not choose Me; it was I Who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you. This is My command, that you love one another.”

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Friday, 23 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 56 : 8-9, 10-12

My heart is steadfast, o God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make music. Awake, my soul, awake, o harp and lyre! I will wake the dawn.

I will give thanks to You, o Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praise to You among the nations. For Your love reaches to the heavens, and Your faithfulness, to the clouds.

Be exalted, o God, above the heavens! Let Your Glory be over all the earth!

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Friday, 23 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 15 : 22-31

Then the Apostles and elders together with the whole Church decided to choose representatives from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. These were Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. They took with them the following letter :

“Greetings from the Apostles and elders, your brothers, to the believers of non-Jewish birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We have heard that some persons from among us have worried you with their discussions and troubled your peace of mind. They were not appointed by us.”

“But now, it has seemed right to us in an assembly, to choose representatives and to send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have dedicated their lives to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. We send you then Judas and Silas who themselves will give you these instructions by word of mouth.”

“We, with the Holy Spirit, have decided not to put any other burden on you except what is necessary : You are to abstain from blood from the meat of strangled animals and from prohibited marriages. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

After saying goodbye, the messengers went to Antioch, where they assembled the community and handed them the letter. When they read the news, all were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.

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Thursday, 22 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we continue to be reminded of the importance of following the Lord our God in the right manner, and not be divided against each other because of our prejudices and different preferences in ideologies and ways of observing God’s Law and commandments. We are reminded that what is truly important is to truly love God wholeheartedly and to commit ourselves to His ways, through proper understanding and appreciation of His will and teachings, and not to be easily divided because of our personal preferences that can lead us to be pitted one against another, which is exactly what the evil ones want with us, in attacking us and the unity of the Church.

In our first reading today, from the Acts of the Apostles we heard of the moment when St. Peter the Apostle, the leader of the Apostles and the Church stood up in the assembly of the faithful, which would later on be known as the First Council of Jerusalem, speaking in favour of relaxing the demands for the imposition of the whole Jewish laws, rules and customs on the whole Body of the faithful, the Church. The context of such a dispute which need a serious effort at reconciliation and resolution was that there were those followers of the Lord that came from among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were very strict in their interpretation of God’s Law and in their insistence that all of the Lord’s followers must therefore also follow the same laws and commandments in full.

St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who had been sent to minister among the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people like the Romans, Greeks and many other races in the region, protested against this attempt at imposing the Jewish customs and practices on the non-Jewish people, as having experienced their ministry among the Gentiles and also being aware of the cultural differences betweent the Jews and the Gentiles, they knew that such an imposition would have led to great harm to the efforts of the Church’s evangelisation. This is due to the cultural differences and hurdles, such as the great disapproval, disgust and abhorrence that many of the Gentiles held against the Jewish customs and practices such as circumcision and the dietary restrictions they practiced.

That was why, the argued that such restrictions and obstacles should not be placed onto those Gentiles who did agree and desire to seek baptism and becoming therefore members of the Church of God. And that was brought into deliberation by the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord, together with the whole assembly of the faithful in the Council of Jerusalem. St. Peter led the whole Church and assembly to discern carefully through prayer and the Holy Spirit, and through the discussions, St. Peter proclaimed the decision of the disciples and the assembly, in maintaining the unity of the Church and also the unity in its beliefs, that this issue would not bring about schism and divisions among the Church and its members.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard the Lord reminding His disciples that they all should remain in His love, as well as continuing to obey the commandments and the will of God the Father, calling them all to follow His path faithfully and devote themselves and their efforts and time to glorify Him always by their lives and actions. As Christians, as the Lord’s followers, this is therefore a reminder for all of us to be always focused on the Lord and commit ourselves to His cause at all times. We must not be divided amongst each other like what we have just heard in our first reading passage today, and we should not allow ourselves to be swayed by the many worldly temptations and coercions present around us that may lead to the divisions in the Church.

That is why what the Lord reminded to His disciples is very important indeed and we are reminded to continue to root ourselves firmly on God and His love so that we may not end up falling into the wrong paths, especially with the many experiences that the Church and its long history had provided to us. Throughout history, many times, schisms and divisions had caused great harm to the Church and the faithful, causing many to be lost to God and to the path towards downfall and damnation. However, God was always with His Church, never leaving any of us behind alone, and He has always been faithful to the Covenant which He had made with us, guiding us all patiently along our journey in life, and doing our very best to bring ourselves ever closer to Him and His path to salvation, inspiring others to follow in our journey and way.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Rita of Cascia, a renowned saint and an Augustinian nun, known for her great sanctity and her self-mortification, living an exemplary life dedicated to God. She was married at a very young age of twelve to a nobleman, who was deeply involved in the internecine conflicts between the rival Italian families at that time. Her husband was also a rather immoral and wicked man, whom St. Rita patiently loved and cared for, as she went to raise her children faithfully and obediently. That marriage lasted for a whole period of eighteen years, throughout which St. Rita was an exemplary model of faith amidst the world and her community filled with hatred and violence, which would eventually claim her husband’s life due to the rival families’ bickering.

St. Rita pardoned those who have murdered her husband at his funeral, publicly pardoning them and forgiving them. However, her husband’s brother wanted to continue the feud and tried to goad St. Rita’s young children to take part in the feud to avenge their father. As such, St. Rita according to her saintly tradition, asked the Lord to take her children away from this world, rather than for them to commit sins that would have brought them into their downfall and eternal damnation. The Lord listened to St. Rita’s prayers, and it was told that both of her sons soon fell ill during an epidemic that happened then and passed away. St. Rita thereafter dedicated herself as a widow and becoming a member of the Augustinian nuns, living the rest of her life in great dedication to God and prior to her entering the monastery, she also managed to resolve the feud between the families.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have heard ourselves from the Scriptures today and from the life and works of St. Rita of Cascia, reminding all of us to be always faithful to God and not to be easily swayed by our worldly ambitions, desires and pursuits which may lead us down the path of divisions, disagreements and violence, all of which would lead to more and more harm and destruction as what had happened to the families involved in the feud during the time of St. Rita of Cascia. Instead, as God’s followers and as His holy people, all of us are called to put our faith and trust, our focus and emphasis once again on the Lord our God, dedicating our time and efforts once again to glorify the Lord by our lives. Let us all not be distracted by all these worldly ambitions, but instead focus ourselves wholeheartedly ever towards God, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 22 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 15 : 9-11

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! You will remain in My love if you keep My commandments, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.

I have told you all this, that My own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.”

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Thursday, 22 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 95 : 1-2a, 2b-3, 10

Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His Name.

Proclaim His salvation day after day. Recall His glory among the nations, tell all the peoples His wonderful deeds.

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” He will judge the peoples with justice.

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Thursday, 22 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 15 : 7-21

As the discussions became heated, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that from the beginning God chose me among you so that non-Jews could hear the Good News from me and believe. God, Who can read hearts, put Himself on their side by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them and cleansed their hearts through faith.”

“So why do you want to put God to the test? Why do you lay on the disciples a burden that neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry? We believe, indeed, that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.”

The whole assembly kept silent as they listened to Paul and Barnabas tell of all the miraculous signs and wonders that God had done through them among the non-Jews. After they had finished, James spoke up, “Listen to me, brothers. Symeon has just explained how God first showed His care by taking a people for Himself from non-Jewish nations.”

“And the words of the prophets agree with this, for Scripture says, ‘After this I will return and rebuild the booth of David which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again. Then the rest of humanity will look for the Lord, and all the nations will be consecrated to My Name. So says the Lord, Who does today what He decided from the beginning.'”

“Because of this, I think that we should not make difficulties for those non-Jews who are turning to God. Let us just tell them not to eat food that is unclean from having been offered to idols; to keep themselves from prohibited marriages; and not to eat the flesh of animals that have been strangled, or any blood. For from the earliest times Moses has been taught in every place, and every Sabbath his laws are recalled.”

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Wednesday, 21 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures that we have received today, we are all reminded that all of us as Christians, as the disciples and followers of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we are all part of the same Body of Christ, the Church, and as such we are also called to remain true and faithful to the ways and teachings of the Lord, so that we do not end up separating ourselves from the true path of the Lord. We are reminded that ultimately all of us must always be focused and centred on God, and not on our man-made rules and laws. And whatever rules and laws we have should be attuned harmoniously with the Law of God, so that in our way forward in life we will always be truly truly committed to God and not be distracted into the wrong path.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the disagreements and conflicts between the members of the early Christian community from Judea, likely those who originated from among the Pharisees, with that of the other members of the faithful and the Apostles, particularly that of St. Paul and his companions. This was because the former group taught that unless the Christian faithful followed the whole set of the commandments, laws, rules and customs observed by the Jewish people, the Law as revealed through Moses and which was further expanded throughout history by the passing down of the rules and laws through the Israelites, then they could not be saved. This was contrary to the more open-minded attitude adopted by those like St. Paul and his companions, who spent a lot of time and effort reaching out to the Gentiles.

For the context, the Jewish customs and practices involved circumcision, relatively strict dietary restrictions and practices, among others, many of which were seen as abhorrent, disgusting and even barbaric by many among the Gentile populations like the Romans and the Greeks. Had such rules and customs, practices and ways were imposed upon the early Church, it would have severely curtailed the spread of the Christian faith as many of the converts among the Gentiles would have found it difficult to live their lives with such regulations and practices that their own community found abhorrent, foreign and unacceptable. That was why St. Paul and his companions like St. Barnabas spoke up firmly and courageously against those who attempted to impose such ways on the Church, citing the experiences and examples that they had encountered in their mission along the way.

They said that those rules and customs of the Jews, especially those practiced and imposed by the Pharisees should not be imposed on the faithful, especially to those who were from the non-Jewish background, mirroring what the Lord Jesus Himself had actually often criticised the Pharisees for during the time of His ministry, especially in how those Pharisees imposed very heavy burden on the people of God, and not helping the people to carry this burden, by the overly rigid and excessive interpretation and imposition of the many rules, customs, rites and other practices that were superfluous and in fact preventing the people from truly realising the true purpose and intention of the Law of God. The Law of God was in fact meant to show the people of God how they ought to love Him and commit themselves to Him, and not to make their lives very difficult or impossible to carry on.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, we heard a related story in which the Lord Jesus told His disciples using a parable, the Parable of the True Vine to highlight to them the nature of His teachings and ways as the ways of the Lord, how He is the True Vine that came from the Father, the Almighty God, Creator and Master of all. And using this comparison to the vine, to the people who must have been quite accustomed to viticulture or the growing of grapes for the wine, the Lord wanted to tell them all that in all of their ways and beliefs, they have to be firmly connected to Him, and centred upon Him. The relationship between the Lord and all of us as He Himself had highlighted with that parable is indeed like that of the Vine and the branches. For without the connection to the Vine, the branches cannot have life on their own, and will perish.

That is why, as the Lord Himself has explained to His disciples, that if they keep on their focus and connection to HIm, in their actions and way of life, in adhering to His Law and commandments, then they will flourish and prosper, and they shall all be truly blessed by God, and will not be found wanting or unworthy. On the other hand, as the Lord Himself said, all those who separate themselves from Him, the True Vine, will wither and perish, and they will have no part with Him at all. This is a reminder that we must always trust in the Lord and His teachings, His ways and commandments as the Church has preserved it, and not to break away from these teachings and traditions, which the Apostles and their successors had sustained for the past two millennia.

As Christians, it is important that we must always remain united in Christ and not be easily divided against each other in our ideologies and beliefs, in our preferences, prejudices and biases which may end up leading us to be separated from the true path of the Lord. And this is not what the Lord wants from us, as He wants us all to remain united to Him as the one united Body of Christ, His Church, that should remain firmly united and established strongly against the many currents and pressures of this world. We must not allow ourselves to be fractured and shattered in our unity because we fail to resist the pressures and temptations of worldly ambitions, glory and other pursuits that lead us away from God.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Christopher Magallanes, holy priest and martyr of the Faith, and his companions in martyrdom whose faith and commitment to God were truly exemplary even in the midst of heavy persecutions and hardships. St. Christopher Magallanes lived and ministered during the time of heavy persecution against the Church in Mexico, where the government at that time was very strongly against the Church, pursuing a rather extreme anticlerical and anti-Catholic stance, where many of the faithful, especially the members of the clergy were persecuted heavily and even martyred. Nonetheless, this did not discourage St. Christopher Magallanes and his companions, both the clergy and laity alike, who continued to do the works of the Lord and persisted in faith despite the persecutions, even if they were to lose their lives in martyrdom. They inspired many others who are suffering for their faith in our world today too.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should continue to focus ourselves on what is important, that is our faith and trust in the Lord, and not to be tempted by worldly glory and ambitions, or be divided by our pursuits and ideals in life, or be fractured by our disagreements and conflicts. This is because none of these will last forever, no matter how much worldly power we accumulate, and our ideologies and superficial divisions do not elevate our faith and magnify the Lord, but instead bring about rupture in the unity of the Lord’s Body, the Church, a serious sin that we commit in His Presence that we will have to account for. Let us all instead be inspired by the humility and dedication of the Holy Martyrs of Mexico, St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions, that we may ever be more faithful in following God, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 21 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

John 15 : 1-8

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “I am the True Vine and My Father is the Vinegrower. If any of My branches does not bear fruit, He breaks it off; and He prunes every branch that does bear fruit, that it may bear even more fruit.”

“You are already made clean by the word I have spoken to you. Live in Me as I live in you. The branch cannot bear fruit by itself, but has to remain part of the vine; so neither can you, if you do not remain in Me. I am the Vine and you are the branches. As long as you remain in Me and I in you, you bear much fruit; but apart from Me you can do nothing.”

“Whoever does not remain in Me is thrown away, as they do with branches, and they wither. Then they are gathered and thrown into the fire and burnt. If you remain in Me and My words in you, you may ask whatever you want, and it will be given to you. My Father is glorified when you bear much fruit : it is then that you become My disciples.”

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Wednesday, 21 May 2025 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes, Priest and Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White or Red (Martyrs)

Psalm 121 : 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, just like a city, where everything falls into place! There the tribes go up.

The tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.