Category: Year I

“BLESSED THE MAN WHO FEARS THE LORD” (Ps 112:1)

⏰Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time 1 (01 June 2021 – Memorial of St. Justin) 📖Tob 1:3, 2:1-8; Ps 112:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6 (R.v.1b); Mark 12:1-12 🎤”BLESSED THE MAN WHO FEARS THE LORD” (Ps 112:1) Beloved in Christ, I welcome you to this first day of the new work month. Listen to the prayers of the psalmist for you today:Your descendants would be powerful on earth and your generation blest (Ps 112:2), amen. Again, riches and wealth shall be in your house and a light would rise to enlighten the darkness before you (Ps 112:3-4), amen. And it shall...

“WISDOM DOES NOT ENTER THE WICKED SOUL” (Wisdom 1:4)

⏰Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time 1 (29 May 2021) 📖Sir 51:12c-20b; Ps 19:5, 9, 10, 11 (R.v.9ab); Mark 11:27-33 🎤”WISDOM DOES NOT ENTER THE WICKED SOUL” (Wisdom 1:4) In Sirach 51:12-20, the wise man tells us how he prayerfully sought wisdom. The attitude he put up was that of humility, trust, repentance and reverence. He made this search as if his life depended on it. Indeed, his life depended on it! This is because the scriptures normally compares wisdom as the same as God. In fact, 1 Cor 1:24 declares Jesus as the power and wisdom of...

BE PRODUCTIVE AND LIVE!

⏰Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time 1 (28 May 2021) 📖Sir 44:1, 9-13; Ps 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a, and 9b (R.v.4a); Mark 11:11-25 🎤BE PRODUCTIVE AND LIVE! Beloved in Christ, the time of the great harvest is ever closer. Please ensure that you bear good fruit which would ensure your continuous existence even after your earthly existence. Remember that the good that men do lives with them and follows them. But evil men have no good place in history (cf. Sirach 44:9-13). We must therefore encourage our leaders, in whatever capacity, whether spiritual or temporal, even as low as...

STAY FOCUSED ON JESUS; BEWARE OF THE CROWD!

⏰Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time 1 (27 May 2021 – Children’s Day) 📖Sir 42:15-25; Ps 33:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 (R.v.6a); Mark 10:46-52 STAY FOCUSED ON JESUS; BEWARE OF THE CROWD! Beloved in Christ, try always to be focused in life and in communion with God. That is actually what you need to succeed. Don’t form the habit of basing your life upon how people might react to your actions. The story of the blind man, Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52) passes that important message to us, and even more. Remember our discussions of yesterday. The disciples were following Jesus,...

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“IT IS NOT GOOD THAT MAN SHOULD BE ALONE” (Gen 2:18)

⏰Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time 1 (11 Feb 2021) 📖Gen 2:18-25; Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 (R.v.1a); Mark 7:24-30 “IT IS NOT GOOD THAT MAN SHOULD BE ALONE” (Gen 2:18) A modern consideration of Gen 2:18-25 might see it as strictly referring to the institution of marriage. But taking it back to the time like 10th Century B.C. and placing it in the context that the Jew of that time would understand might not yield the same result. And I think that that kind of venture is important for us to undertake. At that time, a woman’s position...

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O LORD, INCREASE MY FAITH

⏰Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time 1 (28 Jan 2017 – Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas) ????Heb 11:1-2, 8-19; Luke 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75 (R.v.68); Mark 4:35-41 O LORD, INCREASE MY FAITH We all indeed need an increase in faith. We need to possess that kind of faith that moves mountain (cf. Matt 17:20). Heb 11:1 says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the men of old received divine approval.” Abraham was an example of this. He hoped against hope. Even when they were almost passed child...

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“LET US HOLD FAST TO THE CONFESSION THAT GIVES US HOPE” (Heb 10:23)

⏰Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time 1 (28 Jan 2021 – Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas) 📖Heb 10:19-25; Ps 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6 (R.v.6); Mark 4:21-25 🎤”LET US HOLD FAST TO THE CONFESSION THAT GIVES US HOPE” (Heb 10:23) Once it has finished explaining the supremacy and perfection of the sacrifice of Jesus (cf. Heb 10:1-18), the Letter to the Hebrews encourages us remain persevere in Christ no matter the challenge we may face in life (cf. Heb 10:19-25). That is a wise counsel since it would be unwise to look for other means of getting solution when Jesus...

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HOW COMMITTED AM I?

⏰Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 1 – Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (23 Jan 2021) 📖Heb 7:1-3, 15-17; Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4 (R.v.4bc); Mark 3:1-6 HOW COMMITTED AM I? The world today is more interested in bearing titles than in carrying out the duties attached to the titles. You often hear people say, “Do you know who I am?” And I normally reply to those people, “Six feet!” That’s if the people are kind enough to even dig up to that when burying the person. Some will not answer their names if it was not...

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I AM CALLED; YOU TOO ARE!

⏰Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 1 – Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (22 Jan 2021) 📖Heb 8:6-13; Ps 85:5 and 10, 11-12, 13-14 (R.v.11a); Mark 3:13-19 🎤I AM CALLED; YOU TOO ARE! Yesterday, we talked of the need to follow Jesus just as the great crowd followed him. But today’s consideration of Mark 3:13-19 shows us that Jesus wants more than we remaining in the crowd that follows him about. He wants us to be with him. The Gospel of Mark made use of that phrase, “to be with him,” very often (cf. Mark 2:19; 3:14;...

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“SURELY I WILL BLESS YOU AND MULTIPLY YOU” (Heb 6:14)

⏰Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time 1 – Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (19 Jan 2021) 📖Heb 5:10-20; Ps 111:1b-2, 4-5, 9 and 10c (R.v.5b); Mark 2:23-28 🎤”SURELY I WILL BLESS YOU AND MULTIPLY YOU” (Heb 6:14) We are all children of Abraham, and so the promise that was made to him is equally ours. So I invite you to claim the above promise with a great faith. Whether the enemy wants it or not, the Lord is going to bless and multiply you as he did to Abraham. Amen. As you await the fulfilment of that...