Category: Year II

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Ordinary Time / Twentieth Week / Weekdays / Year II

“I SHALL GIVE YOU A NEW HEART AND PUT A NEW SPIRIT WITHIN YOU” (Ezek 36:26)

⏰Thursday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (23 August 2018) 📖Ezek 36:23-28; Ps 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19 (R. Ezek 36:25); Matt 22:1-14 My dear, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases nor gets exhausted (Lam 3:22). The problems of the Israelites came from many angles. Some were caused by the misguidance of the leaders, others from the sins of their ancestors, and some others from the sins (laissez-faire attitude) of the people themselves. Now, irrespective of the source, the Lord promises through the prophet to give them a new heart and spirit, that is a new disposition to...

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Feasts and Solemnities / Ordinary Time / Twentieth Week / Weekdays / Year II

MARY IN THE LIGHT OF GOD’S UNIMAGINABLE GENEROSITY TO US

⏰Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time 2 (22 Aug. 2018 – Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary) 📖Ezek 34:1-11; Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 (R.v.1); Matt 20:1-16a In my little number of years in this pilgrimage of faith, I have come to learn that truth does not subsist in a doctrine I have practiced over the time or what I was taught. I have rather learnt to give reason a chance because God did not make a mistake in creating me with the brain. That is just a food for thought! The prophecy of Isaiah...

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Ordinary Time / Twentieth Week / Weekdays / Year II

BE HUMAN! BE HUMBLE! BE HOLY!

⏰Tuesday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (21 August 2018 – Memorial of St. Pius Xth) 📖Ezek 28:1-10; Deut 32:26-27ab, 27cd-28, 30, 35cd-36ab; Matt 19:23-30 Yesterday, we talked about the need to set our values right. In actual fact, we do not recommend an extraordinary attitude. Being yourself would be enough. The problems we normally have arises from our quest to answer what we are not. This reaches to the extreme when we try to play God. Even when you seem to have an extraordinary gift, try and remain human. It is in that state that God wishes...

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Ordinary Time / Twentieth Week / Weekdays / Year II

SET YOUR VALUES RIGHT!

⏰Monday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (20 August 2018 – Memorial of St. Bernard) 📖Ezek 24:15-24; Deut 32:18-19, 20, 21 (R.v.18b); Matt 19:16-22 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you (2 Cor 13:13). God created everything good for us (Gen 1:31) and he wills that may reap good fruits of all he had made. All that we need to enjoy this favour is to be with God. So forget about your worries in life and seek God. He shall not disappoint you....

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Nineteenth Week / Ordinary Time / Weekdays / Year II

“I WILL JUDGE EVERYONE ACCORDING TO HIS WAYS” (Ezek 18:30)

⏰Saturday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (18 August 2018) 📖Ezek 18:1-10, 13, 30-32; Ps 136; Matt 19:13-15 Remember that sometime ago, on the background of the prophecy of Ezekiel, we noted that the people were seeing their long suffering in exile as a punishment from God due to the sins of their forefathers. This kind of thought made them to begin to lose hope on God, thinking that the Lord has abandoned them. They also thought that their righteous living cannot change the mind of God. So Ezekiel came to restore their hope as well as set...

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Nineteenth Week / Ordinary Time / Weekdays / Year II

THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE LORD NEVER CEASES

⏰Friday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (17 August 2018) 📖Ezek 16:1-15, 60, 63; Isa 12:2-3, 4bcde, 5-6 (R.v.1de); Matt 19:3-12 God is faithful at all times. Even at that time when you think that he has probably forgotten you, he is right there working for your good. Recall what the scriptures said in Deut 7:6-8. God is the one who took the initiative and chose the people of Israel from among the nations. Their relevance among the nations was also as a result of that choice. Then he established a covenant with them – an everlasting covenant....

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Nineteenth Week / Ordinary Time / Weekdays / Year II

LET YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS EXCEED THAT OF SCRIBES AND THE PHARISEES (Matt 5:20)

⏰Thursday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (16 August 2018) 📖Ezek 12:1-12; Ps 78:56-57, 58-59, 61-62 (R.v.7b); Matt 18:21 – 19:1 Indeed Peter wanted to achieve perfection. That is why he put that question to Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” The number “7” in biblical terms symbolizes completeness and holiness. This is based on the fact that God completed the work of creation on the seventh day and sanctified it (cf. Gen 2:2-3). Hence, the Jews used that number as a benchmark for completing...

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Nineteenth Week / Ordinary Time / Weekdays / Year II

ON ACCEPTING THE WORD OF GOD

⏰Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (14 August 2018 – Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe) 📖Ezek 2:8 – 3:4; Ps 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131 (R.v.103a); Matt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14 The word of God is instructive, corrective and redemptive. It may not come to us the way we expect or like, and that is why it is at times painful. But its purpose is always for our own good. Some other times, it may be very sweet to our hearing but its demands, very painful to us. Consider that in the light of the experience of...

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Nineteenth Week / Ordinary Time / Weekdays / Year II

IT IS ALL ABOUT THE GLORY OF THE LORD!

⏰Monday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (13 August 2018) 📖Ezek 1:2-5, 24-28c; Ps 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14; Matt 17:22-27 Can you feel the glory of the Lord around you? Or has the challenges of life led you into despair, thinking that the Lord has abandoned you? Embrace your eyes of faith once more and see the light at the end of the tunnel. While the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, they had hoped that their time there was going to be very short, as the Lord who chose them would not abandon them. The prophet Jeremiah...

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Eighteenth Week / Ordinary Time / Weekdays / Year II

“THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH” (Hab 2:4)

⏰Saturday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (11 August 2018 – Memorial of St. Clare) 📖Hab 1:12 – 2:4; Ps 9:8-9, 10-11, 12-13 (R.v.11b); Matt 17:14-20 According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, faith is a supernatural gift of God, which enables us to believe without doubt, all that God has revealed. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you” (Matt 17:20). Faith acknowledges the omnipotence of...