4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) Deut 18:15-20; Psa 94:1-2,6-9; 1 Cor 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28 Theme: YOU ARE A PROPHET OF GOD Dearest friends today is the fourth Sunday in ordinary time of the year. The readings challenge us to be those prophets of God, who like Moses and Jesus, speak the word of […]
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Eccl 27:30-28:9; Psa 102(103):1-4, 9-12; Rom 14:7-9; Matt 18:21-35 Theme: FORGIVENESS WITHOUT COUNTS Last Sunday, Jesus gave us a detailed teaching on the importance of making every effort to make peace with one another. The three processes presented by Jesus aim at Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Our Gospel reading today continues the discussion on forgiveness. After the disciples had listened
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Ezek 18:25-28; Ps 24(25):4-9; Phil 2:1-11; Matt 21:28-32 Theme: Faith without Commitment A Man Has Two Children… In the gospel, Jesus tells a parable with which he confronts the attitude of the chief priests and the scribes who present themselves as the real children of God, but in fact, they are far from it. “A man has two children”, so begins the parable. At
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Isa 5:1-7; Psa 80:9,12-16,19-20; Phil 4:6-9; Matt 21:33-43 Theme: What God Orders Versus What He Gets The first reading and the gospel of today speak of ‘vineyard’ of the Lord. In the first reading, Israel and Judah are themselves the vineyard of the Lord, the vineyard God planted, nurtured and protected, looking forward for the wonderful grapes it would bear. But in the gospel, Israel and Judah are
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Readings: Job 7:1-4,6-7; Psa 146:1-6; 1 Cor 9:16-19,22-23; Mk 1:29-39 Theme: WHAT DO YOU SERVE? Dearest friends, today we celebrate the 5th Sunday in Ordinary time of the year and the readings challenge us to be true servers of the word of God. “And he lifted her up…and she served them” (Mk 1:31) Last Sunday,
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Isa 25:6-10; Psa 23; Phil 4:12-14,19-20; Matt 22:1-14 THEME: THE FEAST IS FREE BUT THE GARMENT IS NOT Dearest friends, the readings of today, especially the first and the third readings, present to us, the theme of an invitation to a wedding feast, organized and prepared by the Lord himself. In the first reading, from the Prophet Isaiah, the Lord makes a promise of this
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Isa 45:1,4-6; Psa 96:1,3-5,7-10; 1 Thess 1:1-5; Matt 22:15-21 Theme: You’ve Got to Choose Dearest friends, today the gospel reading presents us with one of the most abused, misinterpreted and misused passages in the gospel. It is the so-called “Give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar, and to God what belongs to God”. In our world today, so many people have based
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Ex 22:20-26; Psa 18:2-4,47,51; 1 Thess 1:5-10; Matt 22:34-40 Theme: LOVE AND DO WHATEVER YOU WANT Dearest friends, today’s readings invite us to reflect on the theme of LOVE. In the Gospel, Jesus summarizes all the commandments into one: LOVE. In the first reading, we see God explaining to the people of Israel how this love of the neighbor must be extended even to
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Readings: Lev 13:1-2,44-46; Psa 31:1-2,5,11; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mk 1:40-45 THEME: “IF YOU WISH TO, YOU CAN HEAL ME”. Dearest friends, the readings of today speak about how leprosy renders one unclean, and in order not to pass over such illness, the leper has to isolate himself from others. But there is one person from
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Wis 6:12-16; Psa 62:2-8; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Matt 25:1-13 Theme: Even when You sleep, Keep Your Oil Ready Beloved in Christ, we are still in the month of November, the month in which we not only pray in a special way for the dead, but also remind ourselves of the importance of being always ready for our own death. Today, we reflect on the following
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Acts 2:42-47; Ps 117(118):2-4,13-15,22-24; 1 Pet 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31 Theme: Being an Instrument of God’s Mercy: A Sharing in Christ’s Mission. Today’s feast of the Divine Mercy celebrates the coming in contact of God himself, God who is mercy, to the human’s misery. The Divine mercy is not just a celebration about God forgiving us,
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Acts 2:14,22-33; Psa 15(16):1-2,5,7-11; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Lk 24:13-35 What do you do when you find yourself in a difficult and incomprehensible situation? When things become too confusing, when all of a sudden, the joy and hope of a good life vanishes like a smoke, what do you do? When the things you so much
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(GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY) Acts 2:14,36-41; Psa 22(23); 1 Pet 2:20-25; Jn 10:1-10 Theme: The Voice of the Shepherd and the Ears of the Sheep The picture Jesus creates in the gospel reading of today shows the culture of the Palestinian world of his time which is still obtainable in some parts of the world. At
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Acts 6:1-7; Psa 32(33):1-2,4-5,18-19; 1 Pet 2:4-9; Jn 14:1-12 Theme: Discrimination and Favoritism Among the ‘Saints’ The first reading presents us with the first recorded problem in the early Christian community. The problem of discrimination and favoritism. How can we understand the apparent contradiction between the descriptions of the life within the early Christian community
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Theme: WITHOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT, WE ARE ORPHANS Acts 8:5-8,14-17; Psa 65(66):1-7,16,20; 1 Pet 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21Chapter Fourteen of John’s Gospel is ladened with a farewell and consolatory discourse of Jesus to his disciples. He has been with them throughout his earthly mission, now, he is about to go back to the Father through his
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Acts 1:12-14; Ps. 26(27):1,4,7-8; 1 Pet 4:13-16; Jn 17:1-11 Towards the end of his earthly life, as we see in today’s gospel reading, Jesus evaluates himself before the One who sent him, and based on his fulfilment of his mission, he requests the Father who sent him to now glorify him. He says: “I have
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Dan 7:9-10,13-14; Ps 96(97):1-2,5-6,9; 2 Pet 1:16-19; Matt 17:1-9 Theme: It is Good For Us to Stay Here 1. THE FEAST WE CELEBRATEa. The Trinitarian Presence in the Transfiguration Scene. Today, the Church celebrates the feast of the Transfiguration. This feast commemorates the changing of form of Jesus in the presence of three of his
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Dan 7:9-10,13-14; Ps 96(97):1-2,5-6,9; 2 Pet 1:16-19; Matt 17:1-9 Theme: It is Good For Us to Stay Here. Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Transfiguration. It is important we know that the feast does not just celebrate the revelation of Jesus’ glory to his three disciples, but also the presentation of the Trinitarian
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Baptism: An Entrance that Restores and Calls for Newness of Life. Isa 42:1-4,6-7; Acts 10:34-38; Matt 3:13-17 As we celebrate today, the Baptism of the Lord, it is important that we ask: What is the function of baptism? What does baptism do for a person who receives it? Why is baptism important? Baptism transfers us
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Eze 34:11-12,15-17; Psa 23:1-31,5-6; 1 Cor 15:20-26,28; Matt 25:31-46 THEME: Allow Christ to be the King of Your Life Dearest in Christ, with the feast of Christ the King, the Church concludes her liturgical year. Hence, next Sunday, we begin a new liturgical year. The first question we have to ask is: why is this
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Isa 40:1-5,9-11; Psa 84:9-14; 2 Pet 3:8-14; Mk 1:1-8 Isaiah 40-55, the so-called Deutero-Isaiah, is taken to be an exilic prophesy, that is, written during the Babylonian exile. We know that Judah is said to have been conquered by the Babylonians with Nebuchadnezzar as the Babylonian king (586/7 BCE) because of their many sins against
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2 Sam 7:1-5,8-12,14,16; Psa 88:2-5,27,29; Rom 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38 Theme: From the Tent to the Virgin’s Womb (God’s Dwelling Place). Beloved in Christ, we celebrate today the last Sunday before Christmas. The readings focus on where God has chosen as his dwelling place. Right from the creation of humankind, God shows his desire to have
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Is 11:1-10; Rom 15:4-9; Matt 3:1-12 The Desert Preparation for the Arrival of the Era of the New David. Jesse is the father of David, the king of Israel. David is taken to be the ideal king of Israel, and the reign of Israel (especially Judah) is Davidic. However, some other kings who come from
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Gen 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Rom 5:12.17-19; Matt 4:1-11 Theme: Every Temptation is an Opportunity to Choose either Angelic Ministration or Feeling of Emptiness/Nothingness. The readings of today present us with the general theme of Temptation and Sin. Temptation and sin are always inseparable such that before one falls, there is always an instigation. Sin is only
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Gen 12: 1-4; Ps. 32(33):4-5, 18-20, 22; 2 Tim 1:8-10; Matt 17:1-9 THEME: THE BLESSING THAT AWAITS THE ‘LEAVING BEHIND’ AND THE ‘GOING TO’ After the marriage ceremony of my sister in 1997, and it was time to join the family of her husband and go home, my sister started crying with us because we
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