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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 11 September 2022 Note: Homilies & Angelus / Regina Caeli of Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI & Pope Francis I had been compiled for you after the Mass Readings below. Happy Reading! Liturgical Colour: Green.
Mass Readings from ETWN, USCCB, Universalis. See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-296. 8-) First Reading: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14, Responsorial: Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19, 2nd Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 & Gospel: Luke 15:1-32, Gospel Video.
Others: From Venerable Fulton J. Sheen (Audio): The Holy Eucharist, The Eucharistic Sacrifice, The Mass. Sin, Sin and Penance, Penance.
Please refer to https://twitter.com/Michael65413248 for some latest record. Take care, put on your facemask and stay healthy, because we love you! 8-) COVID-19 Protection in Singapore.
1. Criminal Investigation Department, Singapore Police Force harassed Law-abiding Citizen. Latest! https://twitter.com/Michael65413248/status/1510086218851270658 (2 April 2022) #Singapore Police Force harassing the same law abiding business owner again from 92298844, 97397514, 83487591, 96645914, 63914706, 82825465, 97378102, 90360045, 92981234! They can’t perform to contain COVID, so they bully to appear busy? Shameless? You decide! 2. See another Police case to frame against the Innocent! Please spread the News to help them who commit no crime. Many Thanks. Till this day, the harassment continues and there is no apology from the Rulers and no compensation paid for damages inflicted. 3. See the Bloggers went MISSING before / after the Singapore General Election on 10 July 2020. Please pray for their safety as we search for them actively. Many Thanks. 5. https://twitter.com/Michael65413248/status/1557400176649650176
Homilies, Angelus / Regina Caeli
1. With the beginning of the month of September, our working life starts up again with its normal activities: businesses, offices and schools return to their usual pace. For many this is a time of “planning”: problems are faced, objectives defined and the means and strategies to achieve them decided.
I would like to remind everyone of a basic principle of faith: prior to and beyond our projects there is a mystery of love which surrounds and guides us: the mystery of God’s love. If we want to give good direction to our life, we must learn to discern its plan, by reading the mysterious “road signs” God puts in our daily history. For this purpose neither horoscopes nor fortune-telling is useful. What is needed is prayer, authentic prayer, which should always accompany a life decision made in conformity with God’s law.
During this year, which in preparation for the Great Jubilee is dedicated in a particular way to the Holy Spirit, may our insistent prayer be directed to him. He is invoked as the Spirit of “counsel” and “wisdom”. No one knows our future better than he or is more capable of guiding our steps in the right direction.
2. Criteria are essential to good planning. Some are dictated by the actual situation: these are criteria of necessity, of opportunity, of effectiveness. But let us take care not to reduce everything to material questions. Let us not limit ourselves to technology and bureaucracy. If we wish to make truly “human” plans, in our programmes we must include the range of great moral and spiritual values. We must also strive to look at those beside us, especially those dependent on us or at any rate affected by our decisions, always considering them as persons and never as numbers or things.
In a word, let us organize our lives — personal and community — in a way not inspired by selfishness but by love. Let us be open to our brothers and sisters, especially those who because of their condition — I am thinking of children, the sick, the elderly, the unemployed — are obliged to depend on others for many things or for everything. Therefore, let our planning also be an act of solidarity.
3. Let us ask the Blessed Virgin to obtain true “wisdom of heart” for us, so that we may plan our lives well and resume our activities with vigour. May she who is called “Mother of Good Counsel” in the Litany of Loreto suggest good ideas to us and help us to order our lives in accordance with God’s plan. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 6 September 1998)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-297. 8-)
1. As this solemn celebration draws to a close, I want to thank you again, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, for your warm reception. Your city, which in the past my venerable predecessors visited, and especially, Blessed Pius IX who stayed here during two visits for a few days each time, has today opened its arms and heart to me. Thank you for your cordial welcome. Thank you for the symbolic gift you have given me in the name of the 5 vicariates of the Diocese. To remember this wonderful visit, in each of them there will be a counselling centre with a house that will welcome persons in trouble. May the Lord reward your generosity and make you witnesses of his goodness, especially toward those in need and suffering.
2. I place your resolutions for good and your pastoral plan for the Diocese in the hands of Our Blessed Mother whom you love and venerate with deep-seated devotion. To Our Lady I entrust everyone who lives in this region, blessed with so many churches dedicated to her. How many are the titles with which you honour and call upon Mary. They form a rich litany which witnesses in impressive fashion to the faith you received from your fathers: Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of Suffrage, Our Lady of Good Health, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit, Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Our Lady of the Snows, Our Lady of Hope....
Yes, your Ciociaria is a Marian region, that in past centuries found support in the heavenly Mother of God. May the Blessed Virgin continue to be the luminous Star of your life, the hope that leads you to "Christ our hope".
3. May the Blessed Virgin bring comfort and hope to those who suffer on account of the tragic attack of the terrorists, that last week seriously harmed the beloved American people. To all the children of this great Nation I direct my heartbroken and heartfelt consideration. May Mary welcome the dead, console the survivors, support those families who are particularly tried, help all to resist the temptation to hatred and violence, and to dedicate themselves to the service of justice and peace.
May the Virgin Mary nourish in the hearts of all young persons, above all, high human and spiritual ideals and the necessary perseverance to achieve them. May She remind them of the primacy of eternal values, especially in these difficult moments, so that in their daily engagements and activities they may ever continue to be turned toward God and to his kingdom of solidarity and peace. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 16 September 2001)
1. According to an ancient tradition, today we are celebrating the feast of the Holy Name of Mary. Indissolubly linked to the Name of Jesus, for Christians this name is the sweetest, for it reminds everyone of the Mother they have in common. Jesus, dying, entrusted us all to her as children.
May Mary watch over humanity in this time that is marked by overwhelming explosions of violence. May she watch especially over the new generations who are eager to build a future of hope for one and all.
2. I also noticed this deep aspiration to a world of justice and peace in the children, young people and adults of Italian Catholic Action, whom I met last Sunday at Loreto on the occasion of their national pilgrimage.
I am grateful to the Lord for having given me the opportunity to take part in this important ecclesial event, which culminated in the proclamation of three new Blesseds: Alberto Marvelli, Pina Suriano and Pere Tarrés i Claret.
In recalling their witness, I would like here to recall the three duties I entrusted to Catholic Action: "contemplation", to walk on the path of holiness; "communion", to promote the spirituality of unity; and "mission", to be Gospel leaven everywhere.
3. May Our Lady help Catholic Action to persevere enthusiastically in its commitment to apostolic witness, always working in close connection with the hierarchy, taking a responsible part in the pastoral work of the parish and the Diocese.
The Church is counting on the active presence of Catholic Action and its faithful devotion to the great cause of Christ's Kingdom. I too look to Catholic Action with great confidence, and I encourage all its members to be generous witnesses of the Good News of the Gospel in order to restore hope to contemporary society which is in search of peace. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 12 September 2004)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-297. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-298. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-299. 8-)
Today’s liturgy brings us to Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke, considered the chapter on mercy. It relates three parables with which Jesus responds to the grumbling of the scribes and the Pharisees, who are criticizing his actions, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (v. 2).
With these three stories, Jesus wants to make us understand that God the Father is the first one to have a welcoming and merciful attitude toward sinners. This is God’s attitude.
In the first parable, God is presented as a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go and look for the one that is lost. In the second, he is compared to a woman who has lost a coin and searches until she finds it. In the third parable, God is imagined as a father who welcomes the son who had distanced himself; the figure of the father reveals the heart of a merciful God, manifested in Jesus.
A common element in these parables is expressed by the verbs that mean rejoice together, join in merry-making. Mourning is not spoken of; there is rejoicing, there is celebrating. The shepherd calls his friends and neighbours and says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost” (v 6). The woman calls her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost” (v. 9). And the father says to his other son: “It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found” (v. 32).
In the first two parables, the focus is on the joy that is so uncontainable that it must be shared with “friends and neighbours”. In the third parable, the focus is on the joy that springs from the heart of the merciful father and expands to the whole household. God’s rejoicing over those who return to Him repentant is intoned as never before in this Jubilee Year that we are living, as the term itself expresses: “jubilee”, that is, jubilation!
With these three parables, Jesus presents to us the true face of God, a God with open arms, a God who deals with sinners with tenderness and compassion. The parable that is most moving for everyone — because it manifests the infinite love of God — is that of the father who enfolds in a close embrace the son who has been found. What strikes us is not so much the sad story of a youth who falls into dissolute ways, but rather his decisive words, “I will arise and go to my father” (v. 18).
The path to return home is the path of hope and new life. God always expects us to resume our journey, he awaits us with patience, he sees us when we are still a long way off, he runs to meet us, he embraces us, he kisses us, he forgives us. That is how God is. That is how our Father is. And his forgiveness cancels the past and regenerates us in love. Forgetting the past — this is God’s weakness. When he embraces us, he forgives us, and forgets it. He doesn’t remember. He forgets the past. When we sinners convert and let ourselves be re-encountered by God, reproach and sternness do not await us, because God saves, he welcomes us home again with joy and prepares a feast.
Jesus himself in today’s Gospel says, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance” (Luke 15:7).
Let me ask you a question: Have you ever thought about how each time we go to the confessional, there is joy and celebration in heaven? Have you ever thought about this? It’s beautiful.
This fills us with a great hope because there is no sin into which we may have fallen, from which, with the grace of God, we cannot rise up again. There is never a person who can’t be recovered; no one is irrecoverable, because God never stops wanting our good — even when we sin!
May the Virgin Mary, Refuge of Sinners, kindle in our hearts the confidence that was lit in the heart of the prodigal son: “I will arise and go to my father and I shall say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you’” (v. 18). On this path, we can give glory to God, and his glory can become his celebration, and ours. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 11 September 2016)
Angelus, 15 September 2019 Extracts: The first parable says: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4). What man of you? Not a person with good sense: he does the math and sacrifices the one to keep the ninety-nine. Whereas God does not give up. He cherishes precisely you who still do not know the beauty of his love; you who have not yet welcomed Jesus into the centre of your life; you who are unable to overcome your sin; you who, perhaps due to the bad things that have happened in your life, do not believe in love. In the second parable, you are that small coin that the Lord does not accept losing, and he searches relentlessly. He wants to tell you that you are precious in his eyes, that you are unique. No one can replace you in God’s heart. You have a place; you are you, and no one can replace you; nor me, no one can replace me in God’s heart. And in the third parable, God is the father who awaits the return of his prodigal son. God always awaits us. He does not tire, he does not lose heart. Because we, each one of us is that son embraced once again, that rediscovered coin, that sheep caressed and put back upon his shoulder. He waits every day for us to perceive his love. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 15 September 2019)
Angelus, 11 September 2022 Angelus Video, Video (American Sign Language). Text. Extracts: Brothers and sisters, God is like this: he does not “rest easy” if we stray from Him, he is grieved, He trembles in his innermost being; and he sets out to look for us, until He takes us back into his arms. The Lord does not calculate losses and risks; he has the heart of a father and a mother, and suffers for the lack of his beloved children. “But why does he suffer if this son is a scoundrel, if he has gone?” He suffers, he suffers. God suffers for our distance and when we go astray, he awaits our return. Remember: God always awaits us with open arms, whatever the situation in life in which we are lost may be. As a Psalm says, He will “neither slumber nor sleep”, he always watches over us (cf. Psalm 121: 4-5).
…Let us then reflect on our relationships: do I pray for those who do not believe, who have drifted away, who are bitter? Do we attract those who are distant through the style of God, which are closeness, compassion and tenderness? The Father asks us to be attentive to the children he misses the most. Let us think of someone we know, who is close to us and has perhaps never heard anyone say, “You know, you are important to God”. “But I am in an irregular situation, I have done this bad thing, that one…”. “You are important to God”, say to him. “You are not searching for him, but he is searching for you”. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 11 September 2022)
Daily Blessings to You from Emmanuel Goh & Friends
Note: This webpage has many hyperlinks to the Vatican Webpage. The above extracts were compiled for your easy reading. This Publication is aimed to encourage all of Goodwill around the World. It is not for business or profit purposes but it is our way to thank our Creator for His continuous blessings!
Compiled on 8 September 2019 Last updated: 11 September 2022, 22:38 SGT
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