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20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 14 August 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-284. 8-)
First Reading: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10, Responsorial: Psalm 40:2-4, 18,
2nd Reading: Hebrews 12:1-4 &
Gospel: Luke 12:49-53, Gospel Video, CCTNtv.
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. New!
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. In the recent Apostolic Letter Dies Domini on keeping Sunday holy, I wrote that the Eucharistic assembly is the heart of the Day of the Lord. Therefore to observe Sunday properly, our first task is to take part in Holy Mass. This is a serious obligation, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church has recalled (n. 2181), but, yet more important, it is a deep need which cannot but be felt by Christian souls.
The sacrifice made once and for all on Golgotha is renewed in every Eucharist, and the Church, uniting her sacrifice to that of the Lord, announces his death and proclaims his Resurrection as she awaits his coming. If this is true for Holy Mass celebrated on any day, it is especially true with regard to Sunday, since Sunday is particularly associated with the commemoration of Christ’s Resurrection.
2. Sunday is the day when the whole community is called together; this is why it is also called dies Ecclesiae, the day of the Church.
On this day, the Christian assembly listens to the Word of God, proclaimed in abundance and with solemnity; thus in the first part of Mass there is a true dialogue of the Lord with his people.
Then, through participation in the one banquet, communion is deepened among those who are united in the Spirit of Christ. The Sunday Eucharist is thus the privileged place in which the Church manifests herself as a sacrament of unity, “sign and instrument of communion with God and of unity among all men” (Lumen gentium, n. 1).
There is an urgent need for the Lord’s disciples to offer this witness of fraternal unity in a world that is frequently fragmented, torn and scarred by outbreaks of division, violence and war.
3. May Mary most holy who was with the Apostles in prayer on the day of Pentecost, obtain for our Eucharistic assemblies the gift of effectively showing the presence of the risen Christ and of his Spirit. May her constant intercession ensure that the faithful live as “one heart and soul” (cf. Acts 4:32), ever ready to respond to anyone who asks them to account for the hope that is in them (cf. 1 Peter 3:15).
Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 9 August 1998)
Jesus' words: "You are the salt of the earth.... You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14) will therefore be the inspiring theme and motif of the next World Youth Day.
Aware of the commitment that comes to them from Baptism, young believers should not resign themselves to foolish forms of entertainment and fashions and programmes that are beneath the Christian; on the contrary, they should foster a lofty desire for the Lord and strive to avoid the mediocrity and conformism that are unfortunately widespread in today's society.
3. Dear young people, you understand well that one is not the "salt of the earth" or "light of the world" if one does not aspire to holiness. How I hope that you will never fail to keep this high spiritual ideal in your life! Mankind in the third millennium needs young people who are strong in faith and generous in serving their brethren. It needs young people who are in love with Christ and his Gospel.
The Church points out to you so many of your peers who, in the most varied situations, in our day too know how to fulfil the vocation proper to every baptized person. She shows you the way of prayer and confident recourse to divine help and to Mary's motherly intercession. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 19 August 2001)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-284. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-285. 8-)
The Gospel for this Sunday (Luke 12:49-53) is part of Jesus’ teachings to the disciples during his journey to Jerusalem, where death on the cross awaits him. To explain the purpose of his mission, he takes three images: fire, baptism and division. Today I wish to talk about the first image: fire.
Jesus expresses it with these words: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!” (v. 49). The fire that Jesus speaks of is the fire of the Holy Spirit, the presence living and working in us from the day of our Baptism. It — the fire — is a creative force that purifies and renews, that burns all human misery, all selfishness, all sin, which transforms us from within, regenerates us and makes us able to love. Jesus wants the Holy Spirit to blaze like fire in our heart, for it is only from the heart that the fire of divine love can spread and advance the Kingdom of God. It does not come from the head, it comes from the heart. This is why Jesus wants fire to enter our heart. If we open ourselves completely to the action of this fire which is the Holy Spirit, He will give us the boldness and the fervour to proclaim to everyone Jesus and his consoling message of mercy and salvation, navigating on the open sea, without fear.
In fulfilling her mission in the world, the Church — namely all of us who make up the Church — needs the Holy Spirit’s help so as not to let herself be held back by fear and by calculation, so as not to become accustomed to walking inside of safe borders. These two attitudes lead the Church to be a functional Church, which never takes risks. Instead, the apostolic courage that the Holy Spirit kindles in us like a fire helps us to overcome walls and barriers, makes us creative and spurs us to get moving in order to walk even on uncharted or arduous paths, offering hope to those we meet. With this fire of the Holy Spirit we are called to become, more and more, communities of people who are guided and transformed, full of understanding; people with expanded hearts and joyful faces. Now more than ever there is need for priests, consecrated people and lay faithful, with the attentive gaze of an apostle, to be moved by and to pause before hardship and material and spiritual poverty, thus characterizing the journey of evangelization and of the mission with the healing cadence of closeness. It is precisely the fire of the Holy Spirit that leads us to be neighbours to others, to the needy, to so much human misery, to so many problems, to refugees, to displaced people, to those who are suffering.
At this moment I am thinking with admiration especially of the many priests, men and women religious and lay faithful who, throughout the world, are dedicated to proclaiming the Gospel with great love and faithfulness, often even at the cost of their lives. Their exemplary testimony reminds us that the Church does not need bureaucrats and diligent officials, but passionate missionaries, consumed by ardour to bring to everyone the consoling word of Jesus and his grace. This is the fire of the Holy Spirit. If the Church does not receive this fire, or does not let it inflame her, she becomes a cold or merely lukewarm Church, incapable of giving life, because she is made up of cold and lukewarm Christians. It will do us good today to take five minutes to ask ourselves: “How is my heart? Is it cold? Is it lukewarm? Is it capable of receiving this fire?”. Let us take five minutes for this. It will do everyone good.
Let us ask the Virgin Mary to pray with us and for us to the Heavenly Father, that he dispense upon all believers the Holy Spirit, the divine flame which warms hearts and helps us to be in solidarity with the joys and the sufferings of our brothers and sisters. May we be sustained on our journey by the example of St Maximilian Kolbe, martyr of charity, whose feast day is today: may he teach us to live the fire of love for God and for our neighbour.
Pope Francis I (Angelus, 14 August 2016)
Angelus, 18 August 2019 Extracts: … we can also understand Jesus’ other statement mentioned in today’s passage which, at first glance, may be disconcerting: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51). He came to “separate with fire”. To separate what? Good from evil, the just from the unjust. In this sense he came to “divide”, to cause “uneasiness” — albeit in a healthy way — in his disciples’ lives, breaking the facile illusions of those who think they can combine Christian life with worldliness, Christian life with compromises of all kinds, piety with a hostile attitude to others. Combining, some think, true religiosity with superstitious practices: how many so-called Christians go to fortune tellers to have their palms read! And this is superstition. It is not God. One must not live in a hypocritical way but be willing to pay the price for choices that are consistent — this is the attitude that each of us should seek in life: [being] consistent — paying the price for being consistent with the Gospel. Being consistent with the Gospel. Because it is good to call ourselves Christian but above all it is necessary to be Christian in concrete situations, witnessing to the Gospel, which is essentially love for God and for our brothers and sisters. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 18 August 2019)
Angelus, 14 August 2022 Video, Video (American Sign Language). Text. Extracts: …The Gospel provokes change and invites conversion. It does not dispense a false intimist peace, but sparks a restlessness that sets us in motion, and drives us to open up to God and to our brothers. It is just like fire: while it warms us with God’s love, it wants to burn our selfishness, to enlighten the dark sides of life – we all have them, eh! – to consume the false idols that enslave us.
In the wake of the Biblical prophets – think, for example, of Elijah and Jeremiah – Jesus is inflamed by God’s love and, to make it spread throughout the world, he expends himself personally, loving up to the end, that is, up to death, and death on the cross (cf. Philippians 2:8). He is filled with the Holy Spirit, who is compared to fire, and with his light and his strength, he unveils the mysterious face of God and gives fullness to those considered lost, breaks down the barriers of marginalization, heals the wounds of the body and the soul, and renews a religiosity that was reduced to external practices. This is why he is fire: he changes, purifies.
So, what does that word of Jesus mean for us, for each one of us – for me, for you, for you – what does this word of Jesus, about fire, mean for us? It invites us to rekindle the flame of faith, so that it does not become a secondary matter, or a means to individual wellbeing, enabling us to evade the challenges of life or commitment in the Church and society. Indeed – as a theologian said – faith in God “reassures us – but not on our level, or so to produce a paralyzing illusion, or a complacent satisfaction, but so as to enable us to act” (De Lubac, The Discovery of God). In short, faith is not a “lullaby” that lulls us to sleep. True faith is a fire, a living flame to keep us wakeful and active even at night! Pope Francis I (Angelus, 14 August 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 11 August 2019 Last updated : 19 August 2022, 13:38 SGT
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