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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 23 October 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-317. 8-) First Reading: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18, Responsorial: Psalm 34: 2-3, 17-19, 23, 2nd Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 & Gospel: Luke 18:9-14, CCTNtv, Gospel Video.
Others: Luke 18 - NIV Dramatized Audio Bible
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. Do you want this kind of “pastoral care”?
Homilies, Angelus / Regina Caeli
See our compilation with Pictures in Encoragements-317. 8-)
At the end of this solemn liturgical celebration, I am pleased to greet all of you, dear pilgrims, who have come from various countries to honour the new blesseds. Let us now turn our gaze to Mary most holy, whom our brothers and sister tenderly loved and faithfully imitated. Devotion to the Virgin Mother of God and the recitation of the Rosary held a special place in their lives.
The month of October is the month of Mary, the month of the Rosary. This simple, profound prayer, dear to individuals and to families, was once widely recited by the Christian people. How good it would be if the Rosary were rediscovered and appreciated today, especially in families! It helps us reflect on the life of Christ and the mysteries of salvation; by repeated invocation of the Blessed Virgin, it dispels the seeds of family disintegration; it is a sure bond of communion and peace.
I urge everyone, especially Christian families, to find in the Holy Rosary a daily strength and support for walking the path of fidelity.
May Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary and of All Saints, help us to pursue our mission as believers without wavering. Let us turn to her with filial abandonment, as did the new blesseds whom we contemplate today in heavenly glory. May Our Lady especially support families, so that they can accept the Gospel with integrity and live it in their daily lives.
I greet the French-speaking pilgrims present at the beatification, particularly those from Brittany, the native region of Mother Theodore Guérin. I invite them to keep alive the missionary spirit that motivated the new blessed. I grant my Apostolic Blessing to everyone.
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims present here in St Peter’s Square to honour the four new beati, and I welcome in particular the visitors from the United States accompanying the Sisters of Providence. May the example of these faithful witnesses to Christ inspire us all to ever greater fidelity. God bless you all!
I affectionately greet the Spanish and Latin American Bishops and faithful present here, as well as the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess and the members of the great Calasanctian family. The beatification of Fr Faustino Míguez today gladdens the way of the Church, our Mother and Teacher. As a model Christian educator, he gives a fresh impulse to the Gospel commitment of Catholic colleges on the threshold of the third millennium.
My affectionate greeting also goes to the Brazilians who have come for the beatification of Friar Galvão. May this festive day remind you that the Pope is with you in his prayers and asks God, through the intercession of Our Lady of the Apparition, for peace and harmony for every Brazilian family. God bless you! Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 25 October 1998)
In this perspective the synod, the first of the third millennium, looked to the future, analysing the pastoral challenges that the new times pose to the Church. The bishops have confirmed their will to "cast the nets out" trusting in the word of Christ who said to them, "Put out into the deep!" (cf. Luke 5,4-5).
2. It is quite significant that the assembly took place in the month of October, which is the month of the missions. Giving great emphasis to the pastoral nature of the service of the bishop, it did not fail to underline the principal duty of the bishop to stimulate the missionary spirit and action of the whole ecclesial community, particularly of the laity. In fact, the mission of the church calls for the active and responsible participation of all, according to the different gifts and states of life.
The abundant harvest in the fields of the world has a growing need of labourers, of missionary vocations. The Lord invites us to ask the Lord of the harvest for the gift with assiduous prayer (cf. Matthew 9:37-38). The human family urgently needs missionary men and women who, united to God and in solidarity with their brothers, take the Gospel message everywhere, the proclamation of salvation for all men, regardless of language, ethnicity or culture.
3. The month of October is coming to an end, during which we expressed our Marian devotion with particular fervour by reciting the rosary, to beg the Lord for peace. At this time, we entrust to the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary the peoples of Afghanistan: May innocent lives be spared, and may the international community give timely and effective help to so many refugees, exposed to privations of every sort as the winter season approaches.
Nor can we forget all those who continue to suffer violence and death in the Holy Land, particularly in the Holy Places, so dear to the Christian faith. May Mary, Queen of Peace, help all to lay down their arms and finally begin resolutely on the path toward a just and lasting peace. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 28 October 2001)
1. World Mission Day is being celebrated today. It is dedicated to prayer and to concrete support for the missions. In addition, all believers are asked on this day to revitalize their own responsibility in the proclamation of the Gospel to all peoples. I thank the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Missionary Societies that promote this Day in my name, and I encourage the diocesan and parish initiatives for this purpose.
2. I address a most cordial welcome and my profound thanks to all the missionaries, men and women, who are working on the frontiers of evangelization. I assure them of my special remembrance in prayer. In particular, I am thinking of those who have crowned their witness to Christ and their service to humanity with the sacrifice of their lives.
3. May Mary Most Holy, Queen of the Missions, obtain everywhere in the Church the gift of numerous vocations to the missionary life. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 24 October 2004)
This morning, here in St Peter's Square, 498 Martyrs killed in Spain in the 1930s have been beatified. I thank Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who has presided at the celebration, and I address my cordial greeting to the pilgrims gathered here for this happy event. Today's addition to the roll of Blesseds of such a large number of Martyrs shows that the supreme witness of blood is not an exception reserved for only a few individuals, but a realistic possibility for the entire Christian People. Indeed, they are men and women of different ages, vocations and social classes who paid with their lives for their faithfulness to Christ and his Church. St Paul's words which resounded in this Sunday's liturgy can be well applied to them: "I for my part am already being poured out like a libation", he writes to the Apostle Timothy. "The time of my dissolution is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4: 6-7). Paul, in prison in Rome, saw death approaching and sketched an evaluation full of recognition and hope. He was at peace with God and with himself and faced death serenely, in the knowledge that he had spent his whole life, sparing no effort, at the service of the Gospel.
The month of October, dedicated in a special way to missionary commitment, thus ends with the shining witness of the Spanish Martyrs, who come in addition to the Martyrs Albertina Berkenbrock, Emmanuel Gómez Gonzàlez and Adílio Daronch, and Franz Jägerstätter, beatified a few days ago in Brazil and in Austria. Their example testifies that Baptism commits Christians to participating courageously in the spreading of the Kingdom of God, if need be cooperating with the sacrifice of life itself. Of course, not everyone is called to martyrdom by bloodshed. In fact, there is a non-bloody "martyrdom" which is equally significant, such as that of Celina Chludzińska Borzęcka, wife, mother of a family, widow and Religious, who was beatified yesterday in Rome: this is the silent and heroic witness of so many Christians who live the Gospel without compromise, doing their duty and dedicating themselves generously to the service of the poor.
This martyrdom of ordinary life constitutes a particularly important witness in the secularized society of our time. It is the peaceful battle of love which every Christian, like Paul, must fight without flagging: the race to spread the Gospel that involves us until our death. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Martyrs and Star of Evangelization, help us in our daily witness. Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus, 28 October 2007)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encoragements-318. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encoragements-319. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encoragements-316. 8-)
The second Reading of the day’s Liturgy presents to us Saint Paul’s exhortation to Timothy, his collaborator and chosen son, in which he thinks back on his existence as an Apostle wholly consecrated to the mission (cf. 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18). Now seeing the end of his earthly journey, he describes it in reference to three seasons: the present, past and future.
The present he interprets with the metaphor of sacrifice: “For I am already on the point of being sacrificed” (v. 6). With regard to the past, Paul points to his life lived with the images of the “good fight” and the “race” of a man who has been coherent with his duties and his responsibilities (cf. v. 7); as a result, for the future he trusts in being recognized by God who is “the righteous judge” (v. 8). But Paul’s mission has been effective, just and faithful only thanks to the closeness and the strength of the Lord, who has made of him a proclaimer of the Gospel to all peoples. This is his expression: “the Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the Gospel fully, that all the peoples might hear it” (cf. v. 17).
In this autobiographical account by Saint Paul the Church is reflected, especially today, World Mission Sunday, the theme of which is “Missionary Church, Witness of Mercy”. In Paul the Christian community finds its model, in the conviction that the Lord’s presence makes apostolic work and the work of evangelization effective. The experience of the Apostle of the people reminds us that we must be committed in pastoral and missionary activities, on the one hand, as if the result depends on our efforts, with the spirit of sacrifice of an athlete, who never stops even in the face of challenges; on the other, however, knowing that the true success of our mission is a gift of Grace: it is the Holy Spirit who makes the Church’s mission in the world effective.
Today is a time of mission and a time of courage! Courage to strengthen faltering steps, to recapture the enthusiasm of devoting oneself to the Gospel, of recovering confidence in the strength that the mission brings to bear. It is a time of courage, even if having courage does not mean having a guarantee of success. Courage is required of us in order to fight, not necessarily to win; in order to proclaim, not necessarily to convert. Courage is required of us in order to open ourselves to everyone, never diminishing the absoluteness and uniqueness of Christ, the one saviour of all. Courage is required of us in order to withstand incredulity, without becoming arrogant. Required of us too is the courage of the tax collector in today’s Gospel, who humbly did not dare even to raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”. Today is a time for courage! Today courage is needed!
May the Virgin Mary, model of the Church “that goes forth” and of docility to the Holy Spirit, help us all to be, in the strength of our Baptism, missionary disciples in order to bring the message of salvation to the entire human family. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 23 October 2016)
HOLY MASS CONCLUDING THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS FOR THE PAN-AMAZON REGION, 27 October 2019 Extracts: 1. The prayer of the Pharisee begins in this way: “God, I thank you”. This is a great beginning, because the best prayer is that of gratitude, that of praise. Immediately, though, we see the reason why he gives thanks: “that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11)… In short, he boasts because he fulfils particular commandments to the best degree possible. But he forgets the greatest commandment: to love God and our neighbour (cf. Matthew 22:36-40). Brimming with self-assurance about his own ability to keep the commandments, his own merits and virtues, he is focused only on himself. The tragedy of this man is that he is without love. Even the best things, without love, count for nothing, as Saint Paul says (cf. 1 Corinthians 13). Without love, what is the result? He ends up praising himself instead of praying. In fact, he asks nothing from the Lord because he does not feel needy or in debt, but he feels that God owes something to him. He stands in the temple of God, but he worships a different god: himself. And many “prestigious” groups, “Catholic Christians”, go along this path…
Together with God, he forgets his neighbour; indeed, he despises him. For the Pharisee, his neighbour has no worth, no value. He considers himself better than others, whom he calls literally “the rest, the remainders” (loipoi, Luke 18:11). That is, they are “leftovers”, they are scraps from which to keep one’s distance…
2. The prayer of the tax collector helps us understand what is pleasing to God. He does not begin from his own merits but from his shortcomings; not from his riches but from his poverty. His was not economic poverty – tax collectors were wealthy and tended to make money unjustly at the expense of their fellow citizens – but he felt a poverty of life, because we never live well in sin. The tax collector who exploited others admitted being poor before God, and the Lord heard his prayer, a mere seven words but an expression of heartfelt sincerity. In fact, while the Pharisee stood in front on his feet (cf. v. 11), the tax collector stood far off and “would not even lift up his eyes to heaven”, because he believed that God is indeed great, while he knew himself to be small. He “beat his breast” (cf. v. 13), because the breast is where the heart is. His prayer is born straight from the heart; it is transparent. He places his heart before God, not outward appearances. To pray is to stand before God’s eyes – it is God looking at me when I pray – without illusions, excuses or justifications.
Today, looking at the tax collector, we rediscover where to start: from the conviction that we, all of us, are in need of salvation. This is the first step of the true worship of God, who is merciful towards those who admit their need… We are a bit tax collectors because we are sinners, and a bit Pharisees because we are presumptuous, able to justify ourselves, masters of the art of self-justification. This may often work with ourselves, but not with God. This trick does not work with God. Let us pray for the grace to experience ourselves in need of mercy, interiorly poor. For this reason too, we do well to associate with the poor, to remind ourselves that we are poor, to remind ourselves that the salvation of God operates only in an atmosphere of interior poverty.
3. We come now to the prayer of the poor person, from the first reading. This prayer, says Sirach, “will reach to the clouds” (35:21). While the prayer of those who presume that they are righteous remains earthly, crushed by the gravitational force of egoism, that of the poor person rises directly to God. The sense of faith of the People of God has seen in the poor “the gatekeepers of heaven”: the sense of faith that was missing in [the Pharisee’s] utterance. They are the ones who will open wide or not the gates of eternal life. They were not considered bosses in this life, they did not put themselves ahead of others; they had their wealth in God alone. These persons are living icons of Christian prophecy.
…How many times, even in the Church, have the voices of the poor not been heard and perhaps scoffed at or silenced because they are inconvenient. Let us pray for the grace to be able to listen to the cry of the poor: this is the cry of hope of the Church. The cry of the poor is the Church’s cry of hope. When we make their cry our own, we can be certain, our prayer too will reach to the clouds. Pope Francis I (Homily, 27 October 2019)
Angelus, 27 October 2019 Extracts: The Mass celebrated this morning (Holy Mass Video) in Saint Peter’s concluded the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region. The first reading, from the Book of Sirach (Wikipedia), reminded us of the starting point of this journey: the invocation of the poor, who go “past the clouds”, because “God listens” to the prayer of the oppressed (Sirach 35: 21, 16). The cry of the poor, together with that of the earth, came to us from the Amazon. After these three weeks we cannot pretend that we have not heard it. The voices of the poor, along with those of many others inside and outside the Synod Assembly – pastors, young people, scientists – urge us not to remain indifferent. We have often heard the phrase “later is too late”: this phrase cannot remain a slogan.
What was the Synod? It was, as the word says, a journey undertaken together, comforted by the courage and consolations that come from the Lord. We walked, looking each other in the eye and listening to each other, sincerely, without concealing difficulties, experiencing the beauty of moving forward together in order to serve. The Apostle Paul stimulates us in this, in today’s second reading: in a dramatic moment for him, while he knows that he is “already being poured out as a drink offering” – that is, executed – “and the time of my departure has come” (cf. 2 Timothy 4: 6), he writes, at that moment: “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it” (v. 17). This is Paul’s final wish: not something for himself or for one of his own, but for the Gospel, that it may be proclaimed to all nations. This comes first of all and counts more than anything. Each of us must have asked ourselves many times what good might be done in one’s own life. Today is the time; let us ask ourselves: “Me, what can I do that is good for the Gospel?” Pope Francis I (Angelus, 27 October 2019)
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Angelus, 23 October 2022 Angelus Video, Video (American Sign Language). Angelus Text. Extracts: See “Mass Readings, Past Homilies and Angelus”. Extracts: …We might say, then, that the parable lies between two movements, expressed by two verbs: to rise and to descend.
The first movement is to rise. Indeed, the text begins by saying: “Two people went up to the temple area to pray” (v. 10). This aspect recalls many episodes in the Bible, where in order to encounter the Lord, one goes up to the mountain of his presence: Abraham goes up on the mountain to offer the sacrifice; Moses goes up Mount Sinai to receive the Commandments; Jesus goes up the mountain where he is transfigured. To rise, therefore, expresses the need of the heart to detach itself from a flat life in order to go towards the Lord; to rise up from the plateau of our ego to ascend towards God, freeing oneself of one’s own “I”; to gather what we live in the valley to bring it before the Lord. This is “rising”, and when we pray, we rise.
But to live the encounter with him and to be transformed by prayer, to rise up to God, a second movement is necessary: to descend. How come? What does this mean? In order to rise towards him, we must descend within ourselves: to cultivate the sincerity and humility of the heart that give us an honest outlook on our frailties and our inner poverty. Indeed, in humility we become capable of bringing what we really are to God, without pretence: the wounds, the sins and the miseries that weigh on our hearts, and to invoke his mercy so that he may heal us, restore us and raise us up. It will be he who raises us up, not us. The more we descend with humility, the more God raises us up.
Brothers, sisters, the Pharisee and the Publican concern us closely. Thinking of them, let us look at ourselves: let us confirm whether, in us, as in the Pharisee, there is the conviction of one’s own righteousness (cf. v. 9) that leads us to despise others. It happens, for instance, when we seek compliments and always make a list of our own merits and good works, when we concern ourselves with how we appear rather than how we are, when we let ourselves be trapped by narcissism and exhibitionism. Let us beware of narcissism and exhibitionism, based on vainglory, that lead even us Christians, priests and bishops, always to have one word on our lips. Which word? “I”: “I did this, I wrote that, I said it, I understood it before you”, and so on. Where there is too much of “I”, there is too little of God. In my country, these people are called “Me, with me, for me, only me”, this is the name of those people. And once upon a time they used to talk about a priest who was like that, self-centred, and the people, jokingly, used to say, “When he incenses, he does it backwards, he incenses himself”. It is like that; it even makes you seem ridiculous. 8-) Pope Francis I (Angelus, 23 October 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 20 October 2019 Last updated: 24 October 2022, 21:38 SGT
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