POINTING TO THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD

Journey with the True Vine Bearing the Fruits of Faith

Discover how a man named Saul evolved from a feared persecutor to a fervent apostle, a testament to the transformative power of union with God, as we delve into the readings of the fifth Sunday of Easter. Saul's journey is just one of the profound narratives we explore, illustrating the boundless strength we can harness from our divine connection. Alongside this, we absorb the wisdom of Saint John, who teaches us to align our actions with our faith, ensuring our deeds embody the love of God....

The Transformative Power of Easter: Resurrection, Redemption, and Living Boldly

Discover the life-altering power of resurrection as we share stories of transformation and redemption, reflecting on the third Sunday of Easter. Witness the journey of Peter, from his denials to becoming a courageous herald of Christ, and how this mirrors our own potential for change when embracing the truth of the Gospel. Our exploration delves into the fulfillment of divine promises and the call to live boldly, while also addressing the reality of Jesus's physical resurrection and its prof...

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY - 2nd Sunday Easter 2024

Dear friends in Christ,  On this  Divine Mercy Sunday we remember especially Maureen and all of our brothers and sisters who have requested to be prayed for. May God grant them all they need. May God grant eternal rest to Imelda Lum Che,  Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the readings today, we see Mercy, Divine Mercy in action. You've often heard it said,that "it doesn't matter how deep you fall. What matters is how high you bounce back". Thomas and Judas both betrayed Jesus by their wo...

LEAN INTO THE DISCOMFORT: 5th Sunday LENT B

No one likes to suffer.  But as humans, we know that pain is inevitable; emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual pain etc. The way we deal with our suffering and pain says a great deal about our maturity as someone created by God! The readings this Sunday talk to us about how to deal with suffering.  The first reading, from the Prophet Jeremiah, explains how God will replace the Old Covenant of Judgment with a New Covenant of Forgiveness of sins. This New Covenant was established we ...

FLOATING WITH JOY (LAETARE) - 4th Sunday LENT B

Dear Friends in Christ, All of us dear friends have habits. Some of these habits are good – and some bad. Generally speak, good habits, are often, hard to acquire – Whereas, bad ones are very easy to learn –  Sin is something that can become habitual. And unfortunately for us many sinful things are accepted in our culture and society today. Consequently, it takes great courage and resolve to break with that culture and to eliminate ingrained habits of sin! All the scriptures for today have ...

CLEANING YOUR HEARTS

Today’s readings from Holy Scripture teach us that Lent is the ideal time to clean out the Temple of our own hearts and to offer to God proper Divine worship by obeying His Commandments.  Today’s first reading teaches us that the Ten Commandments are the basis of our religious and spiritual life. Instead of restricting our freedom, the Commandments really help us to love and respect our God and our neighbour. The second reading reminds us that we must appreciate the Divine “foolishness” of...

REPENT: 1st Sunday of Lent

JESUS WANTS TO ...6TH SUNDAY OTB

Friends in Christ, We were not born to be isolated from others. We need close connections with loved ones, family, and friends – And we will suffer if we are cut off. Isolation can lead to loneliness, leading to anxiety and depression and general mental decline.  The readings this Sunday talk to us about faith, and about love.  In the Gospel, the leper who was isolated, cut off from his family, possibly depresed, anxious and lonely, showed great faith that Jesus could heal him, and the gr...

BEST WAY TO RESPOND TO SUFFERING: 5th Sunday OT B

Brothers and sisters,  We can all can recount experiences in which we had our hearts broken; whether it was the untimely death of a loved one, the break in a relationship, the loss of a job we love, failing our exams, severe illnesd etc. One very common reaction to suffering is the use of these 2 words "WHY ME? The readings today talk about suffering and how to best respond to it.  In the first reading Job states that human life is "no better than hired drudgery" and laments that his  "eye...

WHAT AUTHORITY? 4th Sunday OT B

Nowadays, everywhere we turn people are competing for our attention. Advertisers, politicians, youtubers, influencers, celebrities, sellers of all sorts, even religious leaders. We are often torn, we find it difficult to discern what is true and best and most worthwhile for ourselves. What comes from God and what is from the evil one. The readings reassure us and urge us to take comfort in the fact that God is more powerful than anything that may demand our attention or worry us. And that w...

WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE? 3rd Sunday OT B

Brothers and sisters, No one wants to be criticized, not especially if it is with my acid tongue. But now and again we all need a Jonah in our lives, someone who will come along and shake things up; someone who will nudge us and say, hey, you’re doing it wrong! I fell foul to this this recently. The three readings today are doing exactly that. They all underline our absolute need of repentance and our immediate need for a prompt response to God’s call to change our ways - To repent . In t...

Feast of The Epiphany of the Lord.

Dear friends, Meeting someone for the first time or after a long time, conjures all sorts of emotions in us.  Do you remember the feelings and reactions after meeting a boyfriend or girlfriend, a never-seen sibling, a long lost family member, a primary school mate, a work colleague who appears as a stranger and reveal their identity? Today in the readings, God reveals himself to the world. And this revelation triggered all sorts of reactions.  The prophet Isaiah in the 1st reading prophesi...

FAITH IN ACTION: FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY

Dear Friends, On the last Sunday of the year, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family.  Some of you, like myself, have been brave enough to enter into a relationship with the hope of having a family and thank God, we have been blessed with one. Others have found themselves unable to do so, or the relationship did not continue and you have been left disappointed. Others have had children but suffer the hurt of having their family broken for reasons over which you have little or no control...

LIGHT IN DARK TIMES: SOLEMNITY OF CHRISTMAS B

Dear Friends  All of us here AT PTTSOTW WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY AND A BLESSED CHRISTMAS. But it won't be a merry Christmas for many people and families in these dark and difficult times we live in, where warfare is rampant; War in Cameroon, DRC, YEMEN, UKRAINE, PALESTINE and orher partsoftheworld. It won't be a merry Christmas for the victims and their families of the Mass shootings in Prague and needless deaths from gang violence. It won't be a Merry Christmas for the many victims and th...

OPEN YOURSELF TO THE POWER: 4th SUNDAY Advent B.

Dear friends, One can understand the Holy Bible between two poles: promise and fulfillment. God makes promises and then he fulfills them. God is not like us. We make promises but often don't fulfill them. God, on the other hand, always fulfills his promises. We see this promise and fulfillment in today's readings. In the 1st reading, God makes an extraordinary promise to King David. "I will give you fame as great as the fame of the greatest... Your House and your sovereignty will always s...

BE GLAD, GIVE THANKS TO GOD: GAUDETE Sunday B

Dear Friends, To all those who are poor, have nowhere to go, cannot see their way, feel oppressed, burdened, and have lost hope, Jesus is the good news of God’s love, source of joy. This is the feeling that pervades all today’s readings.  In the first reading we hear Isaiah reminding us that God is the source of our joy: ‘I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God, In the Second Reading Paul, too, calls on the Christian community in Thessalonika to ‘be happy at all times’, l...

THE SECRET OF A GREAT CHRISTMAS: 2nd Sunday of Advent Yr. B

Dear Friends in Christ, Last Sunday we were reminded about waiting in hope for the unexpected coming of Jesus.  This Sunday, the readings tell us how to wait in hope. They say CHANGE is what has to happen, even though we don't like it, dread and resent it at times. St John Henry Newman said, "to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often". We are Not talking here of external kind of change that we see, hear and touch around us at this time. No. The readings this 2nd Sun...

DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT: 1st Sunday of Advent, Yr. B

The readings this Sunday offer us a diagnosis of our spiritual ill-health and the ills of our society, the contradictions within us and how these could be resolved. In the first reading we see human wretchedness in action. The Prophet Isaiah tells us that we have become like unclean people, all our good deeds are polluted rages, our guilt carries us away like the wind. But along with wretchedness the 2nd reading also describe our greatness. St Paul speaks about the grace given to us by Chr...

SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING: LAST SUNDAY Yr A.

Desr friends in Christ, Today we celebrate the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent and so we begin a new year by preparing once again for the great feast of the Incarnation: the feast of Christmas. We dedicate this Sunday to Christ the King.  In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel tells us that God himself would seek out his lost sheep and take them home to Himself.  In today’s Second Reading St Paul encourages us to look ahead to the final goal...

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE: 33rd Sunday OT A.

Dear friends,  The month of November is dedicated to praying for our loved ones who have died. Most people don’t want to think about the dying process and their own deaths. We are too busy trying to live, that we don’t make time to consider our own death. And the most wonderful thing about death is that one gets a great opportunity to meet Jesus.  But first we will be judged as to how we used all the gifts, talents, and graces that God has given us. Fortunately for us, the scriptures can ser...

FULL LAMPS + SPARE: 32nd Sunday OT A

All three readings today teach us a great deal about the gift of wisdom and find some unity around the theme of the right attitude to adopt towards the future.  The first reading which speaks of Wisdom as a personification of God,  describes how the spirit of Wisdom is eager to enter into our lives. She is always close by, sitting at our gates, waiting for us to greet her, so that she may richly bless our lives.! What better response could we make to the promise of Wisdom than that in the r...

HOW NOT TO BE A CHRISTIAN: 31st Sunday OT A

Dear Friends in Christ, The central theme of today’s readings is a strong invitation and challenge to render humble, selfless, diligent, committed, loving service to others in the community without expecting honour or rewards in return. The readings also warn us against the triple vices of pride, idolatry and hypocrisy. In the first reading the prophet Malachi condemns the irresponsible, proud, lazy priests of his day and warns them about their failures to give proper instructions/teaching...

THE TWO GREATEST COMMANDMENTS: 30th Sunday OT A

Dear Friends in Christ,  Today, Jesus gives us the two great commandments:  Love of God and love of neighbour.  But what does love really look like in a Christian life?  A non-Christian named Aristides once wrote to the Emperor Hadrian about a new group of people called Christians. He said, “Christians love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If one of them has something, he gives freely to those who have nothing. If they see a stra...

BELONGING AND HOPE: 29th Sunday OT A

Dear Friends  We all have experiences of these two groups of people. On the one hand, people who are not who – or what – they appear to be! These people live lives of pretence. On the other hand people who are the same both on the outside and the inside. Who always seem to do the right thing. The scriptures this Sunday present us with the two types of people considered above.   In the 1st reading, from the Prophet Isaiah, God gave His grace to Cyrus, a man who seems to belong to the seco...

RSVP - YOU'RE INVITED: 28th Sunday OT A

Dear Friends We all live in a very uncertain and unsettling times,  in world where many people worry about their finances and only the very wealthy are not concerned about their income due to the terrible inflation. The scripture readings this Sunday present us with direction as we try to live with diminishing resources.   Isaiah in the 1st reading spoke to the chosen few in Israel who had remained faithful in those uncertain times that a new world and a new life would soon emerge from the...

DEALING WITH TROUBLES: 27th Sunday OT A

Dear Friends  The readings this Sunday enlighten us about how to deal with trouble in our lives. In the first reading, Isaiah prophesies the imminent destruction of the vineyard, that is, "the house of Israel." In the Gospel, Jesus talks about a vineyard under terrible mismanagement. Rather than care for the vineyard, the tenants get involved in greed, betrayal - and finally, murder. Both readings describe different kinds of trouble, a cause for worry. But in the second reading, we hear a d...

"I WILL NOT GO..."26th Sunday OT A

Dear Friends  The the readings this Sunday continue with the theme of sin and forgiveness. In the Responsorial Psalm we recall God’s mercy and steadfast love. God feels for us the way a mother feels for the child in her womb: feelings of tenderness, protective care, hope and love.  The Gospel reminds us that the most important thing for us is to do the will of God. This is not a matter only of words or of good intentions. It is a matter of decision. Jesus could say of himself that he alway...

AMAZING GRACE, AMAZING LOVE: 25th Sunday OT A

Dear Friends  The readings this Sunday focus on the amazing love of God, the amazing grace. They encourage us to take stock of how we are responding to this amazing love. The Responsorial Psalm reminds us that God is near, but we must call to him and mean it. God is love, so he will not force himself upon us, but wait to be invited. In the First Reading, Isaiah picks up this theme, encouraging us to seek our gracious God while he may be found, to call on God while he is near. We need God’s ...

THE NITTY-GRITTY OF FORGIVENESS: The Realistic view

SEVENTY-SEVEN TIMES: 24th Sunday OT A

Dear Friends  The readings this Sunday focus on the theme of forgiveness - a word which comes from ‘for-give’ meaning "to give and to keep giving". Everyday, wittingly or unwittingly we hurt others and we too have been hurt ourselves. So in the Gospel when Peter asks the question about how often we should forgive, Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.  It is God’s forgiveness that liberates us to grow in love. If we can only allow ourselves to be moved by grace and...

THE ART OF CORRECTING OTHERS: 23RD SUNDAY OT A

Dear Friends  Becoming financially debt free is something we all crave. Not owing a bank or loan company or indeed anyone anything especially in the current economy climate is some achievement, something to be truly proud of. As Christians, we will never become totakky debt-free. The readings this Sunday, remind us that we will always be in debt with others. St Paul in the 2nd reading tells us that we owe our brothers and sisters love.Like Ezekiel in the first Reading, we will be held accou...

TAKE UP YOUR CROSS DAILY: 22 SUNDAY OT A

Dear Friends  God always gives us hope. The hope that comes from today’s Gospel is this: that which is difficult can also  be good. When Jesus says to his disciples that they must take up their cross and follow him, he is not assigning them a punishment. He is offering  the assurance that when they take up a difficult part of life and carry it as a cross after Him, it need not destroy them. In fact it can have the power to strengthen them and open them more to life.

"YOU ARE ROCK" - 21st Sunday OT A

Dear Friends  Every normal human being needs and wants a certain amount of control over their life and environment.  We were not made to live in chaotic situations where everything is out of control. With our free will,  we can make choices that bring order and direction into our lives. However, these choices and our direction  should always benefit others around us as well as ourselves. Nevertheless, some people want an  unreasonable control over the lives of others. They see their personal...

"WOMAN, YOU HAVE GREAT FAITH.." 20th Sunday OT A

Dear Friends  We live in a world marked by boundaries. We set up barriers or demarcations between ourselves and others. These divisions are sometines racial, tribal, class, we belong to different ethnic and linguistic groups and families. There is a great impatience and even fear of those who are different, who dont speak our language; belong to our set boundary or group. The readings this Sunday remind us that the God we serve lives across boundaries, He is not limited to my tribe, to my ...

SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 2023.

THE SOUND OF GOD!: 19th Sunday OT A

Brothers and sisters The Word of God on this Sunday encourages us not to lose heart, or give in to despondency, but to trust in the Lord who is with us even when we are unaware of his presence.  In the first reading today, we see the great prophet, Elijah, in a state of crisis, physically, mentally and spiritually. Hungry, exhausted and disillusioned, he wanted to die. In 2nd reading, Paul talks about his great sorrow & anguish for the tribe of Israel. The Gospel story also presents us wit...

FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD 2023

Dear friends  Today, the scriptures assure us that Jesus Christ is not a myth.  That his message is the most important information ever given to the human race.  His life, his words, his actions, his parables, who he ate with, how he treated sinners and outcasts, his way of living, his way of dying… shows us just what God is like. We are encouraged to learn from and take in, the values embodied by Jesus life, words and actions so that like the disciples  we too can be transfigured into instr...

IS GOD YOUR TREASURE? 17th Sunday OT A

Dear friends  The readings this Sunday challenge us, in no uncertain terms, to point a finger at what we hold to be the most important thing in life. The readings tell us that if there is anything that we should desire most in this life, it must be God, because He is that Eternal Wisdom that was revealed to Solomon.  To the Greeks, this wisdom Sophia’, meant the ability to understand a concept, to analyse something. And to the Hebrews wisdom "chakam’,  is a form of practical knowledge. No...

BEING OUT OF THE KINGDOM: 16th Sunday OT A

Dear friends  The readings this 16th Sunday are focused on the Kingdom of God. This kingdom as revealed in the first reading is one where justice and kindness prevail. The second reading reminds us about the role of the Holy Spirit in helping us communicate with God especially when we struggle to pray. And in the gospel Jesus gives us several parables about the Kingdom of God, including the one about the weeds in the wheat.  Dear friends, as we continue our journey in this life, we should ...

SOWN - THE WORD OF GOD: 15th Sunday OT A

Dear friends  The readings this 15th Sunday in Ordinary time, talk to us about the word of God.  This Sunday we celebrate Christ, The Word of God who sows the seed of God’s word in our hearts. The first reading emphasizes the principle of the word of God. The word that goes from the mouth of God does not return empty, without carrying his will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.  The second reading reveal the inward groan within us that prevents God’s word from bearing fruit within us....

SHOULDER MY YOKE: 14th Sunday OT A

The readings today tell us about humility!  The first reading tells us that Jesus the humble King of kings will come to us humble and riding on a donkey. The second reading tells us that we must be interested in spiritual things because the Spirit of God is in us. But how do we receive the Holy Spirit? Again, we receive the Holy Spirit by becoming humble, by becoming like little children, by becoming like Jesus the child and Son of God, by becoming dependent on God our Father, by putting our...

CALLED TO USE OUR GIFTS: 11th Sunday OT A

The readings remind us of our call by God. He calls us because he loves us and he desires that we spend eternity with Him in heaven. We are reminded that like the Israelites & disciples in the 1st reading & Gospel, we are called to be a people set apart for God, called to follow His commandments and live a life of holiness so as to reflect God's glory.

JESUS, BREAD OF LIFE: CORPUS CHRISTI 2023

THE MYSTERY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

PENTECOST SUNDAY 2023

JESUS THE WAY, TRUTH & LIFE: 5th Sunday Easter A

Brothers and sisters, we all experience fears, worries, and anxieties from time to time because we are prone to fear, anxiety, and worry but mainly due to the fact that our faith is weak and instead of looking at God, too often we look at the problems. Its no wonder the Bible advises us in several places not to worry. Today’s readings tell us not to  worry but place all our trust and hope in Jesus who is the Way to God, the Truth to be accepted, and the Life to be shared and lived. Amen 

THE VOICE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD: 4th Sunday Easter A

THE TWO GREATEST GIFTS: 3rd Sunday Easter A

Last Sunday's Gospel was the Gospel of Doubting Thomas. This Sunday's Gospel is the Gospel of the Confused Disciples.  The readings and psalm this sunday have one common and encouraging theme: That No matter what happens in our lives, the risen Jesus is always with us. God is always near to those who seek Him and want to live in His presence, doing His will.

LET GO OF YOUR ANGER: DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY 2023

HE IS RISEN! ALLELUIA! EASTER 2023

Brothers and sisters, The readings this Sunday lay great stress on the facts of Christ’s Resurrection: Christ has died, but he is not dead. He is alive! He has risen! Alleluia alleluia.  Easter is a day of high expectations. The Scripture readings and songs testify to this. They are full of hope and joy. But when we think about the first Easter Sunday, it wasn’t all hope and joy. Some were distraught, some were unbelieving, some were angry and felt abandoned and some had just given up hope....