Oct 5 Monday: St. Faustina Kowalska, (Virgin); Blessed
Francis Xavier Seelos, Priest (USA): Luke 10:25-37
(The Good Samaritan) emphasises that true discipleship means
radical, active love for God and neighbour, redefining “neighbour” as anyone in
need, regardless of background, mirroring Christ’s compassion, and calls us to
go beyond good intentions to concrete action, embodying mercy as Jesus did,
with early Church Fathers seeing Christ as the ultimate Good Samaritan saving
fallen humanity. It highlights that salvation comes through loving God and neighbour,
as exemplified by the Samaritan’s selfless care, challenging our tribalism and
urging us to “go and do likewise”.
Explanation: Love as the Core: The passage
answers the lawyer’s question about eternal life by defining it as loving God
and your neighbour as yourself (Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18). This love is not a
feeling but an active choice to do good. Redefining “Neighbour”: Jesus shatters
the lawyer’s narrow view (neighbour = fellow Jew) by making the despised
Samaritan the hero. A neighbour is anyone in distress, showing that love
transcends religious, ethnic, or social boundaries. Christ as the Good
Samaritan: Early Church Fathers (Origen, Augustine) saw the parable
allegorically: Man going down: All humanity, fallen from grace (Jerusalem to
Jericho). Robbers: Satanic forces attacking humanity. Samaritan: Christ, moved
by compassion, healing, and bringing us to the Church (the inn). Promise to
return: Christ’s Second Coming. Action, Not Just Intention: The priest and
Levite passed by, showing good intentions aren’t enough. The Samaritan’s
practical, costly actions (oil, wine, lodging, money) demonstrate true faith. A
Call to Be Merciful: The story is a direct command to extend mercy and
compassion, becoming the hands and feet of Christ to the suffering in our
world, seeing others with “compassionate eyes”.
Life messages:
1) See with Jesus’ Eyes: Look at others, especially the marginalised,
with compassion, not judgment.
2)Act, Don’t Just Scroll By: Respond to suffering with
tangible help, even when inconvenient.
3)Embrace the “Outsider”: Recognise that those outside our
usual circles might be the ones God calls us to help most.
4)Love God Through Neighbour: Our love for God is proven by
how we treat the wounded and forgotten.
Oct 6 Tuesday; St. Bruno, Priest; Blessed Marie Rose
Durocher, Virgin (USA): Lk 10:38-42:
The context: Today’s readings are about
hospitality and the necessity of listening to God before acting. Jesus welcomed
and tended to the needs of all, reflecting in His actions the very hospitality
of God. All four Gospels recount Jesus’ welcoming and feeding of the multitudes
of people who came to hear the Good News. The Gospel passage describes how
Martha, a true child of Abraham, wanted to extend the traditional generous
hospitality of her people to Jesus, the true Messiah, by preparing an elaborate
meal, while her sister Mary spent her time in talking and listening to Jesus.
Jesus’ advice: The episode is also intended to teach us
where we should place our priorities. Presenting Martha as a dynamo of action
and Mary as a true listener to the word of God, today’s Gospel invites us to
serve others with Martha’s diligence, after recharging our spiritual batteries
every day by prayer, listening to God and talking to God as Mary did. We are
able to minister truly to the needs of others only after welcoming God’s words
into our hearts, minds, and living.
Life messages: 1) We need to recharge our
spiritual batteries: Without the “fuel” of prayer, silence, and communion with
God, service can become a crushing responsibility, a burden rather than a
vocation, an annoyed grumbling rather than a response to the invitation of God.
2) We need listening Marthas and serving Marys: Martha has
become a symbol of action-oriented, responsible people who get the job done.
Our world needs such men, women, boys and girls who get the job done. This is
certainly true in the Church where we need the active cooperation of many
parishioners in its various ministries. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Oct 7 Wednesday: Our Lady of the Rosary: Lk 1:26-38:
This feast was established by Pope St. Pius V in
thanksgiving for the victory at Lepanto, 7 Oct 1571, which stopped the Turkish
invasion of Europe. Importance: The word Rosary means “Crown
of Roses,” and each prayer in the Rosary is considered a flower presented to
Mary. It is called the “Breviary of the Common People” and the “Psalms of the
Illiterate” and “a compendium of the Gospel,” Pope Pius XII) The prayers we
repeat are Biblical and hence “inspired,” and the mysteries we meditate upon
are taken from the lives of Jesus and Mary. The “Our Father” is a prayer taught
by Jesus Himself. The “Hail Mary” is also rooted in the Scriptures. Its first
half echoes the words of the Archangel Gabriel and those of Elizabeth, both
addressed to Mary. The rest of our petition, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death” is added by the
Church, seeking Mary’s intercession for all of us. The third prayer — the
“Glory be to the Father….” — ancient in its wording, surely reflects the
unceasing prayer of adoration and praise found in the Book of Revelation. The
various events in the lives of Jesus and Mary on which we meditate during the
Rosary are expressions of the Paschal Mystery, that is, the Life, Death,
Resurrection, Ascension of Jesus to Heaven and Decent of the Holy Spirit, in
which Mary shared.
History: Prayer using rosary beads is as old as
mankind. The Hindus in India used to recite the thousand names of their gods
and goddesses and their “mantra” prayers using multi-beaded rosaries, and their
sages wear such rosaries around the neck, constantly rolling the beads in
prayer. The Jews used beads to repeat the psalms, the Laws of Moses and the
memorized sayings of the prophets. The Muslims use rosaries with a hundred
beads for their prayer. In the ninth century, the Christian monks who recited
the 150 psalms instructed the illiterate common people to recite the Our
Father 150 times. It was in the eleventh century that the Europeans
added the Hail Mary to the Our Father. In 1214,
according to the legend, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic
Guzman, founder of the Order of Preachers, commonly known now as the Dominicans
and instructed him to pray the Rosary in a new form as an effective antidote
against the Albigensian heresy. The Rosary devotion attained its present form
around 1500 A.D. An additional boost to the Rosary devotion was given in 1917,
when our Blessed Mother, in her sixth apparition to the three shepherd
children, on the thirteenth of May, asked them to, “Say the Rosary every
day… Pray, pray a lot and offer sacrifices for sinners… I am Our Lady of the
Rosary.” The “Fatima prayer” (O my Jesus forgive us our
sins, save us from the fires of Hell and lead all souls to Heaven, especially
those who are most in need of Your mercy), requested by Mary herself
at Fatima (July 13, 1917), was added following the “Glory be…” after the 1930
acceptance by the Bishop of the apparitions as genuine. Pope St. John Paul II
enriched the Rosary by adding the “Luminous Mysteries” (Rosarium
Virginis Mariae).
How to pray the Rosary: The ideal is to recite
at least five decades of the Rosary (and if possible, the entire twenty), with
one’s whole family daily. We need to say the Rosary slowly enough to make its
recitation devout and reverent. We are to reflect for a minute or two on the
mystery, and then concentrate on the meaning of the prayers as we say them, to
avoid distractions. Besides saying the Rosary with others in the family before
bedtime, let us make it a habit of reciting the Rosary during our journey to
the workplace and during our exercises. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Oct 8 Thursday: Lk 11:5-13:
The context: After teaching a model prayer,
Jesus instructs his disciples to pray to God their Heavenly Father with the
same boldness, daring, intimacy, conviction, persistence, and perseverance that
both Abraham and the “friend in need” in the parable used. Jesus gives us the
assurance that God will not be irritated by our requests, nor will He be
unwilling to meet them with generosity. Jesus stresses the power of
intercessory prayer and the necessity for persistence, perseverance, trusting
Faith, and the boldness of Faith in our prayer.
The parable: By presenting the parable of the “friend
in need,” Jesus emphasizes our need for that persistent and persevering prayer
which acknowledges our total dependence on God. In the ancient Hebrew world,
hospitality was the essence of one’s goodness, and, hence, to welcome a visitor
without food and drink was unthinkable. A traveler who was traveling in the
evening to avoid the heat of the afternoon might well arrive late at night. So,
in this parable, when a man received an unexpected guest late at night and found
his cupboard bare, he went to the man next door, woke him up, and asked him for
a loaf of bread. Because of the persistence of his neighbor, Jesus says, the
householder, though not willing to get up for friendship’s sake, would get up
and give him the bread he needed for his guest. This parable of Friend at
Midnight is both an assurance that prayer is always answered and an
encouragement to pray. This parable stresses the necessity for our persisting
in prayer as the expression of our total dependence on God. St. Paul
says, “Be constant in prayer” (Rom 12:12), “pray at all times” (Eph
6:18), “be steadfast in prayer” (Col 4:2), and “pray constantly” (2 Thes 5:17). Jesus
assures us, “Knock and the door will be opened”(Lk 11: 10).
Life messages: We need to stop giving lame
excuses for not praying. Modern Christians give four lame excuses for not
praying: 1) We are “too busy.” This excuse should send us to our priorities
list, where God needs to be first of all, if we are to be able to live in His
peace. That settled, we will find that prayer in every form is our living
connection with Him through which He gives us Grace, fills us with His love for
us, and helps us to become our true selves. Then, with His help, we will be
able to discern the truly important things in our lives and eliminate the
unimportant and/or distracting, debilitating, and useless items. 2) We “don’t
believe that prayer does that much good, other than giving us the psychological
motivation to be better persons.” Such people forget the fact that
prayer establishes and augments our responsive relationship with God, the
Source of our power. 3) “A loving God should provide for us and protect
us from the disasters of life, such as diseases or accidents, without our
asking Him.” True – and He does! Prayer is not meant to inform God; it
expresses our awareness of our need for God Who loves us unconditionally, and
of our trusting dependence upon Him. Further, if we haven’t asked Him for what
we need, we may well not recognize it when He gives it to us! 4) “Prayer
is boring.” People who use this excuse forget the fact that prayer is
a conversation with God: listening to God speaking to us through the Bible and
talking to God through personal and family prayers. We can’t have a close
relationship with anyone, including God, without persistent and intimate
conversation. ((https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Oct 9 Friday: St. Denis, Bishop and Companion
Martyrs; St. John Leonardi, Priest: Lk 11:15-26:
The context: When Jesus healed a mute man by
exorcism, the jealous scribes and the Pharisees spread the malicious slander
that Jesus was collaborating with Beelzebul, the head of the devils, to cast
out smaller devils. Jesus’ response: Jesus makes his
counterattack, first by asking the rhetorical question “By whom do your
sons (the Jewish exorcists), cast them out?” The
implication is that, if what they say about Him, Who casts them out with a
single command, is true, the Jewish exorcists, who require so much more prayer
and so many more exercises to do exorcisms, must certainly have to seek the
help of the big devil to exorcise minor devils. Then Jesus asserts that no
kingdom, divided against itself, can survive for long. Obviously, then, the
chief devil will not help any exorcists to cast out devils. Jesus then claims
that His exorcisms are proof that He has brought the Kingdom of God. When
people are liberated from the control of evil spirits, it is a sure sign that
the loving power of God (the finger of God), is at work. Then Jesus uses
the image of a strong man guarding his house and keeping his possessions safe
until someone stronger attacks and overthrows him. Jesus claims that Jesus is
the stronger one driving away the evil spirits. They are helpless before him.
This liberation of people and society from evil powers is one of the most
dramatic proofs that the all-powerful reign of God is present in the Person of
Jesus.
Life messages: 1) Jesus teaches us that the
devil is relentless in his struggle against man. The devil continues to lay his
traps, in spite of man’s rejecting him with the help of grace. That is why St.
Peter warns us to be sober and vigilant because, “your adversary the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm
in your Faith” (1 Pt 5:8-9). 2) We have to fortify ourselves against
the devil by prayer, penance, the Sacraments, and the effective use of the word
of God. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Oct 10 Saturday: Lk 11:27-28:
The context: A woman in the audience was so
impressed by Jesus’ powerful refutation of the slander (that Jesus collaborated
with the devil in exorcisms), that she shouted a blessing, praising the mother
of Jesus: “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you
sucked!” She meant that any woman would be proud to have such a great
son. Jesus tells her that His mother is more blessed for obeying the word of
God throughout her life.
The reason for real blessedness: Completing the truth of the
blessing the woman had pronounced, Jesus states that the real source of
blessedness is the willingness to hear and the readiness to obey, the word of
God. Mary heard God’s message at the Annunciation, and her prompt response was,
“I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk
1:38). That is why she could boldly proclaim to her cousin Elizabeth
in her canticle, “All generations will call me blessed”(Lk
1:48). No one listened more attentively to the word of God than Mary
did. She was absolutely obedient, humble, loving and faithful. Jesus clarified
the same truth on another occasion, stating that his “mother and brothers
and sisters are those who hear the word of God and do it (Lk 8:21), just as
Mary had always done. In today’s Gospel, Jesus declares that that those who
hear God’s word and keep it are more blessed than those who are related to Him
only by blood.
Life messages: 1) We become the members of the
Heavenly family of the Triune God, that is, we are made children of God and
brothers and sisters of Jesus, by our Baptism. But it is our fidelity in
hearing the word of God and in putting that word into practice in our daily
lives that makes us really blessed. What makes a person happy in this life and
in the life to come is precisely the fulfillment of God’s will, as we learn
through the attentive reading of, and listening to, His words. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
