Mass Readings - Sunday, 22nd March 2020

First Reading              1Samuel 16:1. 6-7, 10-13
David is anointed king of Israel.

The lord said to Samuel, ‘Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending
you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen myself a king among his
sons.’ When Samuel arrived, he caught sight of Eliab and thought,
‘Surely the Lord’s anointed one stands there before him’, but the
Lord said to Samuel, ‘Take no notice of his appearance or his height
for I have rejected him; God does not see as man sees; man looks at
appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.’ Jesse presented his
seven sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not
chosen these.’ He then asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you
have?’ He answered, ‘There is still one left, the youngest; he is out
looking after the sheep.’ Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send for him;
we will not sit down to eat until he comes.’ Jesse had him sent for, a
boy of fresh complexion, with fine eyes and pleasant bearing. The
Lord said, ‘Come, anoint him, for this is the one.’ At this, Samuel took
the horn of oil and anointed him where he stood with his brothers;
and the spirit of the Lord seized on David and stayed with him from
that day on.

The Word of the Lord.



Responsorial Psalm    Ps 32

Response:   The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

1. The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose.
Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit.

2. He guides me along the right path;
he is true to his name.
If I should walk in the valley of darkness
no evil would I fear.
You are there with your crook and your staff;
with these you give me comfort.

3. You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing.

4. Surely goodness and kindness
shall follow me all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever.



Second Reading              Ephesians 5:8-14
Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like
children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete
goodness and right living and truth. Try to discover what the Lord
wants of you, having nothing to do with the futile works of darkness
but exposing them by contrast. The things which are done in secret
are things that people are ashamed even to speak of; but anything
exposed by the light will be illuminated and anything illuminated
turns into light.
That is why it is said:
Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead,
Christ will shine on you.

The Word of the Lord.



Gospel Acclamation     Jn 8:12

Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have eternal life.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !



Gospel               John 9:1-41
He went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
for him to have been born blind?’ ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned,’
Jesus answered ‘he was born blind so that the works of God might
be displayed in him.
‘As long as the day lasts
I must carry out the work of the one who sent me;
the night will soon be here when no one can work.
As long as I am in the world
I am the light of the world.’
Having said this, he spat on the ground, made a paste with the
spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man. and said to him, ‘Go
and wash in the Pool of Siloam (a name that means ‘sent’). So the
blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his
sight restored.
His neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said,
‘Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘Yes, it is the
same one’. Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him’. The man himself
said, ‘I am the man’. So they said to him, ‘Then how do your eyes
come to be open?’ ‘The man called Jesus’ he answered ‘made a
paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me, “Go and wash at
Siloam”; so I went, and when I washed I could see.’ They asked,
‘Where is he?’ ‘I don’t know’ he answered.
They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. It had
been a sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the
man’s eyes, so when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to
see, he said, ‘He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can
see’. Then some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man cannot be from
God: he does not keep the sabbath’. Others said, ‘How could a
sinner produce signs like this?’ And there was disagreement among
them.
So they spoke to the blind man again, ‘What have you to say about
him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?’ ‘He is a prophet’
replied the man. However, the Jews would not believe that the man
had been blind and had gained his sight, without first sending for his
parents and asking them, ‘Is this man really your son who you say
was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?’ His parents
answered, ‘We know he is our son and we know he was born blind,
but we don’t know how it is that he can see now, or who opened his
eyes. He is old enough: let him speak for himself.’ His parents spoke
like this out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to expel
from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the
Christ. This was why his parents said, ‘He is old enough; ask him’.
So the Jews again sent for the man and said to him, ‘Give glory to
God! For our part, we know that this man is a sinner.’ The man
answered, ‘I don’t know if he is a sinner; I only know that I was blind
and now I can see’. They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How
did he open your eyes?’ He replied, ‘I have told you once and you
wouldn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want
to become his disciples too?’ At this they hurled abuse at him: ‘You
can be his disciple,’ they said ‘we are disciples of Moses: we know
that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don’t know where
he comes from’. The man replied, ‘Now here is an astonishing thing!
He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from!
We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does listen to
men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is
unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born
blind; if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing.’ ‘Are
you trying to teach us,’ they replied ‘and you a sinner through and
through, since you were born!’ And they drove him away.
Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he
said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Sir,’ the man
replied ‘tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said,
‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you’. The man said, ‘Lord, I
believe’, and worshipped him.
Jesus said: ‘It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so
that those without sight may see and those with sight turn blind’.
Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, ‘We are
not blind, surely?’
Jesus replied: ’Blind? If you were, you would not be guilty, but since
you say, “We see”, your guilt remains.

The Gospel of the Lord

Bulletin - Sunday, 22nd March 2020

CHURCH OF ST. JOSEPH - PLENTONG

5 WAYS TO GET THE MOST OUT OF TELEVISED MASS

1. Put God First

Schedule your Mass hour when planning your Sunday, rather than hoping for “free time” which may never come. Make yourself available for the whole broadcast, instead of stopping and starting to fit around your other priorities. Resist the temptation to make yourself “Lord” of the Mass.

“The Sabbath brings everyday work to a halt and provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money.” (CCC 2172)

2. Prepare your Prayer Space

Look at the area where you plan to watch the broadcast. Is it suitably quiet and tidy so you can pray without distraction? Can you enhance the atmosphere, eg., light a candle or dim the room lights?

3. Prepare your body

Physical circumstances put us in the right frame of mind. Before turning on the broadcast, satisfy your body’s needs (e.g. bathroom, hunger). Avoid snacking during the broadcast.

While you need not put on “Mass clothes”, simple actions such as washing your face and changing into a clean shirt can help you feel refreshed and ready to pray.

Pray the Mass by making the appropriate hand gestures (eg. signs of the Cross) even if you do not adopt the bodily postures (eg. standing for the Gospel) or sing the hymns.

4. Be Present

Resist the urge to multitask. Close the other apps on your computer, especially instant messaging. Free yourself from the slavery of always needing to feel “connected”. This is your time to connect with Christ. Similarly, reject the temptation to be “efficient” by watching Mass while doing the household chores.

Prayer “is an absolute waste of time, it is a sharing into the waste of time which is the interior life of the Godhead… [God] is love, and his life is not like the life of the worker or artist but of lovers wasting time with each other uselessly.” (Fr. Herbert McCabe OP)

Family needs (e.g. care of infants or the elderly) are legitimate reasons for pausing the Mass broadcast, but do return as soon as possible.

5. Spiritual Communion

Since you cannot receive Holy Communion, pray a Spiritual one. The prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori is recommended; but feel free to express its sentiments in your own words:

“My Jesus, I believe that you are in the Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things, and I long for you in my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. As though you have already come, I embrace you and unite myself entirely to you; never permit me to be separated from you. Amen.”

While the suspension of public Masses nationwide is a tragic necessity, this is also our opportunity to stand in solidarity with Christians around the world who do not have the chance to keep the Sabbath holy, or to attend Sunday worship. Let us pray fervently as a diocese for an end to the COVID-19 epidemic and a swift resumption of public Mass.

Prepared by: Ms. Estella Young, OP - Lay Fraternity of St. Francis de Capillas, S’pore.

Bulletin - Sunday, 15th March 2020

Mass Readings - Sunday, 15th March 2020

FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Exodus    17:3-7
Give us water to drink.

Tormented by thirst, the people complained against Moses. ‘Why did
you bring us out of Egypt?’ they said. ‘Was it so that I should die of
thirst, my children too, and my cattle?’ Moses appealed to the Lord.
‘How am I to deal with this people? he said. ‘A little more and they
will stone me!’
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take with you some of the elders of Israel
and move on to the forefront of the people; take in your hand the
staff with which you struck the river, and go. I shall be standing
before you there on the rock, at Horeb. You must strike the rock, and
water will flow from it for the people to drink.’ This is what Moses did,
in the sight of the elders of Israel. The place was named Massah and
Meribah because of the grumbling of the sons of Israel and because
they put the Lord to the test by saying,’Is the Lord with us, or not?’

The Word of the Lord



Responsorial Psalm     Ps 94

Response: O that today you would listen to his voice.
                   Harden not your hearts.

1. Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.

2. Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.

3. O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’



SECOND READING
A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Romans    5:1-2. 5-8
The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit
which has been given us.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and
at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we
have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about
looking forward to God’s glory. and this hope is not deceptive,
because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the
Holy Spirit which has been given us. We were still helpless when at his
appointed moment Christ died for sinful men. It is not easy to die
even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy,
a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves
us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

The Word of the Lord



Gospel Acclamation    Jn 4: 42.15

Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
Lord, you are really the saviour of the world; give me the living water,
so that I may never get thirsty.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !



GOSPEL
A reading from the Gospel according to John    4:5-42
A spring inside him, welling up to eternal life’

Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that

Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there and Jesus, tired

by the journey, sat straight down by the well. It was about the sixth

hour When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to

her, ‘Give me a drink’. His disciples had gone into the town to buy

food. The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘What? You are a Jew and

you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ – Jews, in fact, do not

associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied:

If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you:

Give me a drink,  you would have been the one to ask,

and he would have given you living water’.

‘You have no bucket, sir,’ she answered ‘and the well is deep: how

could you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our

father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his

sons and his cattle?’ Jesus replied ‘Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again;

but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again:

the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life’.

‘Sir,’ said the woman ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty 

and never have to come here again to draw water.’ ‘Go and call your husband’

said Jesus to her ‘and come back here.’ The woman answered, ‘I have no husband’. 

He said to her, ‘You are right to say, “I have no husband”; for although you

have had five, the one you have now is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.’ 

‘I see you are a prophet, sir’ said the woman.

‘Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place 

where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said:

‘Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father

neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know:

for salvation comes from the Jews.

But the hour will come – in fact it is here already –

when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth:

that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants.

God is spirit,   and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.’

The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah – that is, Christ – is

coming; and when he comes he will tell us everything’. ‘I who am

speaking to you,’ said Jesus ‘I am he.’

At this point his disciples returned, and were surprised to find him

speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, ‘What do you

want from her?’ or, ‘Why are you talking to her?’ The woman put

down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people.

‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I

wonder if he is the Christ?’ This brought people out of the town and

they started walking towards him.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, do have

something to eat; but he said, ‘I have food to eat that you do not

know about’. So the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone

been bringing him food?’ But Jesus said:

‘My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.

Have you not got a saying: Four months and then the harvest?  Well, I tell you:

Look around you, look at the fields;  already they are white, ready for harvest!

Already the reaper is being paid his wages, already he is bringing in the grain 

for eternal life, and thus sower and reaper rejoice together. For here the proverb

holds good: one sows, another reaps;  I sent you to reap a harvest you had not 

worked for.  Others worked for it; and you have come into the rewards of their 

trouble.’  Many Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of

the woman’s testimony when she said, ‘He told me all I have ever done’, 

so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. 

He stayed for two days, and when he spoke to them many more came to believe; 

and they said to the woman, ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; 

we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world’.

The Gospel of the Lord

Suspension of Masses and other Public Gatherings

 
 

EXPRERIENCING THE LOVE OF GOD & FREEDOM IN THE FAMILY

Bulletin - Sunday, 08th March 2020

LENT 2020: CALL TO AN ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION

No.1 of the 6Rs: REFUSE. Plastics are killing marine and land animals. Microplastics are poisoning our water, our food and our children. The average Malaysian uses 16.8 kg of plastics a year. Let us start refusing to use/sell/buy: (1) single-use plastic bags, cutlery, bottled water, wrappers, containers, etc. (Take your own containers to the market/shop.) (2) any products made from endangered species eg ivory, corals, tortoise shells, sharks’ fin, etc. May God accept our sacrifice to build His Kingdom on Earth. 

Mass Readings - Sunday, 08th March 2020

FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Genesis    12:1-4
The call of the people of God.

The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your
father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great
nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be
used as a blessing.
‘I will bless those who bless you: I will curse those who slight you.
All the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you.’
So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him.

The Word of the Lord


Responsorial Psalm    Ps 32

Response:  May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place all our hope in you.

l. The word of the Lord is faithful
and all his works to be trusted.
The Lord loves justice and right
and fills the earth with his love.

2. The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.

3. Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is our help and our shield,
May your love be upon us, 0 Lord,
as we place all our hope in you.



SECOND READING
A reading from the second letter of St Paul to Timothy    1:8-10
God calls and enlightens us.

With me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying
on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy –
not because of anything we ourselves have done but for his own
purpose and by his own grace.
This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before
the beginning of time, but it has only been revealed by the
Appearing of our saviour Christ Jesus.
He abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality
through the Good News.

The Word of the Lord


Gospel Acclamation    Mt 17:5

Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
From the bright cloud the Father’s voice was heard
‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !



GOSPEL
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 17:1-9
His face shone like the sun.

Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led

them up a high mountain where they could be alone. There in their

presence he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his

clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly Moses and Elijah

appeared to them; they were talking with him. Then Peter spoke to

Jesus. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘it is wonderful for us to be here; if you wish, I will

make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’

He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them

with shadow, and from the cloud there came a voice which said,

‘This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.’

When they heard this the disciples fell on their faces overcome with

fear. But Jesus came up and touched them. ‘Stand up,’ he said ‘do

not be afraid.’ And when they raised their eyes they saw no one but only Jesus.

As they came down from the mountain Jesus gave them this order.
“Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”

The Gospel of the Lord