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Fri four March

Friday subsequently Ash Wednesday, (commemoration of Saint Casimir)

Get-go reading

Isaiah 58:1-9

The sort of fast that pleases me

Thus says the Lord:
Shout for all you are worth,
 enhance your voice similar a trumpet.
Proclaim their faults to my people,
 their sins to the House of Jacob.

They seek me day later twenty-four hour period,
 they long to know my ways,
like a nation that wants to deed with integrity
 and not ignore the constabulary of its God.

They ask me for laws that are just,
 they long for God to draw near:
'Why should we fast if y'all never see it,
 why do penance if yous never notice?'

Look, you practice business organization on your fast-days,
 you oppress all your workmen;
await, yous quarrel and squabble when you lot fast
 and strike the poor man with your fist.

Fasting similar yours today
 will never make your vocalisation heard on high.
Is that the sort of fast that pleases me,
 a truly penitential day for men?

Hanging your head like a reed,
 lying down on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call fasting,
 a day adequate to the Lord?

Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me
 – it is the Lord who speaks –
to interruption unjust fetters and
 disengage the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,
 and break every yoke,
to share your bread with the hungry,
 and shelter the homeless poor,

to clothe the man you run into to exist naked
 and not turn from your own kin?
Then will your low-cal polish like the dawn
 and your wound be quickly healed over.

Your integrity volition go earlier y'all
 and the glory of the Lord behind you.
Cry, and the Lord will answer;
 call, and he will say, 'I am here.'

Psalm or canticle

Psalm 50(51):3-6,eighteen-19

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
 In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more than from my guilt
 and cleanse me from my sin.

My offences truly I know them;
 my sin is ever before me
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
 what is evil in your sight I take done.

For in sacrifice you take no please,
 burnt offering from me yous would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
 A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.

Gospel

Matthew ix:14-15

When the bridegroom is taken from them, then they will fast

John's disciples came to Jesus and said, 'Why is information technology that we and the Pharisees fast, just your disciples do non?' Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom'south attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is withal with them? Only the time will come up for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and and then they will fast.'

This site copyright © 1996-2022 Universalis Publishing Ltd.

Scripture readings taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a sectionalization of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information almost other Random House, Inc. books and authors, run across the Net spider web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.

Thu three March

Thursday afterward Ash Wednesday

First reading

Deuteronomy 30:xv-twenty

I gear up before you today life or death, approving or curse

Moses said to the people: 'Encounter, today I set before yous life and prosperity, decease and disaster. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin on you today, if yous beloved the Lord your God and follow his means, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will anoint yous in the land which yous are entering to brand your own. But if your eye strays, if you pass up to heed, if y'all let yourself exist drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you volition not live long in the state you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I phone call heaven and world to witness against y'all today: I set before yous life or death, approval or expletive. Choose life, then, and so that y'all and your descendants may live, in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his vocalism, clinging to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the country which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give them.'

Psalm or anthem

Psalm 1:ane-iv,six

Happy indeed is the homo
 who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
 nor sits in the visitor of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
 and who ponders his police day and night.

He is like a tree that is planted
 beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
 and whose leaves shall never fade;
 and all that he does shall prosper.

Not so are the wicked, non so!
For they like winnowed chaff
 shall be driven away past the wind:
for the Lord guards the way of the simply
 but the way of the wicked leads to doom.

Gospel

Luke 9:22-25

Whoever loses his life for my sake will save information technology

Jesus said to his disciples:
'The Son of Human is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and principal priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third mean solar day.'
Then to all he said:
'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take upwardly his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that homo volition save information technology. What gain, then, is it for a homo to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?'

This site copyright © 1996-2022 Universalis Publishing Ltd.

Scripture readings taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information almost other Random Business firm, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.

Wed 2 March

Ash Wednesday

Starting time reading

Joel 2:12-18

Let your hearts exist broken, not your garments torn

'Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks –
come back to me with all your middle,
fasting, weeping, mourning.'
Let your hearts exist broken, non your garments torn,
turn to the Lord your God again,
for he is all tenderness and compassion,
slow to anger, rich in graciousness,
and ready to relent.
Who knows if he will non turn again, will not relent,
will not leave a blessing as he passes,
oblation and libation
for the Lord your God?

Sound the trumpet in Zion!
Order a fast,
proclaim a solemn associates,
call the people together,
summon the community,
assemble the elders,
get together the children,
fifty-fifty the infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his bedroom
and the bride her alcove.
Between vestibule and chantry let the priests,
the ministers of the Lord, lament.
Allow them say,
'Spare your people, Lord!
Practise not make your heritage a affair of shame,
a byword for the nations.
Why should it be said amongst the nations,
"Where is their God?"'

Then the Lord, jealous on behalf of his land,
took compassion on his people.

Psalm or anthem

Psalm 50(51):3-6,12-14,17

Accept mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
 In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
 and cleanse me from my sin.

My offences truly I know them;
 my sin is always earlier me
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
 what is evil in your sight I have done.

A pure heart create for me, O God,
 put a steadfast spirit inside me.
Do non bandage me away from your presence,
 nor deprive me of your holy spirit.

Give me once more the joy of your help;
 with a spirit of fervour sustain me,
O Lord, open my lips
 and my mouth shall declare your praise.

Second reading

2 Corinthians five:20-6:two

Be reconciled to God

We are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were highly-seasoned through us, and the entreatment that we brand in Christ'southward name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless i into sin, and so that in him we might become the goodness of God. As his boyfriend workers, nosotros beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you lot have received. For he says: At the favourable time, I have listened to you; on the day of salvation I came to your help. Well, now is the favourable time; this is the 24-hour interval of salvation.

Gospel

Matthew 6:1-6,16-18

Your Male parent who sees all that is done in secret will reward you

Jesus said to his disciples: 'Be careful non to parade your good deeds before men to attract their detect; by doing this y'all will lose all advantage from your Begetter in heaven. So when you lot give alms, practice non take it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win men'southward admiration. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you lot give alms, your left hand must non know what your correct is doing; your almsgiving must be undercover, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret volition reward you.
'And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they honey to say their prayers standing upward in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to run into them; I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you pray, become to your private room and, when you have close your door, pray to your Father who is in that undercover place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will advantage you.
'When yous fast do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites exercise: they pull long faces to let men know they are fasting. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when yous fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, and then that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is washed in hole-and-corner; and your Begetter who sees all that is washed in secret volition reward you lot.'

This site copyright © 1996-2022 Universalis Publishing Ltd.

Scripture readings taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 past Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line data about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Cyberspace web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.