Friday after Ash Wednesday
Mass Readings
First Reading – Is 58:1-9a
Thus says the Lord GOD: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell My people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek Me day after day, and desire to know My ways, like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God; They ask Me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God. “”Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?”” Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and He will say: Here I am!
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19 (R.19b)
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, You will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in Your goodness;
in the greatness of Your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me. R.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
“Against You only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in Your sight.” R.
For You are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, You would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, You will not spurn. R.
Gospel – Mt 9:14-15
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but Your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Featured Saints
St. Juliana of Nicomedia, virgin and martyr (†fourth century). She was the only Christian in her family, in Nicomedia (Turkey). At 18, having refused to marry a pagan, she was imprisoned and later beheaded.
St. Maruthas, bishop (†a. 420). He presided the Council of Seleucia, restored the churches ruined in the persecutions of King Shapur and collected relics of the martyrs of Persia for veneration in his episcopal See, present-day Silvan, Turkey, which came to be called Martyropolis.
Blessed Nicholas Puglia, priest (+1256). Upon hearing St. Dominic preach in Bologna, he entered the Dominican Order, and became a most faithful companion of his founder. He drew many vocations to the Order and and founded the monastery of Trani and Perugia, where he died.
Blessed Joseph Allamano, priest (†1926). Animated by untiring zeal, he founded the two Congregations of the Missions of the Consolata in Italy: one for men and another for women.
Blessed Francis Toyama Jintaro, martyr (†1624). Samurai noble whose exemplary Christian life was a key factor in the conversion of many people. He was beheaded in Hiroshima, Japan for refusing to renounce the Faith.
Blessed Philippa Mareri, virgin (†1236). Of noble origin, she abandoned worldly riches and splendour, choosing to live on a property belonging to her family in Borgo San Pietro, Italy, following St. Clare’s way of life.
Image gallery
