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
Sts. Francisco, (†1919 Aljustrel – Portugal) and Jacinta Marto (†1920 Lisboa), seers of Our Lady of Fatima, in Portugal. Jacinta, the youngest of the three shepherd children to receive the prophetic message of the Blessed Virgin, died at the age of ten after patiently enduring terrible sufferings, offered for the conversion of sinners. Her brother Francisco passed away before her; the death of both children had been foretold by Our Lady.
St. Tyrannio, bishop (†311). He was instructed in the Christian Faith since his youth and became Bishop of Tyre. He received the palm of martyrdom in Antioch, Syria.
St. Eleutherius, bishop (†530). As bishop of Tournai (Belgium), he preached against the Arian heresey and died as a result of injuries sustained when a group of enraged Arians accosted and beat him.
St. Eucherius of Orleans, bishop (circa 738). Exiled from Orleans by Charles Martel, after being calumniated by envious adversaries, he found refuge in the monastery of Saint-Trond, Belgium, where he spent the rest of his life in prayer and contemplation.
St. Leo, bishop (†c. 787). Benedictine religious elected Bishop of Catania, Italy. He dedicated himself to the care of the poor and also fought against the iconoclasts.
St. Serapion, martyr (†c. 248). After cruel torture he was thrown to his death from a high window of his house, in Alexandria, Egypt, during the time of Emperor Decius.
Blessed Julia Rodzinska, virgin and martyr (+1945). Polish Dominican, dedicated to the education of orphans and homeless. She was imprisoned during the Nazi invasion and sent to a concentration camp, where she died.
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