Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Optional memorial of St. Polycarp, bishop and martyr. Apostolic Father, disciple of St. John the Evangelist and friend of St. Ignatius of Antioch; he was martyred in Smyrna, in present-day Turkey, in the year 155.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Dt 30:15-20
Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving Him, and walking in His ways, and keeping His commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore He would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 (R. 40:5a)
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on His law day and night. R.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers. R.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes. R.
Gospel – Lk 9:22-25
Jesus said to His disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then He said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”
Featured Saints
St. John, monk (†eleventh century). His mother was brought as a slave by the Saracens to Palermo, Italy, shortly before his birth. She instructed him in the Christian Faith and when he had reached age fourteen, she sent him to his ancestral city. He joined the Basilian monks of that region, attracted by their heroic lives; he stood out for his virtue and contemplative spirit.
St. Milburga, virgin (†circa 722). Daughter of King Merewalh of Mercia, in present-day England. She abandoned worldly riches, embraced religious life and founded the Monastery of Wenlock of which she was abbess.
Blessed Nicolas Tabouillot, priest and martyr (†1795). Parish priest of the Diocese of Verdun, imprisoned in a galley in Rochefort during the French Revolution where he became ill and died.
Blessed Louis Mzyk, priest and martyr (†1942). Religious from the Congregation of the Divine Word; during the Nazi occupation he was taken to Fort VII, in Poznan, Poland, where he was tortured and killed out of religious hatred.
Blessed Vincent Frelichowski, priest and martyr (†1945). His faith remained steadfast despite incarceration in several prisons. He died in the concentration camp of Dachau, Germany, after caring for many sick companions.
Blessed Rafaela Ybarra, religious (†1900). Mother of seven children, she obtained her husband’s permission to take religious vows and founded the Institute of the Sisters of the Holy Guardian Angels in Bilbao, Spain.
St. Josephine Vannini, virgin (†1911). Foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Camillus in Rome.
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