Thursday after Ash Wednesday
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. Colette Boylet, virgin (†1447). Clarist nun who restored many monasteries of her order to perfect observance of the rule. She died in Ghent, Belgium.
St. Rose of Viterbo, virgin (†1253). A religious of the Third Order of St. Francis with an extraordinary preaching mission; she consummated the short course of her life at the age of eighteen, in Viterbo, Italy.
St. Julian, bishop (†690). He convoked three Councils in Toledo, Spain. In his writings he explained true doctrine, displaying charity and zeal for souls.
St. Chrodegang, bishop (†766). He established that the clergy of the Diocese of Metz follow cloistered observance and an irreproachable rule of life. He was also distinguished by his promotion of liturgical chant.
St. Ollegarius, bishop (†1137). Augustinian religious, Bishop of Barcelona and Archbishop of Tarragona, Spain. He worked toward the restoration of canonical discipline and the reorganization of the Archdiocese.
St. Fridolin, abbot (†eighth century). Born in Ireland, he went on pilgrimage to Wales then to Säckingen, Germany, where he founded two monasteries in honour of St. Hilary.
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