March 4
Friday after Ash Wednesday
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Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
7:45 AM – William Poli / Kathy Kotz
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
Isaiah 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
Pssalms 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19
R. (19b) 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. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
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. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
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. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Gospel Acclamation
See Amos 5:14
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and the Lord will be with you.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
Gospel
Matthew 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.”
“A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.”
Reflection
God uses the Prophet Isaiah to describe what type of fasting he (God) expects from the faithful.
We are used to the idea of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Perhaps we even fast on other days during Lent as a sacrifice. As helpful as a day of fasting can be to focus our prayer on God and others, God tells us that true fasting is about looking out for those around us. “Give food to the hungry, and shelter to the homeless, forgive others their sins, and do not turn your back on them.” I find this type of fasting to be much more difficult to accomplish.
God is speaking to us to remind us that what is truly important to God is how we treat one another. All of us occasionally lack patience with those around us and may disrespect or ignore the needs of others. We must return to those people and make amends for our less than Godly behavior.
Lent is a time that allows us not only to fast so we feel the pain of physical hunger, but also that we fast in the way God describes, in order that we feel the pain of not respecting and taking care of others whom God has created. When we disregard the needs of others, we ignore the needs of God as well.
Peace,
Fr. John
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