Thursday after Ash Wednesday
FIRST READING: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
15 Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil:
16 That thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and thou mayst live, and he may multiply thee, and bless thee in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
17 But if thy heart be turned away, so that thou wilt not hear, and being deceived with error thou adore strange gods, and serve them:
18 I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain but a short time in the land, to which thou shalt pass over the Jordan, and shalt go in to possess it.
19 I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days,) that thou mayst dwell in the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give it them.
PSALM: Psalms 1: 1-4, 6
1 Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence.
2 But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.
4 Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth.
6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL: Matthew 4: 17
Do penance, says the Lord;
for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
GOSPEL: Luke 9: 22-25
22 Jesus said: The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day rise again.
23 And he said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
24 For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it.
25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and cast away himself?
