Liturgical Readings for : Thursday, 15th February, 2024
Lent -Thursday after Ash Wednesday
We are called to make a fresh choice between life and death, to travel on the sea of Lent, to worthily prepare for the death and great resurrection of the Lord Jesus at Easter .
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Deuteronomy 30: 15-30
See, I set before you life or death, blessing or curse.
Moses said to the people:
‘See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster.
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin on you today,
if you love the Lord your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs,
you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to make your own.
‘But if your heart strays, if you refuse to listen,
if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them,
I tell you today, you will most certainly perish;
you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today:
I set before you life or death, blessing or curse.
‘Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give them.’
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1
Response Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
1. Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord, and who ponders his law day and night. Response
2. He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters.
that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper. Response
3. Not so are the wicked, not so! For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind; for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 50:12
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
A pure heart create for me, O God, and give me again the joy of your help.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Or Mt 4:17
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Repent, says the Lord, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 9: 22-25 Glory to you, O Lord
Anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘The Son of Man’ he said ‘is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’
Then to all he said,
‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.
What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Luke 9:22-25
On this second day of Lent, the gospel reading points us ahead to the story of Holy Week. Jesus declares to his disciples that he is ‘destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death’,
and then ‘to be raised on the third day’.
In this gospel of Luke, Jesus speaks these words just before he sets out on his final journey to Jerusalem. This will be a journey to suffering and death on a Roman cross, but, ultimately, it will be a journey to glory, as Jesus passes through death into the hands of his loving Father. In the following scene in Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain, Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah who appeared alongside him were speaking with him about his ‘departure’ or ‘exodus’, his leaving this world and going to his heavenly Father. Because this exodus entails his passion and death, Jesus will soon have to ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem’ (9:51). He will have to steel himself for this journey.
In the gospel reading, Jesus suggests that his disciples will also need a certain steeliness if they are to be faithful to him. As Jesus had to renounce himself, empty himself, to remain faithful to God’s call, so his disciples will often have to renounce themselves to be faithful to his call. Giving ourselves in faithful love to the Lord means giving ourselves in loving service to those whom the Lord loves, which is all humanity. Such self-giving service of others will often mean renouncing our own selves in some way. We die to ourselves so as to live to others. In the gospel reading, Jesus assures us that in taking this path we will save our lives, we will become more alive, more fully the person God created us to be.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
