Thursday of the Second Week in Lent

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Jeremiah 17.5-10

Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the man who trusts in man,
and makes flesh his arm,
and whose heart departs from the Lord.
For he shall be like the heath in the desert,
and shall not see any good come,
but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
a salt land and uninhabited.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
and whose trust is the Lord.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
that spreads out its roots by the river,
and shall not fear when heat comes,
but its leaf shall be green;
and shall not be worried in the year of drought,
and shall not cease from yielding fruit.

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and it is exceedingly corrupt:
who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the mind,
I test the heart,
to give to every man
according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.

Responsorial – Psalm 1.1-2, 3, 4+6 Resp. 40.5a

R. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.

Blessed is the man who does not walk
in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stand on the sinners’ path,
nor sit in the scoffers’ seat,
but whose delight is in the Lord’s law.
On his law he meditates day and night.

R. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.

He will be like a tree
planted by the streams of water,
that produces its fruit in its season,
whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does shall prosper.

R. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.

The wicked are not so,
but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
For the Lord watches the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked shall perish.

R. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.

Gospel – Luke 16.19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“Now there was a certain rich man,
clothed in purple and fine linen,
living in luxury every day.
A certain beggar, named Lazarus,
lay at his gate, full of sores,
desiring to be fed with the crumbs
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

The beggar died,
and he was carried away by the angels
to Abraham’s bosom.
The rich man also died, and was buried.
In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment,
and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his bosom.
He cried and said,
‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me,
and send Lazarus,
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water,
and cool my tongue!
For I am in anguish in this flame.’
“But Abraham said, ‘Child,
remember that you, in your lifetime,
received your good things,
and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things.
But now here he is comforted
and you are in anguish.
Besides all this, between us and you
there is a great gulf fixed,
that those who want to pass
from here to you are not able,
and that no one may cross over from there to us.’

“He said, ‘Then I beg you, father,
to send him to my father’s house;
for I have five brothers,
that he may testify to them,
so they will not also come into this place of torment.’
“But Abraham said to him,
‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
“He said, ‘No, father Abraham,
but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen
to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if one rises from the dead.’”