Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Jonah 3.1-10

The word of the Lord came to Jonah again, saying,
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,
and preach to it the message that I give you.”
So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh,
according to the Lord’s word.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,
three days’ journey across.
Jonah began to enter into the city
one day’s journey,
and he cried out, and said,
“In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
The people of Nineveh believed God;
and they proclaimed a fast,
and put on sackcloth,
from their greatest even to their least.

The news reached the king of Nineveh,
and he arose from his throne,
and took off his royal robe,
covered himself with sackcloth,
and sat in ashes.
He made a proclamation
and published through Nineveh
by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
“Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock,
taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;
but let them be covered with sackcloth,
both man and animal,
and let them cry mightily to God.
Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way,
and from the violence that is in his hands.
Who knows whether God will not turn and relent,
and turn away from his fierce anger,
so that we might not perish?”

God saw their works,
that they turned from their evil way.
God relented of the disaster
which he said he would do to them,
and he did not do it.

Responsorial – Psalm 51.3-4, 12-13, 18-19 Resp. 19b

R. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin.

R. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a right spirit within me.
Do not cast me out from your presence,
and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

R. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

For you do not delight in sacrifice.
I would give a burnt offering, but you have no pleasure in it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit.
A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

R. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Gospel - Luke 11.29-32

While the crowds were gathering together to Jesus, he began to say,
“This kind is a perverse kind.
It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet.
For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Human be to this kind.
At the judgment, the queen of the south will rise up with the men of this kind,
and will condemn them:
for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon;
and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this kind, and will condemn it:
for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”