Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Official Translation

Reading 1 - Deuteronomy 30.15-20

Moses said to the people:
Behold, I have set before you this day
life and prosperity, death and doom.
For I command you this day
to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways,
and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances,
that you may live and multiply,
and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land you go to possess.

But if your hearts turn away, and you will not hear,
but are drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
I denounce to you this day, that you will surely perish.
You will not prolong your days
in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go to possess.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,
that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.
Therefore choose life, that you may live,
you and your descendants;
to love the Lord your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him;
for he is your life, and the length of your days;
that you may dwell in the land
which the Lord swore to give your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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 9.22-25

Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Human must suffer many things,
and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes,
and be killed, and on the third day be raised up.”

He said to all,
“If anyone desires to come after me,
let them deny themself, take up their cross, and follow me.
For whoever desires to save their life will lose it,
but whoever will lose their life for my sake, they will save it.
For what does it profit a human if they gain the whole world,
yet lose or forfeit themself?