ASH WEDNESDAY (YEAR C) - FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

ASH WEDNESDAY - Year C

8:00 pm  Multilingual Mass 

(Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.)

First Reading
JOEL 2:12-18

¹² 'But now -- declares Yahweh- come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.'

¹³ Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and he relents about inflicting disaster.

¹⁴ Who knows if he will not come back, relent and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a libation to be presented to Yahweh your God?

¹⁵ Blow the ram's-horn in Zion! Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,

¹⁶ call the people together, summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even infants at the breast! Call the bridegroom from his bedroom and the bride from her bower!

¹⁷ Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, stand weeping between portico and altar, saying, 'Spare your people, Yahweh! Do not expose your heritage to the contempt, to the sarcasm of the nations! Why give the peoples cause to say, "Where is their God?" '

¹⁸ Then, becoming jealous over his country, Yahweh took pity on his people. 

"The Word of the Lord"

PSALMS 50:3-6, 12-14, 17

³ he is coming, our God, and will not be silent. Devouring fire ahead of him, raging tempest around him,

⁴ he summons the heavens from on high, and the earth to judge his people.

⁵ 'Gather to me my faithful, who sealed my covenant by sacrifice.'

⁶ The heavens proclaim his saving justice, 'God himself is judge.'Pause 

¹² 'If I am hungry I shall not tell you, since the world and all it holds is mine.

¹³ Am I to eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴ 'Let thanksgiving be your sacrifice to God, fulfil the vows you make to the Most High; 

¹⁷ when you detest my teaching, and thrust my words behind you? 

Second Reading

2 CORINTHIANS 5:20, 6:2

²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God. 

² As he said, 'At the time of my favour I have answered you; on the day of salvation I have helped you'; well, now is the real time of favour, now the day of salvation is here. 

"The Word of the Lord"

Gospel Reading

MATTHEW 6:1-6, 16-18

¹ 'Be careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention; otherwise you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven.

² So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win human admiration. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.

³ But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing;

⁴ your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.

⁵ 'And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.

⁶ But when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. 

¹⁶ 'When you are fasting, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.

¹⁷ But when you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face,

¹⁸ so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. 

"The Gospel of the Lord"