READINGS For THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

FIRST READING
Dt 30:15-20

Behold, I set before you the blessing and the curse (Deuteronomy 11:26).

A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy

Moses said to the people:
   “Today I have set before you
   life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
   which I enjoin on you today,
   loving him, and walking in his ways,
   and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
   you will live and grow numerous,
   and the LORD, your God,
   will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
   but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
   you will not have a long life
   on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
   I have set before you life and death,
   the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
   that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
   heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
   a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
   he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 

R. (Ps 40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Blessed the man who follows not
   the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
   nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
   and meditates on his law day and night.

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

He is like a tree
   planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
   and whose leaves never fade.
   Whatever he does, prospers.

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Not so the wicked, not so;
   they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
   but the way of the wicked vanishes.

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
Mt 1:17

Repent, says the Lord,
the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

GOSPEL
Lk 9:22-25

Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

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

Then he said to all,
   “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
   and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
   but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
   yet lose or forfeit himself?”

At the end of the Gospel, the Deacon, or the Priest, acclaims:

The Gospel of the Lord.

All reply:

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ



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