LIFE AND PROSPERITY, DEATH AND DISASTER

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY: 

LIFE OR DEATH, BLESSING OR CURSE

PRAYER BEFORE HOLY MASS  Act of Love before Mass 

O my God, I love Thee with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength and with no other desire than to be inseparably united to Thee. It is through Thy Divine Son that this union is about to be realized within me. In Holy Communion I long to identify myself with Him, that it will no longer be myself, but Him, who lives in me; and when I have received Jesus within myself, then I shall love and be loved by Thee in that same measure, in which I am united to Him. Hasten then, to give me Thy Divine Son, at the hands of Thy priest, that through Jesus, I may unite myself forever to Thee, O God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.  Lectures 

First Reading(s) Deuteronomy 30:15-20 I set before you today life or death, blessing or curse

Moses said to the people: ‘See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin on you today, if you love the Lord your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to make your own. 

But if your heart strays, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give them.’

Responsorial Psalm: Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord

Gospel  Luke 9:22-25 Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it

Jesus said to his disciples: 

‘The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’ 

Then to all he said: 

‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it. What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?’ Reflections

Your birthday Saint: Saint Katharine Drexel, Religious. May she pray for you as you celerate your birthday.

My God my Father, keep me, protect me. May your Holy Spirit guide my actions. Help me obey your law for my existence depends in keeping your command. Your law will guide me on a right path.  My Father I love you my Lord, my  God. Father I choose life over death, and blessings over curse. God my Father may your presence abide in me. May I obey your commandments for my preservation, and my generation's posterity.

Be with me Lord Jesus Christ as I pick up my daily cross and follow you. My life is your hands O Lord. Lord Jesus Christ I trust in you. Virgin Mary pray for me. Saint Joseph pray for me. God's Holy Angels pray for me. My Angel Guardian pray for me. Protect me. Guide and guard me.

Pray the Holy Rosary. May our Blessed Mother, Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ bring us to her Son Jesus Christ.