Psalter: Week 4
Saint Walfrid
Purple
He was born in Pisa. He married and had five sons and at least one daughter. After a time, they decided to follow the Benedictine Rule of Monte Casino. St. Walfrid’s cultus was confirmed in 1861.
Entrance Antiphon : Cf. Ps 54: 17-20, 23
When I cried to the Lord, he heard my voice; he rescued me from those who attack me. Entrust your cares to the Lord, and he will support you.
Collect
Prompt our actions with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord, and further them with your constant help, that all we do may always begin from you and by you be brought to completion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Deuteronomy 30:15-20
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: Psalm 1:1-4,6
R/ Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners, but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night.
He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade; and all that he does shall prosper.
Not so are the wicked, not so! For they like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind. For the Lord guards the way of the just but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
Gospel Acclamation : Ps50:12,14
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus! A pure heart create for me, O God, and give me again the joy of your help. Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Gospel : Luke 9:22-25
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?’
Prayer over the Offerings
Regard with favour, O Lord, we pray, the offerings we set upon this sacred altar, that, bestowing on us your pardon, our oblations may give honour to your name. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Cf. Ps 50: 12
Create a pure heart for me, O God; renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Prayer after Communion
Having received the blessing of your heavenly gifts, we humbly beseech you, almighty God, that they may always be for us a source, both of pardon and of salvation. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
Following Jesus entails a choice. Every decision contains the potential for life or death, as well as the potential for good or evil. We inherit a blessing if we can listen to our hearts and attend to the voice of God. In the Gospel, Jesus continues to guide the decisions that we must make. Some of his proposals are painful and difficult to implement. However, that is the path that leads to the fullness of life. To follow Jesus, we must take up the cross and deny ourselves. This road entails putting selfish goals aside, tolerating discomforts and fears, and accepting the chance of death. A disciple would pursue this path cheerfully, understanding that life on earth is not for self-gratification but for loving service to God and humankind. Such choices and decisions guide the Lenten journey towards the resurrection, a new and eternal existence.