ASH WEDNESDAY 2016

Wednesday 2nd February:  Ash Wednesday

Evangelium: Mt 6,1-6.16-18

Commentary:

Today we are at the beginning of Lent.

We have forty days to prepare ourselves on Easter.

In the readings of this day we hear the prophet Joel who tells us to turn back tot the Lord (Joel 2, 12-18).

And Saint Paul appeals us  to reconcile with God (Corrint. 5, 20-6,2). In the Gospels (Matthew 6,1-6.16-18), Jesus ask us to be honest.

The ash(cross) that we receive today on our heads, me be a sign to make ourselves sincere for all this.

Thought of the day: Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. (Joel 2:12)

Task for the Day: Do pray even when everything is okay not just asking sg

Thursday 11 th February

Evangelium: Lk 9,22-25

Thought of the Day: Then, speaking 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. Lk 9: 23

Task for the Day: No facebook/instra/other social media for a day

Friday 12 th February – I. Week of Lent

Meditating the Story of the Passion in St. Mark’s Gospel

Mark’s narration can be divided in three main parts:

a)   The trial of Jesus and the dawning of the kingdom of God (Mk. 14:1-52)

b)   The coronation of the King (Mk 14:53-15:47)

c)    The Vindication of the King (Mk 16:1-20)

Through Jesus trial, death and resurrection the Evangelist sees the ascent of the kingdom of God and its full achievement in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Part one: The trial of Jesus and the dawning of the kingdom of God (Mk. 14:1-52)

Evangelium: Mk. 14:1-11

The king is anointed (see Mt. 26:6-13).

1 It was two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by some trick and have him put to death.

2 For they said, ‘It must not be during the festivities, or there will be a disturbance among the people.’

3 He was at Bethany in the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a virulent skin-disease; he was at table when a woman came in with an alabasterjar of very costly ointment, pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the ointment on his head.

4 Some who were there said to one another indignantly, ‘Why this waste of ointment?

5 Ointment like this could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor’; and they were angry with her.

6 But Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. Why are you upsetting her? What she has done for me is a good work.

7 You have the poor with you always, and you can be kind to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me.

8 She has done what she could: she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.

9 In truth I tell you, wherever throughout all the world the gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told as well, in remembrance of her.’

10 Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, approached the chief priests with an offer to hand Jesus over to them.

11 They were delighted to hear it, and promised to give him money; and he began to look for a way of betraying him when the opportunity should occur.

Commentary:

Jesus and the disciples were still staying at Bethany, partly no doubt for safety’s sake and partly because the city itself would be already crowded with Passover pilgrims. Jesus had a last quiet meal in the home of Simon the Leper, possibly their host. Simon (perhaps a leper healed by Jesus) is unknown to us, but was obviously known to Mark’s eyewitness as well as to Mark. Only John tells us that it was Mary of Bethany who anointed Jesus (Jn. 12:3), so possibly Simon was the father of the family. Several rather similar stories of anointing are found in the gospels, but it is unlikely that they describe the same event or the same woman.

        All that we know of this woman is the immense cost of the gift and the very different reactions of the eleven disciples, Jesus and Judas. The eleven were indignant at the waste. All that money could have been used to feed and clothe the poor, which was of course perfectly true. Jesus, however, though he fully recognized the claims of the poor (7), saw a greater priority even than the poor at this moment. Every king in Judah was anointed before his coronation, and this was to be his anointing, not by a prophet but by a woman. But it was more, for it was a symbolic preparation of his body for burial. This woman knew that her king must die; she had understood the gospel. That was why, wherever the gospel was preached in the whole world (another point to delight Mark), her loving sacrifice would be remembered (9).

        But all this was senseless rubbish to Judas. He went at once to the chief priests to find out how much money he could make out of betraying Jesus before it was too late. In the Bible, Judas has no high or patriotic motives; sheer love of money was his downfall, as it has been of many church leaders since, whether in rich or poor countries. That is why Jesus warns so often against the love of money. If Judas could not understand the woman’s action, then he would not understand the cross either. We cannot serve God and Money at the same time (Mt. 6:24).

Thought of the Day: You have the poor with you always, and you can be kind to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me. Mk 14:7

Task for the Day: Give some money to the charity

Saturday 13th February

Evangelium: Lk 5,27-32

Thought of the Day: I have come to call not the upright but sinners to repentance. Lk 5, 32

Task for the Day: If possible, go for the confession today or as soon as possible

Sunday 14th February

Evangelium: Lk 4,1-13

Thought of the Day: No disaster can overtake you, no plague come near your tent; he has given his angels orders about you to guard you wherever you go. Psalms 91: 10-11

Task for the Day: Write a diary about positive things in your life