Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Feb. 11, 2016)

Reading 1 and//www.usccb.org/bible/deuteronomy/30:15 DT 30:15-20 Moses said to the peopleand Today I have set before youlife 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 perishyou will not have a long lifeon the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.I call heaven and earth today to witness against youandI 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 sworehe would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Responsorial Psalm and//www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/1and1 PS 1and1-2, 3, 4 AND 6 R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. Blessed the man who follows notthe counsel of the wickedNor walks in the way of sinners,nor sits in the company of the insolent,But delights in the law of the LORDand meditates on his law day and night. R.Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. He is like a treeplanted 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 sothey 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. Verse Before The Gospel and//www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/4:17 MT 4:17 Repent, says the Lordthe Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Gospel and//www.usccb.org/bible/luke/9:22 LK 9:22-25 Jesus said to his disciplesand The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejectedby 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 himselfand 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 worldyet lose or forfeit himself?”