Friday after Ash Wednesday
We hope that today is a good day.
Today's Bible story based on the calendar of the Catholic Church.Most of these contents are things of The World English Bible.
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+ Saints: St. Claude de la Colombie`re
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Isaiah 58:1-9a
1 "Cry aloud, don't spare. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn't forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.
3 'Why have we fasted,' say they, 'and you don't see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don't notice?' "Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers.
4 Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don't fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?
6 "Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
7 Isn't it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you; and Yahweh's glory will be your rear guard.
9a Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
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Gospel: Matthew 9:14-15
14 Then John's disciples came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don't fast?"15 Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
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* Deuteronomy 4:1-8、32-40
1 Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.
3 Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for all the men who followed Baal Peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from among you.
4 But you who were faithful to Yahweh your God are all alive today.
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it.
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
7 For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him?
8 What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you today?
32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?
33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
34 Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him.
36 Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.
37 Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring*or, seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;
38 to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today.
39 Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else.
40 You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever.
*4:37: or, seed
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