PRAYER OF THE DAY

Prayer to St. Joseph for Assistance

O glorious St. Joseph,

you were chosen by God to be the foster father of Jesus,

the most pure spouse of Mary ever Virgin,

and the head of the holy family.

You have been chosen by Christ's Vicar as the heavenly patron and protector of the Church founded by Christ.

Therefore it is with great confidence that I implore your powerful assistance for the whole Church on earth.

Protect in a special manner,

with true fatherly love,

the Pope and all bishops and priests in communion with the See of Peter.

Be the protector of all who labor for souls amid the trials and tribulations of this life,

and grant that all peoples of the world may follow Christ and the Church He founded.

Dear St. Joseph,

accept the offering of myself which I now make to you.

I dedicate myself to your service,

that you may ever be my father, my protector,

and my guide in the way of salvation.

Obtain for me great purity of heart and a fervent love for the spiritual life.

May all my actions, after your example,

be directed to the greater glory of God,

in union with the divine Heart of Jesus,

the immaculate heart of Mary,

and your own paternal heart.

Finally,

pray for me that I may share in the peace and joy of your holy death.

Amen.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

Reading

JER 17:5-10

Thus says the LORD:

Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,

who seeks his strength in flesh,

whose heart turns away from the LORD.

He is like a barren bush in the desert

that enjoys no change of season,

But stands in a lava waste,

a salt and empty earth.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

whose hope is the LORD.

He is like a tree planted beside the waters

that stretches out its roots to the stream:

It fears not the heat when it comes,

its leaves stay green;

In the year of drought it shows no distress,

but still bears fruit.

More tortuous than all else is the human heart,

beyond remedy; who can understand it?

I, the LORD, alone probe the mind

and test the heart,

To reward everyone according to his ways,

according to the merit of his deeds.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Blessed the man who follows not

the counsel of the wicked

Nor walks in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the company of the insolent,

But delights in the law of the LORD

and meditates on his law day and night.

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

He is like a tree

planted 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 so;

they 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.

Gospel

LK 16:19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen

and dined sumptuously each day.

And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,

who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps

that fell from the rich man’s table.

Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.

When the poor man died,

he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.

The rich man also died and was buried,

and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,

he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off

and Lazarus at his side.

And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.

Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,

for I am suffering torment in these flames.’

Abraham replied, ‘My child,

remember that you received what was good during your lifetime

while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;

but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.

Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established

to prevent anyone from crossing

who might wish to go from our side to yours

or from your side to ours.’

He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him

to my father’s house,

for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them,

lest they too come to this place of torment.’

But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.

Let them listen to them.’

He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,

but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

Then Abraham said,

‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,

neither will they be persuaded

if someone should rise from the dead.’“

SAINT OF THE DAY

March 20

Blessed John of Parma (1209-1289)

The seventh general minister of the Franciscan Order, 

John was known for his attempts to bring back the earlier spirit of the Order after the death of St. Francis of Assisi.

He was born in Parma, Italy, in 1209. It was when he was a young philosophy professor known for his piety and learning that God called him to bid good-bye to the world he was used to and enter the new world of the Franciscan Order. After his profession John was sent to Paris to complete his theological studies. Ordained to the priesthood, he was appointed to teach theology at Bologna, then Naples and finally Rome.

In 1245, Pope Innocent IV called a general council in the city of Lyons, France. Crescentius, the Franciscan minister general at the time, was ailing and unable to attend. In his place he sent Father John, who made a deep impression on the Church leaders gathered there. Two years later, when the same pope presided at the election of a minister general of the Franciscans, 

he remembered Father John well and held him up as the man best qualified for the office.

And so, in 1247, John of Parma was elected to be minister general. The surviving disciples of St. Francis rejoiced in his election, expecting a return to the spirit of poverty and humility of the early days of the Order. And they were not disappointed. As general of the Order John traveled on foot, accompanied by one or two companions, to practically all of the Franciscan convents in existence. Sometimes he would arrive and not be recognized, remaining there for a number of days to test the true spirit of the brothers.

The pope called on John to serve as legate to Constantinople, where he was most successful in winning back the schismatic Greeks. Upon his return he asked that someone else take his place to govern the Order. St. Bonaventure, at John's urging, 

was chosen to succeed him. John took up a life of prayer in the hermitage at Greccio.

Many years later, John learned that the Greeks, who had been reconciled with the Church for a time, had relapsed into schism. Though 80 years old by then, 

John received permission from Pope Nicholas IV to return to the East in an effort to restore unity once again. 

On his way, John fell sick and died.

He was beatified in 1781.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will proclaim Your Praise!

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 99 (100)

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

Rejoice in the Lord, all the earth,

and serve him with joy.

Exult as you enter his presence.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

Know that the Lord is God.

He made us and we are his

– his people, the sheep of his flock.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

Cry out his praises as you enter his gates,

fill his courtyards with songs.

Proclaim him and bless his name;

for the Lord is our delight.

His mercy lasts forever,

his faithfulness through all the ages.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

Hymn

Lord, who throughout these forty days

for us didst fast and pray,

teach us with thee to mourn our sins,

and close by thee to stay.

As thou with Satan didst contend

and didst the victory win,

O give us strength in thee to fight,

in thee to conquer sin.

As thou didst hunger bear, and thirst,

so teach us, gracious Lord,

to die to self, and chiefly live

by thy most holy word.

And through these days of penitence,

and through thy Passiontide,

yea, evermore in life and death,

Jesus, with us abide.

Abide with us, that so, this life

of suffering overpast,

an Easter of unending joy

we may attain at last.

Psalm 43 (44)

In time of defeat

It was you who saved us, Lord:

we will praise your name without ceasing.

Our own ears have heard, O God,

and our fathers have proclaimed it to us,

what you did in their days, the days of old:

how with your own hand you swept aside the nations

and put us in their place,

struck them down to make room for us.

It was not by their own swords that our fathers took over the land,

it was not their own strength that gave them victory;

but your hand and your strength,

the light of your face,

for you were pleased in them.

You are my God and my king,

who take care for the safety of Jacob.

Through you we cast down your enemies;

in your name we crushed those who rose against us.

I will not put my hopes in my bow,

my sword will not bring me to safety;

for it was you who saved us from our afflictions,

you who set confusion among those who hated us.

We will glory in the Lord all the day,

and proclaim your name for all ages.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

It was you who saved us, Lord:

we will praise your name without ceasing.

Psalm 43 (44)

Spare us, Lord, do not let your people be put to shame.

But now, God, you have spurned us and confounded us,

so that we must go into battle without you.

You have put us to flight in the sight of our enemies,

and those who hate us plunder us at will.

You have handed us over like sheep sold for food,

you have scattered us among the nations.

You have sold your people for no money,

not even profiting by the exchange.

You have made us the laughing-stock of our neighbours,

mocked and derided by those who surround us.

The nations have made us a by-word,

the peoples toss their heads in scorn.

All the day I am ashamed,

I blush with shame

as they reproach me and revile me,

my enemies and my persecutors.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

Spare us, Lord, do not let your people be put to shame.

Psalm 43 (44)

Arise, Lord!

Redeem us because of your love.

All this happened to us,

but not because we had forgotten you.

We were not disloyal to your covenant;

our hearts did not turn away;

our steps did not wander from your path;

and yet you brought us low,

with horrors all about us:

you overwhelmed us in the shadows of death.

If we had forgotten the name of our God,

if we had spread out our hands before an alien god —

would God not have known?

He knows what is hidden in our hearts.

It is for your sake that we face death all the day,

that we are reckoned as sheep to be slaughtered.

Awake, Lord, why do you sleep?

Rise up, do not always reject us.

Why do you turn away your face?

How can you forget our poverty and our tribulation?

Our souls are crushed into the dust,

our bodies dragged down to the earth.

Rise up, Lord, and help us.

In your mercy, redeem us.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

Arise, Lord!

Redeem us because of your love.

He who reflects on the law of the Lord

– will yield his fruit in due season.

First Reading

Exodus 18:13-27

On the following day, Moses took his seat to administer justice for the people, and from morning till evening they stood round him. Observing what labours he took on himself for the people’s sake, the father-in-law of Moses said to him, ‘Why do you take all this on yourself for the people? Why sit here alone with the people standing round you from morning till evening?’ Moses answered his father-in-law, ‘Because the people come to me to bring their enquiries to God. When they have some dispute they come to me, and I settle the differences between the one and the other and instruct them in God’s statutes and his decisions.’ ‘It is not right’ the father-in-law of Moses said to him ‘to take this on yourself. You will tire yourself out, you and the people with you. The work is too heavy for you. You cannot do it alone. Take my advice, and God will be with you. You ought to represent the people before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them the statutes and the decisions; show them the way they must follow and what their course must be. But choose from the people at large some capable and God-fearing men, trustworthy and incorruptible, and appoint them as leaders of the people: leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens. Let these be at the service of the people to administer justice at all times. They can refer all difficult questions to you, but all smaller questions they will decide for themselves, so making things easier for you and sharing the burden with you. If you do this – 

and may God so command you – 

you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.’

Moses took his father-in-law’s advice and did as he said. Moses chose capable men from the ranks of the Israelites and set them over the people: leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens. They were at the service of the people to administer justice at all times. They referred hard questions to Moses, and decided smaller questions by themselves.

Then Moses allowed his father-in-law to go, and he made his way back to his own country.

Responsory

The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses,

and took some of the spirit that was upon him and put it upon the seventy elders;

when the spirit rested upon them they prophesied,

and the gift of prophecy never left them.

Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people;

when the spirit rested upon them they prophesied,

and the gift of prophecy never left them.

Second Reading

From a treatise on the psalms

by Saint Hilary of Poitiers

The meaning of "the fear of the Lord"

Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. Notice that when Scripture speaks of the fear of the Lord it does not leave the phrase in isolation, as if it were a complete summary of faith. No, many things are added to it, or are presupposed by it. From these we may learn its meaning and excellence. In the book of Proverbs Solomon tells us: If you cry out for wisdom and raise your voice for understanding, if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord. We see here the difficult journey we must undertake before we can arrive at the fear of the Lord.

We must begin by crying out for wisdom.

We must hand over to our intellect the duty of making every decision.

We must look for wisdom and search for it.

Then we must understand the fear of the Lord.

“Fear” is not to be taken in the sense that common usage gives it. Fear in this ordinary sense is the trepidation our weak humanity feels when it is afraid of suffering something it does not want to happen. We are afraid, or made afraid, because of a guilty conscience, the rights of someone more powerful, an attack from one who is stronger, sickness, encountering a wild beast, suffering evil in any form. This kind of fear is not taught: it happens because we are weak. 

We do not have to learn what we should fear: objects of fear bring their own terror with them.

But of the fear of the Lord this is what is written: Come, my children, listen to me, I shall teach you the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord has then to be learned because it can be taught. It does not lie in terror, but in something that can be taught. It does not arise from the fearfulness of our nature; it has to be acquired by obedience to the commandments, 

by holiness of life and by knowledge of the truth.

For us the fear of God consists wholly in love, and perfect love of God brings our fear of him to its perfection. Our love for God is entrusted with its own responsibility: to observe his counsels, to obey his laws, to trust his promises. Let us hear what Scripture says: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God and walk in his ways and love him and keep his commandments with your whole heart and your whole soul, so that it may be well for you?

The ways of the Lord are many, though he is himself the way. When he speaks of himself he calls himself the way and shows us the reason why he called himself the way: No one can come to the Father except through me.

We must ask for these many ways, we must travel along these many ways, to find the one that is good. That is, we shall find the one way of eternal life through the guidance of many teachers. These ways are found in the law, in the prophets, in the gospels, in the writings of the apostles, in the different good works by which we fulfil the commandments. 

Blessed are those who walk these ways in the fear of the Lord.

Responsory

Those who fear the Lord try to do his will;

and all who love him steep themselves in the law.

He shows mercy to those who fear him, from one generation to another;

and all who love him steep themselves in the law.

Let us pray.

Lord God,

you love innocence of heart,

and when it is lost you alone can restore it.

Turn then our hearts to you,

and kindle in them the fire of your Spirit,

so that we may be steadfast in faith

and unwearied in good works.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Let us praise the Lord.

– Thanks be to God.