The 19th of February, 2021 is the Friday after Ash Wednesday. The Bible scriptures for the holy mass readings for this day came from the 2021 Liturgical Calendar.
Reading 1: IS 58:1-9A
The first reading from the Book of Isaiah.
“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.
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.
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘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.
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.
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?”
“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?
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?
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.
Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’_”
Responsorial Psalm: PS 51:1-2, 3-4AB, 16-17
Response: O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.
R: O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.
Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight.
R: O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
R: O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
Verse Before Gospel: AM 5:14
From the Book of Amos.
“Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.”
Gospel of the Day: MT 9:14-15
From the gospel scripture according to Matthew.
Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”
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.”
