Daily Bible Readings First Friday after Ash Wednesday

February 8 2008 Friday After Ash Wednesday

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/020808.shtml – Note. The Official Liturgical readings may not match the current NAB you may have.

Isaiah 58:1-9a
Douay-Rheims Challoner

1 Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God.
3 Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.
4 Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.
5 Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go free, and break asunder every burden.
7 Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

Responsorial Psalm 50:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19 LXX/Latin (Ps 51 Hebrew)
DR Challoner Text, no Commentary

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.
To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee:
For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it:
with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit:
a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew 9:14-15
Haydock NT

14 Then came to him the disciples of John, saying,

Why do we, and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples do not fast?

15 And Jesus said to them:

Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.

Haydock Commentary Isaiah 58:1-9a

• Ver. 1. Sins. During the captivity. v. 11. S. Thomas.—Some will not hear, and those must be rebuked with all patience,  till they follow virtue. W.
• Ver. 2. Approach, and contend with God, scrutinizing his conduct, (Prov. xxv 27.) and doing good for the sake of applause and self-interest.
• Ver. 3. Will. This alone suggested their fasts, and they did not shew compassion. Ezec. vii. 2. C.—Debtors, who are not able to pay. S. Jer. Deut. xxiv. 12.
• Ver. 4. Strife. The usual works were interrupted. The Church formerly forbade lawsuits on fast-days.—Fist. Matt. xviii. 28.—Wickedly. Sept “the humble.”
• Ver. 5. Circle. They affected extreme debility. Mat. vi. 16. C.—Ashes. These external marks of penance are not condemned, but the want of corresponding sentiments. H.—Prot. would hence infer that fasting from flesh is not requisite, or a religious worship. But S. Jerome shews the contrary, provided it be jojned with the observance of other commandments, as the saints and Christ himself have shewn us. W.
• Ver. 6. Bands. Contracts of usury, &c. C.
• Ver. 7. Deal. Lit. “break.” H.—Thin cakes are still used in the East.—Flesh, or relation. Gen. xxxvii. 27.
• Ver. 8. Light. Prosperity, (C.) or Saviour. H.—Mat iv 2 and John 1:8 C.—Health. Aquila, “the scar of thy wound shall soon be covered.” S. Jer.—Up. He shall close the read, like the angel in the cloud Ez. Xiii. 21. and xiv. 19. He will grant thee rest from bondage in the grace and in heaven. C.
• Ver. 9. NA

Haydock Commentary Matthew 9:14-15

• Ver. 14. Then came. When the Pharisees in the rior question had been discomfited. By S. Mark, (xi. 18) we learn that the Pharisees joined with the disciples of the Baptist, and htus is reconciled what we read in S. Luke v. 33., who only mentions the Pharisees. V.—Why do we and the Pharisees fast. It is not without reason that the disciples of S. John should ask this question, fasting being always esteemed a great virtue, witness Moses and Elias; The fasts which Samuel made the people observe in Masphat, the tears, prayers, and fasting of Ezechias, of Judith, of Achab, of the Ninivites, of Anna, the wife of Eleana, of Daniel, of David, after he had fallen into the sin of adultery. Aaron, and the other priests, also fasted before they entered into the temple. Witness also the fasts of Anna, the prophetess, of S. John the Baptist, of Christ himself, of Cornelius the centurion, &c. &c. &c. St. Jerom.—This haughty interrogation of S. John’s disciples was highly blameable, not only for uniting with the Pharisees, whom they knew their master so much condemned, but also for calumniating him, who, they knew was foretold by John’s own testimony. S. Jerome.—S. Austin is likewise of opinion, that John’s disciples were not the only persons that said this, since S. Mark rather indicates that it was spoken by others. S. Thos. Aquin.
• Ver. 15. Can the children of the bridegroom. This, by a Hebraism, signifies the friends or companions of the bridegroom, as a lover of peace, is called a child of peace: he that deserves death, the son of death, &c. Wi.—The disciples had not yet ascended to the higher degrees of perfection, they had not yet been renewed in spirit; therefore they required to be treated with lenity; for had the higher and more sublime mysteries been delivered to them without previous preparation, they would never, not even in the natural course of things, have been able to comprehend them. I have many things to say to you, said our Saviour, but you cannot bear them now. S. John xvi. Thus did he condescend to their weakness. S. Chrys. hom. xxxi.