Wednesday, 20 February, 2008
WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN LENT (III)
(Day of fast – traditional)


Collect: Favourably regard Thy people, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and grant that they who at Thy command abstain from food for the body may also abstain from the poison of vice. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who livest and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.
Lesson: From the Book of Esther, 13:8-11; 15-17.
[Prayer of Mardochai in favour of the Jewish people, whom the impious Aman had determined to destroy. He implored the Lord God of Israel to turn their sadness into joy. The Christian people in the same way are mourning by Lenten penance and are looking forward to the holy joys of Easter.]
Gospel: Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, 20:17-28.
[Jesus foretells His Passion and Resurrection. He will make us all participants in His Resurrection, if we die to our sins.]

Remarks are abstracted from The Daily Missal and Liturgical Manual, from Editio Typica of the Roman Missal and Breviary, 1962
(Baronius Press Limited, London, 2004, in conjunction with the Fraternal Society of St. Peter, www.baroniuspress.com)