Thursday, February 23, 2012 {St. Polycarp, Bishop, Martyr (Commemoration)}

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
The first stage of contemplation, dear brothers, is constantly to consider what God wants, what is pleasing to him, and what is acceptable in his eyes. We all offend in many things; our strengths cannot match the rectitude of God's will, being neither one with it nor wholly in accord with it; let us then humble ourselves under the powerful hand of the most high God and be concerned to show ourselves unworthy before His merciful gaze, saying: Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved. And again, Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul because I have sinned against you.
-- St Bernard

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15 Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 in that I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.
17 But if your heart turn away, and you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 
19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed;
20 to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cleave to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Psalms: Psalm 1:1-4, 6
(True Happiness)
1 Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 But his delight is in Yahweh’s law; On his law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The wicked are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
6 For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked shall perish.
Gospel: Luke 9:22-25
22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.”
23 He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it.
25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own self?