“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Ash Wednesday as a day "focused on prayer, fasting, and repentance."

Our need for repentance and our need for the love and forgiveness shown to us in Jesus Christ.

By self-examination and penitence, by prayer and fasting, by practicing works of love.

ASH WEDNESDAY Begin Lenten preparation for the Easter Triduum.

Day of fast (ages 18-59) and abstinence from meat (age 14 and up).

Jesus always gives strength of mind, body or soul when we place ourselves in God's loving presence.

All power in heaven and on earth was entrusted to his hands.

He was doing the will of the Father, and accomplishing the work with which he had been commissioned.

"The Father," he said, "worketh hitherto, and I work;" 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19

Once, when Jeroboam

 Jesus seems to be pretty frustrated with the “dumbness” of the disciples.

 Disciples Having lived with him day and night, They did not really know him.

The teachings and miracles of Jesus did not sink yet in their minds. Thus they always misunderstood Jesus.

Yet He did not give up on them. Patiently He accompanied them to the truth.

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

James 1:12-18

Happy are those

With all his wisdom and experience in life, Solomon fell away from God due to his pride,

Whereas humility lifted up the woman and her daughter and drew God’s favor and healing instantaneously.

her daughter has an unclean spirit. She knows that in every way, according to the standards of the day,

she is unclean, and therefore disqualified to approach any devout Jew,

Jesus admired the woman's persistence in looking for a blessing for her daughter. reached out to this Gentile lady.

 St. Jerome Emiliani, priest St. Josephine Bakhita, virgin

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

1 Kings 11:4-13

In Solomon's old age,

The Pharisees’ demand for a sign was a true sign of their lack of faith in him. Jesus giving a deep sigh.

When he sees in us shallowness of faith and rebellious resistance to truth,

a resistance that prevents the Spirit from entering our hearts.

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

James 1:1-11

James, a servant of God,

 One  must be looking inward and be concerned with what’s inside the heart.

We battle with ourselves, it is easier to be angry with others than with ourselves.

In the Gospel, Jesus said “Nothing that enters one from the outside can defile that person;

but the things that come from the things that come out from within are what defile.” Purity is from within.

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

1st Reading: 1 Kings 10:1-10

The queen of Sheba

 Jesus first reveals himself to the disciples and to some chosen individuals before he publicly decares himself to be the One.

When the leper’s audacity brings healing, the prohibition not to tell anyone of what happened.

As soon as he leaves, he sings the praises of Jesus so much so, They have to share and proclaim it to others.

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

1st Reading: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46

Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron,

They could only find fault with everything Jesus and his disciples were doing. instead of softening their heart with love!

The real battle ground for good and evil is not in our external acts but inside our heart that decides.

For when their heart is pure, all actions emanating from it is good.

St. Paul Miki & Companions, martyrs

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30

Then Solomon stood

 All Christians are called to be missionaries in the sense of sharing God's unconditional love with others.

our small contribution can do so much when joined to his power of love.

God brought Israel out of Egypt? In the wilderness, without food, what did God do?

Every day he dropped Manna, God worked miracle every day.

St. Scholastica, virgin

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34 

Jeroboam thought,

Compare the majesty, grandeur, and the awe-inspiring presence of God in the Ark that Solomon brought to Jerusalem,

with the simplicity, ordinariness, familiarity, down-to-earthiness Jesus displays in rubbing shoulders with the people around him!

If the Ark evoked fear and trembling, and no one dared to touch the Ark because touching the Ark could get them killed,

“God-with-Us”, the Ark becoming Flesh, to dwell amidst us.

St. Agatha, virgin & martyr

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13

Then Solomon assembled