Catholic Mass - First Sunday of Lent 26 February 2023 - LIVESTREAM

Church of the Holy Cross
February 26, 2023 First Sunday of Lent


WHO WE ARE AND WHOSE WE ARE
The Lenten season is a fresh invitation to explore again who God is, who we are, and what it means to be human. We begin by hearing the tragic story of the first humans in the book of Genesis. As Paul describes in Romans, our struggles started when our ancestors broke the bond of unity with God, sought self-sufficiency, and grew apart from their true purpose and identity. In Matthew’s Gospel, we see how Jesus resists the lure of living outside of unity with God. Jesus rejects false promises of possessions, power, and status. Instead, he puts his life in his Father’s hands. As our model for living as a fully human person, Jesus demonstrates that we are created to live in relationship with and trust in God, and in harmony with and for all of creation.
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TODAY’S READINGS
First Reading — The man and the woman ate the fruit of the one tree that God had told them to avoid, and their shame overtook them (Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7).
Psalm — Have mercy on us sinners, O Lord (Psalm 51).
Second Reading — Death reigned from Adam to Moses, but now grace and life abound in Christ Jesus (Romans 5:12-19 [12, 17-19]).
Gospel — Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit and there he fasted for forty days and forty nights
(Matthew 4:1-11).
The English translation of the Psalm Responses from Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.