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Thursday After Ash Wednesday • Lent 2026 • Year
A • Beads of Joy Blog II
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✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6
Gospel: Luke 9:22-25
📖 The Gospel - Luke 9:22-25
Jesus looks His disciples straight in the eyes
and tells them plainly, the road ahead involves a cross. Then He asks the
question that cuts right to the heart of every Lent ever lived: What does it
profit a man to gain the whole world but lose himself?
🙏 Gospel Reflection
The day after Ash Wednesday is always a quiet
one. The ashes have been received, the Lenten promises have been made, and now
we are standing at the beginning of the road, looking out at forty days
stretching before us. And right here on day two, Jesus does not let us ease
into it gently. He says, pick up your cross. Daily. And follow me.
Moses puts it even more directly in Deuteronomy. He lays two roads
before the people of Israel and says, here it is, plain and simple. Life and
prosperity on one side. Death and doom, on the other hand. And then he says the most
beautiful and challenging thing: choose life. Two words. That's it. Not a
complicated theological argument. Just a choice placed before every human heart
every single day.
I think about that choice a lot. There was a time in my life when I was
making lots of small choices that were quietly leading me away from life, away
from God, without me even fully realizing it. I wasn't choosing death
dramatically. I was just drifting. And then God intervened so dramatically that
I couldn't drift anymore. He made the two roads completely visible to me. And
once you see them clearly, you can never unsee them. That's the gift and the
weight of conversion, you know too much to go back.
Jesus doesn't ask us to carry the cross perfectly. He doesn't ask us to
be extraordinary. He simply asks us to pick it up, today, Thursday, this
ordinary morning of Lent, and follow Him one step at a time. The cross you
carry might be a health struggle, a broken relationship, a grief that won't let
go, or a habit you've been trying to surrender for years. Whatever it is, Jesus
already knows its weight. And He's already walked ahead of you on this road.
💭 Reflection Question
What is the cross that Jesus is specifically
asking you to pick up and carry with Him this Lent, the one you've been setting
down and walking away from?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful
Mysteries
Today's Focus Mystery: The Carrying of the Cross
Jesus tells us directly in today's Gospel to
take up our cross daily and follow Him. What better mystery to meditate on than
the moment He literally carried His own, step by step, falling and rising, all
the way to Calvary for love of us. As you pray your Rosary today, walk that
road with Him.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's
Connection
At Fatima, Our Lady showed the three children a
vision of souls who had chosen the road away from God, and her heart broke with
sorrow and urgency. Her message was never meant to frighten but to call, the
same way Moses calls out in Deuteronomy today: choose life, choose God, choose
the road that leads to Him. She knew, as a mother knows, that every soul has a
choice before it every single day. As you pray your Rosary this morning, ask
Our Lady of Fatima to help you see your choices today with her clarity and her
love.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, today I pick up whatever cross
You've placed in my hands. I don't always understand its weight or its purpose,
but I trust that You are walking right in front of me on this road. Lead me. I
will follow. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr. OFS
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Want to know more about My Spiritual Journey?
Read My
Story at: An Invitation To Read My Story - My Testimony
