February 20 - What Kind of Fast Does God Want from Us?

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Today's Readings:

• Isaiah 59.1-9a
• Psalm 51
• Matthew 9.14-15

Today's Reflection:

At my parochial elementary school, an instructor from a local music school came one day a week and taught dancing to all the grades in turn. (Our pastor was convinced that our education was incomplete if we did not learn to dance.) This instructor was not Catholic but said she could always tell when it was Lent because we students behaved terribly. Giving up candy must have made us grumpy. Apparently nobody had read us today’s Old Testament reading (Isaiah 58:1-9)! Fasting should remind us that some people permanently lack the things we are doing without by choice—comfort, entertainment, food—and make us resolve to help them in their need.

Here is that invitation in hymn form.

Paul S.