20 February 2026 (Friday) / Friday After Ash Wednesday / Day of Abstinence from Meat (age 14 and up)

20 February 2026 (Friday)

Friday After Ash Wednesday.
Day of Abstinence from Meat (age 14 and up)

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Isaiah 58: 1-9a
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 51: 3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19
Verse Before the Gospel: Amos 5: 14
Gospel: Matthew 9: 14-15

First Reading : Isaiah 58:1‐9

Thus says the Lord:
Shout for all you are worth,
  raise your voice like a trumpet.
Proclaim their faults to my people,
  their sins to the House of Jacob.
They seek me day after day,
  they long to know my ways,
like a nation that wants to act with integrity
  and not ignore the law of its God.
They ask me for laws that are just,
  they long for God to draw near:
‘Why should we fast if you never see it,
  why do penance if you never notice?’
Look, you do business on your fast‐days,
  you oppress all your workmen;
look, you quarrel and squabble when you fast
  and strike the poor man with your fist.
Fasting like yours today
  will never make your voice heard on high.
Is that the sort of fast that pleases me,
  a truly penitential day for men?
Hanging your head like a reed,
  lying down on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call fasting,
  a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me
  – it is the Lord who speaks –
to break unjust fetters and
  undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
  and break every yoke,
to share your bread with the hungry,
  and shelter the homeless poor,
to clothe the man you see to be naked
  and not turn from your own kin?
Then will your light shine like the dawn
  and your wound be quickly healed over.
Your integrity will go before you
  and the glory of the Lord behind you.
Cry, and the Lord will answer;
  call, and he will say, ‘I am here.’

Responsive Psalm : Psalm 50(51):3‐6,18‐19

A humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
  In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
  and cleanse me from my sin.
A humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
My offences truly I know them;
  my sin is always before me
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
  what is evil in your sight I have done.
A humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
For in sacrifice you take no delight,
  burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
  A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
A humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.

Verse Before the Gospel: Amos 5: 14
14 Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and the Lord will be with you.

Gospel : Matthew 9:14‐15

John’s disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast.’

For our reflection today:

While Jesus was at table in the house of Levi, the publican, the Pharisees and John the Baptist's disciples asked why Jesus' disciples were not fasting as they were. Jesus answered that wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them and that they will fast when the bridegroom is taken away from them (cf. Mk 2: 18, 20).
With these words, Christ reveals his identity of Messiah, Israel's bridegroom, who came for the betrothal with his people. Those who recognize and welcome him are celebrating. However, he will have to be rejected and killed precisely by his own; at that moment, during his Passion and death, the hour of mourning and fasting will come.
The Gospel episode anticipates the meaning of Lent. As a whole, it constitutes a great memorial of the Lord's Passion in preparation for his Paschal Resurrection. During this season, we abstain from singing the "Alleluia" and we are asked to make appropriate penitential sacrifices.
The season of Lent should not be faced with an "old" spirit, as if it were a heavy and tedious obligation, but with the new spirit of those who have found the meaning of life in Jesus and in his Paschal Mystery and realize that henceforth everything must refer to him. (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, 26 February 2006)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Pelayan Atasan Tertinggi / Most High Servant,
Yesus, Maria, Yusuf Pelayanan Kasih / Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love 
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)

My vocation is Blessed and Saints.

"I am the most humble of all the Saints in Heaven" Mary, Mother of God.

"I am the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me."

Mother Mary is the most humble Saint in Heaven and she is also the Mother of God for us all
(Luke 1:38)