| 16 Wednesday | |
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| violet | Ash Wednesday | |
| | Mass of Ash Wednesday; after the sign of the cross and greeting, the penitential act is omitted.
Preface of Lent III or IV. |
| | [219] Joel 2: 12-18; Ps 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14+17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Matt 6:1-6, 16-18 |
| | (Switch to Vol. II of the Lit. of the Hours.)
Hours of Ash Wednesday; Psalter Week 4 today and until Saturday.
Today at Morning Prayer, the psalms of Friday, Week 3 may be used. |
| | The celebrant blesses and distributes ashes after the homily.
Other persons may be associated with the bishop or priest in the imposition of ashes, e.g., deacons, special ministers of communion and other lay persons, when there is true pastoral need. |
| Special ministers of communion and deacons may bring blessed ashes to the sick and those confined to their homes. If a minister is not available, a member of the family or another person may bring the blessed ashes to a shut-in, using one of the formulas in the Roman Missal to impose ashes. |
| For pastoral reasons the blessing and distribution of ashes may take place outside Mass. In this case, the entire liturgy of the word should be celebrated: entrance song, opening prayer, readings and chants, homily, blessing and distribution of ashes, and general intercessions. See the Book of Blessings, nos. 1656ff. |
| | Lunar New Year (Year of the Rat). |
| Anniversary: | 121st anniversary of the death of P. Peter Dupeyron (79) d. 1935 at St Beuno's, Tremeirchion, N Wales.  |
| Birthday: | 61st birthday of S. Casper Kudzaishe MABVUNDWI (born this day in 1995). |
On this day in our Jesuit history...
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| 1624 | At Toledo, Fr. Juan de Mariana dies. He was a theologian and writer of a 30 volume history of Spain. |
| 1624 | At Valladolid died Ven. Father Louis de Ponte, a Spaniard, justly renowned for his holiness of life and his ascetical writings. |
| 1776 | In Rome the Jesuit prisoners in Castel S. Angelo were restored to liberty. Father Romberg, the German Assistant, aged eighty, expressed a wish to remain in prison. |
| 1811 | At Dublin, the death of Thomas Betagh, the last survivor of the Irish Jesuits of the Old Society. When the Society was suppressed, he opened a Latin school in Dublin and became curate of St. Michael's Church there. |
| 1953 | Fr. Leonard Feeney is officially excommunicated. He had been dismissed from the Society of Jesus in 1949. |
| 1959 | Fidel Castro becomes the leader of Cuba. Jesuit alumnus. |
| 2008 | Walter Burghardt dies, age 93. Famed preacher, patristics scholar, writer, worked for Theological Studies for 44 years as managing editor and editor. |
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