Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

"Lost Home on Perelli Drive #6" by James W. Bailey

Evil Digital Photography

Perelli Drive - An East New Orleans Lenten Season Memorial Art Project

Saints Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs - Commemoration Readings for Mass

From the Common of Martyrs or From the Proper of the Season

First Reading: Isaiah 55:10-11

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19

Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15

From Ash Wednesday by James W. Bailey

A poem...I stand in the cold field of winter's disillusion and believe that this world no longer turns...I hear stranded voices from disquiet mouths that scream in belligerent tones and offer no sympathy...I understand guilt by association, guilt by acquaintance, guilt by ancestry and guilt by race...I feel dangerous stares from unseen assassins that stab at my back and delight in my torture...I see that form rules substance, image controls content, rhetoric defines principle and honesty is a game...in which the loser always comes out on top.