WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

WEDNESDAY of holy week - APRIL 16, 2025

Holy Wednesday Message:Traditionally, on Wednesday in Holy Week, the Church remembers the betrayal of Judas. How distant in the heart of this apostle, who was now preparing to betray Jesus, are the first encounters with the one he had considered the Messiah! Judas Iscariot had also been personally chosen by Christ. Alongside Jesus, he could have been as happy as the others, and become one of the pillars of the Church. However, he chose to sell, at the price of a slave, the one who gave him everything. And it was God’s will that Holy Scripture should not silence this fact.

On this last day of Lent — tomorrow we enter into a new liturgical season, the shortest of the year, the Sacred Triduum — it’s key for us to grasp what the Lord is calling us to do as we turn away from sin and seek to be faithful to the Gospel. Today in the first reading, the third of four Suffering Servant Songs, we hear Isaiah’s reflections about what he and Jesus after him wants to do in us: “The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.” With eloquence, Jesus wants to arouse us from our spiritual somnolence. What’s the “word” that will actually do that? It’s what he speaks with his body language: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting,” all things we will be pondering over the next couple of days. The word of what our sins have done to Jesus should arouse us to contrition, to repentance, to entrusting ourselves to his mercy, and to amendment and the pursuit of holiness. Isaiah says, foretelling Jesus’ mindset, “I have not rebelled, have not turned back. … The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” He was resolute, setting his face toward Jerusalem (Lk 9:51) like flint, the very hard rock always placed at the tips of spears in the ancient world. Jesus wants us to have that same firm resolve to set our faces toward him with trust and not to rebel or to turn back. He preaches this eloquent “word” to arouse the “weary,” because he knows that more than anything else our sins wear us down. We’re also worn down by trying to struggle against evil on our own without God. He comes to join us in that fight and help us set our faces on Jerusalem together with his.

MASS TIMES

Mass 8:30 am

PRAYER TIME IN CHURCH

9:00am until 4:30pm

MASS ON YOUTUBE

Mass 8:30 am

ROSARY

Pray the Glorious Mysteries.

Pray the Rosary in church at 8:00am

CONFESSION

NOON - 1:00pm

ADORATION

9:00am to 4:00pm

HOLY WEEK PRAYER

Most glorious King, blessed are You Who continuously comes to us, leading the way to Heaven. Hosanna in the highest! As I begin this most Holy Week, commemorating Your gift of salvation, I pray that this commemoration will also be a real and transforming participation in Your life, death, and resurrection. Thank You for redeeming us, dear Lord. Please open my heart to receive Your grace fully. Jesus, I trust in You.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH

2846 Hubbard Rd, Madison, OH 44057

LENT CALENDAR

Mass Readings:

Reading I -  Isaiah 50:4-9a

The Lord GOD has given me

a well-trained tongue,

That I might know how to speak to the weary

a word that will rouse them.

Morning after morning

he opens my ear that I may hear;

And I have not rebelled,

have not turned back.

I gave my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;

My face I did not shield

from buffets and spitting.


The Lord GOD is my help,

therefore I am not disgraced;

I have set my face like flint,

knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

He is near who upholds my right;

if anyone wishes to oppose me,

let us appear together.

Who disputes my right?

Let him confront me.

See, the Lord GOD is my help;

who will prove me wrong?

Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34

R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.

For your sake I bear insult,

and shame covers my face.

I have become an outcast to my brothers,

a stranger to my mother's sons,

because zeal for your house consumes me,

and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,

I looked for sympathy, but there was none;

for consolers, not one could I find.

Rather they put gall in my food,

and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

I will praise the name of God in song,

and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:

"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

you who seek God, may your hearts revive!

For the LORD hears the poor,

and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

Gospel - Matthew 26:14-25

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,

went to the chief priests and said,

"What are you willing to give me

if I hand him over to you?"

They paid him thirty pieces of silver,

and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.


On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,

the disciples approached Jesus and said,

"Where do you want us to prepare

for you to eat the Passover?"

He said,

"Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,

'The teacher says, "My appointed time draws near;

in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.""'

The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,

and prepared the Passover.

Complete Lent Schedule (click on arrows)

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