the the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god and the communion of the holy spirit be with you all and with your spirit my sisters my brothers a invite you to join me in kneeling to ask for god's mercy during this whole the season sins and bring us kindly lord we pray on the devotion of your people that those who by self denial restraint in body may by the fruit of good works be renewed in mind through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and a reading from the book the prophet jonah the word of the lord came to jonah a second time set out for the great city of nineveh and announced to it the message that i will tell you so jonah made ready and went in and of according to the lord spitting now none of the was an enormously large city it took three days to go through it jonah began his journey through the city and had gone but  single day's walk announcing forty days more and nineveh shall be destroyed when the people of minimum nineveh believed god they proclaimed a fast and all of them great and small but on when the news reached the king of nineveh he rose from his throne laid aside his robe covered himself with sack cloth and sat in the ashes then he had this proclaimed her nineveh by decree of the king and his nobles neither man nor beast neither cattle nor sheep shall taste anything they shall not eat nor shall they drink water man and beast shall be covered with sack cloth and call loudly to that we shall not perish when god saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them he did not carry it out the the lord be with you reading from the holy gospel according to l still more people gathered in the crowd jesus said to them this generation is an evil generation and seeks a sign but no sign will be given except the sign of j because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of solomon and there are some things greater than solomon here at the judgment the minute will rise with this generation and condemn it because of the preaching of jonah they repented and there is something greater than jonah here the gospel of the lord that we heard this morning the first reading it is kind of curious if you think about it because here we have a story of a a hebrew prophet being put into a situation where he is approaching people that didn't believe what he believed that had different gods didn't recognize the god of israel the god of abraham isaac and jacob the god that was present to the people over and over again in their temple in in their worship and he says that this god is going to destroy this wonderful powerful magnificent city so if that ever happened here in new york and we had some why wild eyed prophet coming and screaming at the people of new york that the city would be destroyed because of our terrible lifestyle i think most people would kind of laugh at the person or turn their backs on them or walk away or that this person is nazis crazy people i'm in of in this story at least didn't do that they took to heart they understood that this man was saying something that was a great threat to them and they believed it and because of that they changed their ways he said in fact was asked ashes they fasted they prayed and all of a sudden everything changed so the church uses this story about the ninevites to say to people like ourselves not that we're going to be destroyed or anything like that but that the importance of prayer and fasting is very true and is very powerful in the lives of the people of nineveh of course but even more importantly in our own lives so one of the things one of the takeaways that we should take with us as we continue our journey up to holy week in the death and resurrection of jesus is that this idea of prayer and fasting is not only something to avoid evil but it's also something very good for ourselves whatever we do whatever type of fasting that we have whatever type of participating in the works the good works penitential works of lent these are good  so listening to the ninevites and saying scratching our heads and say wonder how that happened it happened and they became convinced of god's power and god's possibility of changing god's will by prayer we pray for our holy father pope francis is our shepherd cardinal dolan that god bless them and guide them we pray to the lord lord hear our prayer we pray for ourselves and we do everything we can to bring happiness and holiness to our family and we pray to the lord lord hear our prayer we pray for american military personnel throughout the world especially in harm's way in afghanistan we pray to the lord lord hear our prayer for those who work for the defense of human life those who work for peace and for justice that god made less their labors we pray to the lord lord to share our prayer for those who have been sexually violated or abused or harris the loving and healing hand of god me touch their lives we pray to the we prayed to the lord lord here are all those are god we ask you to listen to our prayers we bring them to you in the name of jesus our brother in savior who is with us god for ever and ever bless it are you lord god of all creation for three year goodness we have received the bread we offer you fruit of the earth and the work of human hands will become for us the bread of life l my sisters and brothers pray that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to god the almighty father made the law except the sacrifice of chair hands for the praise and glory of this name  we offer to go aboard what you have given to be dedicated to your name then just as for our benefit you make these gifts a sacrament so you may let them become for us an eternal remedy through christ our lord and man the lord be with you and with your spirit lift up your part we let them up to the lord let us give thanks to the lord our god it is right and just is truly right in just our duty in our everywhere to give you thanks lord holy father almighty and eternal god for through bodily fasting you restrain our faults you raise up our minds and do so both virtue and its rewards through christ our board saying take this all that he would eat of it but this is my body which will be given up for you well this is the cellists of my blood the blood of the new any turn of the covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins do this in memory of me the mystery of fa humbly we pray therefore taking of the body and blood of christ we may be gathered into one by the holy spirit remember lord your church spread throughout the world and bring her to the fullness of charity together with fr in his resurrection remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy welcomed them into the light of your face have mercy on ever and ever graciously grants peace in our days that by the help of your mercy we may be always free from sin and safe from all the stress as we await the blessings of hope in the coming of our savior jesus christ  behold the lamb of god the whole him who takes away the sins of the world blessed are those called to the supper of the lord i am nowhere in the that you should enter under my roof but only say the word  of god who never cease to nourish us by your sacrament granted the refreshment you give us through it may bring us an ending life to christ our lord amen by your heads and pray for god's blessing watch over your people lord and in your kindness cleanse them from all since birth evil has no dominion over them no trial can do them harm through christ our lord amen the lord be with you and with your spirit solemn fast number four twenty six in the green hymnal number four twenty six