Quinquagesima: Shrove Sunday

Today is Quinquagesima Sunday. Today, tomorrow and Tuesday are days when Catholics traditionally make a point of getting to Confession, to prepare for Lent which starts this week on Ash Wednesday (for Latin Rite Catholics).
[Break the name Quinquagesima apart syllable-by-syllable, and it is not hard to pronounce].

Traditional Epistle: I Corinthians 13:1-13
Traditional Gospel: Luke 18:31-43

New First Reading: I Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
New Second Reading: I Corinthians 15:45-49
New Gospel: Luke 6:27-38

In the first reading, David says that he would not harm the Lord's annointed. This was merciful and righteous. In the traditional Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ [Christ means "annointed one"] goes to Jerusalem, knowing that His unrighteous enemies will kill Him there. But even with that dread time approaching, He is merciful to one who has faith and asks for His help: He opens the eyes of a blind man. The heart of Jesus is love and mercy. In the new Gospel, our Lord says to love every man, even our enemies, and to love with more than abstract good wishes, but to love with a charity made manifest in actions. In the traditional Epistle, our Lord says that this love is essential, and without it we have nothing. Such a supernatural love seems impossible, but with God all things are possible, and in the second reading we hear that we shall bear the image of the new Adam, the man of heaven, who calls us now to turn away from sin and follow Him.