Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: February 20,2026

Date: Friday after Ash Wednesday

Scripture Text:   Isaiah 58:1-9a

Thus says the Lord GOD:Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast. Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God. They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God. “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?

”Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke, setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke, sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

Breaking the text open – background and summary:

The first reading is taken from the Prophet Isaiah and reminds us of the “fast” the LORD truly desires, not one for notice or praise but rather one for the sake of justice and building relationship with one another, all children of the one LORD.

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

What am I doing to bring justice to others, to bring the LORD’s love to my sisters and brothers?

Praying:

LORD,  Almighty Father, Beloved Son, Most Holy Spirit, You call us to love You and one another as You love us. You call us to right relationship with You and to right relationship with our sisters and brothers. Open our eyes, our ears, our minds, our hearts so that we might more perfectly see and hear the needs of others in our midst and recognize loving ways to meet those needs. Be with us, LORD, as we strive to draw closer to You by loving one another better. Amen.