Dear Fast Friday team,
One of the blessings resulting from the pandemic has been that the Marian Fathers began live-streaming daily Mass from the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. You can tune in on their FaceBook Divine Mercy (official) page or through their website thedivinemercy.org every morning at 9 a.m. Eastern.
Thousands from across the country and around the world, including the two of us, have been able to join in the Mass and spiritually unite with Jesus even though nearby churches are closed or other reasons make it impossible to attend Mass locally. Actually, no matter what, these Mass are highly recommended.
In addition to the beautiful liturgies, the Marian Fathers have been giving some fabulous homilies. Almost every day we are able to tune in we say, "Wow, we need to share that homily with our DMFA network!" And, so we are working on getting some particularly powerful homilies out to everyone very soon and will continue to do so from time to time.
In the meantime, the homily by our Provincial Superior, Fr. Kazimierz Chwalek, MIC just this past Wednesday screamed to be sent to the Fast Friday team. Father clearly teaches us how to be prophetic voices in this time when "others are creating all kinds of noise."
The Gospel of the day and the homily are posted below, but I just had to transcribe some of Fr. Kaz's closing words to help us reflect on them and their profound meaning for the world today.
"We have been given this privilege to be friends of God. We have been given this gift of knowledge and wisdom understanding God's ways. And so, not only for ourselves do we embrace these ways of living [almsgiving, prayer, and fasting] which actually intensify our relationship with God and our love for one another, but we become prophetic voices. By our word, our actions . . . we externalize that truth that we are to be men and women of God..."
I'm so glad we are able to share this message with each one of you. We hope it gives you some valuable insights on how to amp up the benefits of your prayer and fasting, so very, very crucial in the intensifying spiritual battle in which we are engaged. Ponder it, share it, and put it all into practice. God bless you and may God bless America because of you!
