Join us on Friday, April 15th from 4-7pm for a Lenten fish fry dinner. Your dinner includes an excellent deep fried blue fish main course, and all the fixin’s… Come and eat! Come and pray!
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday have been set forth as days of strict fasting. Days of abstinence (not eating meat) are Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent. The pious tradition of abstinence on Fridays outside of Eastertide is also observed, but not mandatory. In situations where health considerations make such observance impossible, ecclesiastical dispensation should be secured.
The rule of fasting is a fairly simple one and therefore bears the full authority of the Church. Our Lord announced to his followers that he expected them to fast. “But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.” (Mark 2:20)
Jesus even issued instructions on how Christians were to comfort themselves when they fast, promising them God’s reward. “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is in hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” (Matthew 6:17-18) Our Lord Himself fasted, forty days and forty nights, and later warned that some spiritual evils are overcome only “through prayer and through fasting.” (Mark 9:29)
Striving to follow Christ, St. Paul himself engaged in “frequent fastings.” (2 Corinthians 11:27). Paul urged Christians to prove themselves to be ministers of God in “fasts“. (2 Corinthians 6:5) When we fast or abstain, then, we do so in obedience to the Lord’s own command. We imitate His example and join in the company of all the blessed Saints, who tried to follow Him, and whose lives were adomed by this means of grace and intercession.
Today, when we fast and abstain in obedience to the Church’s law on prescribed days we join ourselves to fellow Catholics throughout the world in a mighty supplication to God. — From “To Grow in Catholic Faith in the Polish National Catholic Church” by Ś.P. Most Rev. Francis Rowinski, D.D. fourth Prime Bishop of the PNCC
Fratelli e sorelle, chiediamo al Padre di accogliere le nostre preghiere, e soprattutto chiediamogli di educare e rendere sempre più piena e radicale la nostra fede, affinché possiamo vivere da cristiani, uomini e donne redenti dal Cristo.
Preghiamo dicendo: Ascoltaci Signore.
- Perché la Chiesa non si stanchi di annunciare al mondo il valore unico ed insostituibile di ogni persona agli occhi di Dio, preghiamo.
- Per gli operatori sanitari, perché nella fede si impegnino a promuovere e a difendere la vita, preghiamo.
- Per gli anziani e per coloro che sono provati dalla malattia, perché sappiano vivere le loro sofferenze come partecipazione alla croce di Cristo, preghiamo.
- Perché lo Spirito infonda in coloro che sono nel lutto per la perdita di una persona cara la consolazione di Dio e la speranza della vita eterna, preghiamo.
- Per noi che partecipiamo a questa Eucaristia domenicale, perché i fratelli che incontreremo sulle strade del mondo percepiscano la nostra fede nella salvezza e nella vita eterna, preghiamo.
From Rev. Luciano Bruno to the PNCC in Italia Facebook page.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Laz’arus, come out.” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him — John 11:33-45