Dear Fasting Friends,

Thank you for fasting today for our country. Whether you are able to limit yourself to bread and water, or two small meals, or pass on desserts, or turn off the television, or abstain from meat, anything you do with love and in the spirit of penance is a way of showing your love for the Lord and for our country.

If you would like to gain a better understanding of how and why to make Fridays a day of penance, we highly recommend you look over the Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on November 18, 1966.

We found this statement to be very insightful and helpful in understanding the Church's position and to help direct our behavior every Friday.

In case you are short of time, here are a few of the major points:

* Friday is and always will be a day of penance.

* Fasting and abstinence are held in first place among works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance.

* Other means of self-denial and penance may also serve the Friday observance.

The Bishops Conclude - paragraph 28

"In summary, let it not be said that by this action, implementing the spirit of renewal coming out of the Council, we have abolished Friday, repudiated the holy traditions of our fathers, or diminished the insistence of the Church on the fact of sin and the need for penance.

Rather, let it be proved by the spirit in which we enter upon prayer and penance, not excluding fast and abstinence freely chosen, that these present decisions and recommendations of this conference of bishops will herald a new birth of loving faith and more profound penitential conversion, by both of which we become one with Christ, mature sons of God, and servants of God's people."

So, there you have it! 

Remember to keep every Friday a penitential day for the love of God, for souls, and for our country!

Have a blessed Fast Friday.