OPENING REMARKS
~ Anna Rae-Kelly, OCDS, Founder of the Lay Fast for Priests
This month, twenty years ago, the LAY FAST DAY FOR PRIESTS began in response to a crisis in the priesthood that had shocked and wounded the Faithful.
That first Saturday, a group of just over 200 people from Our Lady's Shrine at La Salette, Massachusetts committed to offer the prayerful sacrifice of a Fast for all priests: those who were, those who are, those who are yet to be ordained.
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face became our Patroness. Over these 20 years, her powerful intercession has drawn people from across the globe to come together for this one Saturday each October to offer sacrificial prayer for all priests. That small group of 200+ 'Fast-ers' 20 years ago who responded to the Little Flower's invitation have grown into millions and from almost every country in the world.
St. Therese once said: "LET US SAVE, ABOVE ALL, THE SOULS OF PRIESTS. WE PRAY, WE SUFFER FOR THEM. AND ON THE LAST DAY, JESUS WILL BE GRATEFUL."
Under that direction of our St. Therese, we further learn from another greatly loved saint who taught us how to do as St. Therese suggests, to "pray and suffer" for other. St. John Paul II guides us....
"PRAYER UNITED WITH SACRIFICE IS THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE IN HUMAN HISTORY."
We offer our "prayer" and our "suffering" in our Fast for Priests and our united Sacrifice will once again, for the 20th year, become a "most powerful force," all across the world for God's priests, His "Ipse Christus". The Spirit of God, "hovering" (Gen. 1) over the face of the earth will breathe His Love into souls from across the Globe and we in turn will breathe His love out into our unitive prayer for all priests, all who were, who are and who are yet to be ordained. Millions of souls will offer sacrificial prayer to God for priests who forgive us in Jesus' Name, who consecrate the Bread and Wine and give us Christ Himself in the Most Holy Eucharist, priests whose hands anoint us when we are at last called Home and whose voice will walk us into Eternity.
St. Therese has given us many humbling testimonies of the sacrifices of our sisters and brothers in recent years.
We remember how in one of the poorest countries in Africa, an entire village fasted from food and water for all priests. Their sacrifice brings Therese's words to life.... "O Jesus, for the priest who baptised me, the priests who have absolved me from my sins, the priests at whose Masses I have assisted and who have given me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion."
We remember a grandmother, her daughter and son-in-law, four sons and grandsons who fasted in their country where priests were being dragged from Altars and those who were attending Mass were made to leave the Churches at gunpoint. We pray with St. Therese: "O Jesus, for your priests labouring at home or abroad in distant mission fields, for your tempted priests, for your lonely and desolate priests..."
With that grandmother, perhaps we too may be inspired this year to pray and offer any small sacrifice for those priests on our Fast Day 2025. Is any sacrifice "small"? Our St. Therese reminds us: "Jesus does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them."
We remember the Bishop who invited his entire Diocese to fast ... "O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests... keep them all close to your heart and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity" (St. Therese).
We will offer our fast for all of them this year. Therese teaches us that "Love, because it is Eternal, embraces every time and space." We can therefore raise our prayer and sacrifice for all priests, those who live today, those who were, those who are yet to be.
Last year, in a country where poverty and corruption are life-threatening, a mother joined the Fast but she alone in the family could fast for priests "because the children need the food". This is a country where two priests were murdered in the week prior to the Global Lay Fast. "O Jesus, for your young priests, for your dying priests, for the souls of your priests in Purgatory."
We pray and sacrifice in our Fast for all of these and all priests: for the quiet priests who live and give and are faith-filled and suffer and pray and are obedient and offer sacrifice in an anonymity that makes present the mysticism of the ordinariness of the 30 years of their High Priest in Nazareth.
THE WORLD OF 'FAST-ERS' WILL BE PRAYING AND SACRIFICING FOR YOU ON OCTOBER 18.
We conclude our prayer and suffering for all priests in union with St. Therese as she speaks for us:
“O Almighty Eternal God, Look upon the Face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him, Who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the Bishop’s hands, especially (...name here any particular priest whom you wish to pray and fast for). Keep them close to Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation, and bless them abundantly in time, and in eternity."
WILL YOU PRAY FOR GOD'S "IPSE CHRISTUS" AGAIN AS ONE BODY IN HIM FOR THE 20TH GLOBAL LAY FAST FOR PRIESTS ON THE 18th OF OCTOBER, 2025?
May it please our loving God that we will all unite again this year, on Saturday October 18th, to pray and sacrifice together for all priests, for their protection, their faith, their hope, and above all, for their love.
"THE PRIESTHOOD IS THE LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS. WHEN YOU SEE A PRIEST, THINK OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST."
(St. John Vianney, patron Saint of Priests)
"O Jesus, I pray for Your faithful and fervent priests, for Your unfaithful and tepid priests, for Your priests labouring at home or abroad in distant mission fields, for Your tempted priests, for Your lonely and desolate priests, for Your young priests, for Your dying priests, for the souls of Your priests in purgatory. But above all, I recommend to You the priests dearest to me, the priest who baptized me, the priests who absolved me from my sins, the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion, the priests who taught and instructed me, all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way. O Jesus, keep them all close to Your Heart."
(St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face)
All are most welcome to join this global army of fasters at the link below:
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Thank you and may our tender God continue to bless you with His great Love.
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