Offer the First Friday Mass for You

Snow begins to fall Thursday afternoon...

Two hours later.

View from my bedroom window. It was beautiful to have everything covered in snow. And a very rare treat in Cornwall--about once every 10 years.

Dear Friends and Family,

It is now 9 PM Saturday evening. I just prayed Compline in the little chapel of St. Thomas More, but before turning in for the night I wanted to write you. Tomorrow will be more full than usual due to an afternoon meeting with the coordinators for the Latin Mass in Plymouth, then meeting with a couple,  then dinner at the home of a local priest. So best to write you before tomorrow begins.

Those of you who are far away from England have been on my mind more than usual the past two days. Every First Friday I offer the Holy Sacrifice for all of my benefactors--meaning all of you who support my priestly life and ministry through your prayers, or donations, or sufferings and sacrifices. It is so wonderful as a priest to be able to offer the Holy Mass for those we love. There so many things that words cannot express, or situations that we cannot really help with words or actions--only God can help. And so the Holy Mass allows me to place all of you in the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, to bring you to Him and ask Him to pour out His graces, to draw close to you Himself, to act as He sees fit. He knows so much better than I do what you need.

I know some of you are suffering from intense physical ailments, others are suffering from moral or spiritual situations, or are struggling interiorly; others are grateful for recent graces received, others are discerning a vocation, others are expecting the birth of a new child, or have just given birth to one, and more situations could be mentioned... Please know that I pray for you all in each Mass, but especially in the First Friday Masses--which I offer for you and your families.

I pray especially that Jesus will help you to follow wholeheartedly the unique path He has traced out for you--the path that will lead to you becoming a saint. One secret of the saints is that--when all seems lost around them (or even inside them due to their weaknesses and sins)--they know how to have a boundless hope and faith in God, you might say a "fool's hope," a hope that at times makes no sense humanly but that is firmly rooted in the reality of God's loving presence. And this hope lifts their hearts and souls, grants them courage and strength, grants them the willingness to accept whatever God has sent them, the willingness to lose everything if He asks it of them, confident that they will then receive--in God's time and in God's way--the hundredfold that He promised. And though everything around them may fall to pieces, God opens up a path for them, perhaps a path they had never seen before, a path for their souls, a path that leads to a joy and peace and fullness of life that this world cannot offer.

I pray that Jesus will guide you along that path, the path of the Cross, but the beautiful path that leads to life, and that even in this world leads to a fullness of life beyond anything the world has to offer. May Mary, our kind heavenly Mother, strengthen each of you and guide you along with motherly wisdom.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari