The Nineveh Fast: Standing at the Foot of the Cross

When Jonah preached to Nineveh, its people could not undo the sins they had committed. But they could turn to God. From the greatest to the least, they fasted and repented, trusting that His mercy was greater than their wickedness.

Each month, our Nineveh Fast places that same choice before us. We cannot make ourselves holy by our own strength, and we cannot heal the wounds of the world by pretending they are not there. We can acknowledge our sins, seek the mercy of Jesus Christ, and begin again.

On this September fast day, I ask you to make that journey with Our Lady of Sorrows.

Mary stood at the foot of the Cross and saw what sin had done to her beloved Son. She did not turn away from His suffering. She remained with Him, faithful in sorrow and steadfast in love. Her presence there teaches us how to bring the suffering of our families, the Church, and the world before the Lord.

There is much to bring. We see lives lost to violence, children harmed by the sins of adults, families divided, and people who have come to believe that God has forgotten them. We see confusion about the truth and, at times, our own reluctance to speak it with courage and charity. We must also examine the sins we would rather overlook in ourselves. Repentance begins when we stop placing ourselves outside the call to conversion.

On Friday, September 25, let us offer our fasting and prayer in reparation for sin and for the conversion of hearts, beginning with our own. If you have been away from the Sacrament of Confession, make your way back. If there is someone you need to forgive, ask the Lord for the grace to take a first step. Let the sacrifice of this day also move you to an act of mercy for someone who is suffering. 

Pray especially for those who carry sorrow in silence: parents grieving a child, families wounded by estrangement, those who are ill or alone, and those who fear that their sins have placed them beyond God’s mercy. Pray for the protection of the innocent and for an end to abortion, trafficking, persecution, and war.

Pray, too, for the Church. Ask the Lord to make her bishops and priests faithful shepherds, her religious steadfast in their vocations, and all the baptized willing to follow Christ wherever He leads.

The people of Nineveh did not know what would happen when they began their fast. They knew only that it was time to turn back to God. We know, through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, how far His mercy has gone to seek us.

Let us stand with Our Lady of Sorrows at the foot of the Cross for our September fast. May she teach us to face sin honestly, to remain close to those who suffer, and to trust her Son with every soul for whom we pray.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

The Nineveh Fast: A Light in the Darkness

When the people of Nineveh heard the warning of the prophet Jonah, they did something that our modern world often finds very difficult: they acknowledged their sin. They did not excuse themselves. They did not redefine what was wrong or convince themselves that God’s commandments no longer mattered. They humbled themselves, fasted, repented, and turned back to the Lord.

That same spirit of repentance is urgently needed in our own time.

We live in a world that has grown increasingly comfortable with sin and increasingly uncomfortable with the truth. Human life is discarded, marriage and family are wounded, children are exposed to confusion, violence continues to claim innocent lives, and countless souls live as though God does not exist. Even within the Church, we can be tempted to accommodate ourselves to the spirit of the age rather than call the world to conversion in Jesus Christ.

Yet the answer to the darkness is not despair.

The Church has always understood that when sin abounds, the faithful are called not only to prayer but also to reparation. We bring the sins and wounds of the world before the Heart of Jesus and offer our prayers, fasting, sacrifices, and acts of penance for those who do not yet know Him, for those who have rejected Him, and for the offenses committed against His love.

During this month of August, traditionally dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we are reminded in a particular way of Our Lady’s call to prayer, penance, and reparation.

At Fatima, the Blessed Mother asked her children to pray and make sacrifices for sinners. Her message was not complicated. Souls are in danger, sin has consequences, and God desires our cooperation in His work of mercy and salvation. The Immaculate Heart of Mary always leads us to the Sacred Heart of her Son.

This is why our Nineveh Fast matters.

We do not fast because we believe our sacrifices somehow earn God’s mercy. We fast because we desire to turn our hearts more completely toward Him. We fast because Our Lord Himself taught us the necessity of prayer and fasting. And we fast because love willingly sacrifices for the beloved.

This month, I ask you to offer your Nineveh Fast especially in reparation for sins against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pray for the conversion of sinners and for those who have abandoned the Catholic faith. Pray for the protection of children and the restoration of marriage and family life. Pray for an end to abortion, trafficking, persecution, war, and every assault upon the dignity of the human person.

And pray fervently for the Church.

Pray that bishops will have the courage to proclaim the fullness of the Catholic faith without compromise. Pray that priests will be holy and faithful fathers to the souls entrusted to them. Pray for religious, seminarians, and all those discerning a vocation, that they may respond generously to the call of Christ. And pray that every member of the Church will rediscover the call to holiness, repentance, and fidelity to the Gospel.

Our Lady stood beneath the Cross when so many others had fled. She did not surrender to fear or despair. Her Immaculate Heart remained united perfectly to the Heart of her Son.

That is where we must stand as well.

The world does not need Catholics who have simply become better at describing the darkness. It needs saints who carry the light of Christ into it. It needs men and women willing to pray when others will not pray, to fast when others will not fast, to make reparation when others deny that there is anything for which we must repent, and to remain faithful when fidelity carries a cost.

Let us enter this month’s Nineveh Fast close to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, asking her to lead us ever more deeply into the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

May our prayers and sacrifices be offered with humility and love for the conversion of sinners, the purification and renewal of the Church, and the salvation of souls.

And may we never forget that no darkness is greater than the light of Jesus Christ.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

The Nineveh Fast: The Promise of Renewal

When the prophet Jonah preached to Nineveh, he did not offer political solutions or worldly strategies. He called the people to repentance. They humbled themselves before God in prayer and fasting, and the Lord, seeing their sincere conversion, poured out His mercy.

Our own age is in desperate need of that same response.

The wounds of our world continue to deepen. War has left countless innocent men, women, and children suffering. Violence and persecution continue in many parts of the world. The dignity of human life is ignored. Families are often under attack, and many souls have wandered far from God. We cannot become indifferent to these realities, nor can we allow ourselves to lose hope.

Recently, I had the blessing of making a pilgrimage to Quito, Ecuador, to the site of Our Lady of Good Success. Centuries ago, Our Lady warned of a time of profound spiritual crisis, a time when confusion would enter society and even the life of the Church. Yet she did not leave us with fear. She pointed us toward hope, promising that after the darkness, God would bring about a renewal of the Church and a restoration of holy and faithful priests.

Those promises should strengthen our confidence today.

The renewal we long for will not come through human strength alone. It begins when hearts are converted to Christ. Every rosary prayed, every fast faithfully offered, every sacrifice united to Our Lord becomes part of God’s work of renewing His Church and calling souls back to Himself.

As you observe this month’s Nineveh Fast, pray with renewed fervor for the conversion of sinners, for peace in a world torn by hatred and violence, for all innocent victims of war, trafficking, abuse, and persecution, and for the healing of families. Pray especially for bishops, priests, and religious, that they may remain courageous and faithful shepherds after the Heart of Christ. And ask Our Lady of Good Success to intercede for the promised renewal of the Church and the priesthood.

The darkness of our times is real, but it does not have the final word. Jesus Christ is Lord of history. He remains with His Church, and He continues to pour out His mercy upon those who seek Him with humble and repentant hearts.

Let us enter this month’s Nineveh Fast with confidence, trusting that God hears the prayers of His faithful people and that, in His perfect time, He will fulfill every promise.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

The Nineveh Fast: An Act of Reparation - An Expression of Hope

The deepest wounds in the world are not political or economic. They are spiritual.

We have witnessed evil exposed in ways that have shocked the conscience. Crimes against the innocent, especially against children, cry out to heaven. Too often, those entrusted with influence, authority, or leadership have failed to protect the vulnerable. Justice is necessary. Accountability is necessary. But neither justice nor accountability alone can heal what sin has broken.

What the world needs most is conversion.

The prophet Joel proclaimed: “Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.” (Joel 2:12)

God does not ask for a passing sorrow or a moment of public outrage. He calls His people to return to Him with their whole hearts. That is why we fast.

The Nineveh Fast is an act of reparation. We offer our prayers and sacrifices in union with Christ for healing and consolation for those who have been abused and trafficked, for the conversion of those who have committed these grave sins, and for God’s mercy upon our nation and the whole world.

The world often dismisses fasting as insignificant. Yet throughout Sacred Scripture, God responds when His people humble themselves before Him. Nineveh was spared. Esther fasted before approaching the king. Our Lord Himself fasted before beginning His public ministry.

God still works through humble souls.

Do not think your sacrifice is too small. A meal freely given up. An hour spent before the Blessed Sacrament. A Rosary prayed with devotion. A hidden act of penance offered with love. These are seen by the Father who sees in secret.

As you enter this month’s Nineveh Fast, ask the Lord to purify your own heart first. Then pray for all those whose hearts have grown cold through sin, ambition, fear, or indifference. Pray especially for the innocent who continue to bear wounds inflicted by the sins of others.

The darkness of our age is real, but it will never be greater than the mercy of God. Let us not grow weary in prayer or lose confidence in His promises. May our fasting be an expression of hope, trusting that the Lord still hears the cries of His faithful people and still pours out His mercy upon those who turn to Him.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

The Nineveh Fast: The Hour is Late

The world is starving, and most do not even know it.

We are surrounded by abundance and drowning in emptiness. Endless words fill the air, yet truth is treated like an intruder. Men boast of progress while children are corrupted, families collapse, nations tremble, and souls wander farther from God. Even within the life of the Church, confusion and compromise have wounded many hearts and weakened many shepherds.

And still, heaven calls us to something the modern world despises:

PENANCE.

Not performance.
Not outrage.
Not political theater.

PENANCE.

When the disciples could not cast out the demon, Our Lord did not tell them they needed better arguments, better organization, or more influence. He said: “This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:28).

There are powers of darkness moving through the world that will not be overcome by human strength alone. We are watching the consequences of pride, impurity, greed, sacrilege, cowardice, and rebellion against God unfold before our eyes. Wars deepen. Violence spreads. Souls despair. Truth is mocked. The innocent suffer while many remain spiritually asleep.

This is why the Nineveh Fast matters.

Nineveh was not saved by wealth or military strength. It was saved because a sinful people humbled themselves before God. They fasted. They repented. They cried out for mercy.

Today, we must cry out again.

Fast for the children whose innocence is stolen. Fast for priests who are weary or afraid. Fast for bishops to speak truth with courage. Fast for families under attack. Fast for a world that has forgotten God.

Fasting is not merely denying the body. It is placing ourselves before God and saying: “Lord, without You, we perish.”

The demons of our age feed on comfort, distraction, impurity, noise, and spiritual laziness. Fasting strikes directly against them because it teaches the soul again how to hunger for God instead of the world.

Do not underestimate hidden sacrifice.

A soul kneeling silently before God in fasting and prayer may do more to save the world than crowds shouting in the streets.

So enter this Nineveh Fast seriously. Offer real sacrifice. Pray deeply. Make reparation for sins – your own and the sins of the world. Beg God for mercy while mercy is still being offered.

The hour is later than many believe. But the Heart of Christ is still open to those willing to return to Him.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland