We are living in very strange times right now. Much of the country is locked down to some degree. Your faith life is probably looking drastically different about now.
In the midst of the anxiety over disease and its effects on our country, it’s important that we don’t start to let our faith lives go.
Luckily, there are a lot of resources being made available to us.
We can watch Mass and join the Catholic Church in various types of prayer like never before.
Here are twelve resources to help keep your spiritual life growing and fruitful during these times of uncertainty!
CatholicTV.org
CatholicTV.org is a website that has Masses every day of the week that you can stream live or watch afterwards. There are also Catholic TV apps for viewing on a smart TV, such as Roku.
Highlights of this platform include the option of watching Pope Francis’ Mass, and additional programming like liturgy of the hours and Catholic talk shows.
EWTN
Not all of us have the internet speed (or technological savvy) to successfully stream Mass or other programming online. If you fall into this category, the EWTN cable channel has plenty to offer you.
EWTN airs a prerecorded daily and Sunday Mass at 5 am, 9 am, 4 pm, and 9pm. Their channel has a plethora of other great religious programming as well, including rosaries, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, adoration, talk shows and meditations.
EWTN also has a lot of this material available online as well.
Word On Fire
Wordonfire.org is a Catholic media apostolate run by Los Angeles Bishop Robert Barron.
It has videos of daily and Sunday Masses, usually celebrated by Bishop Barron, whose homilies are pretty great! You’ll also find a variety of articles, videos, podcasts, and other resources on the faith.
TheDivineMercy.org
TheDivineMercy.org is a website devoted to the Divine Mercy and Saint Faustina. On it, you can stream praying of the Divine Mercy chaplet, along with Benediction and blessing with a relic of St. Faustina.
The site also has streaming daily Mass and the rosary, in addition to articles and reflections.
Relevant Radio
If listening to religious material is more your cup of tea than watching it, you can check out Relevant Radio.
They have an app that lets you listen anywhere, and they broadcast on the actual radio on various stations all across the country (here’s a list of their stations).
Relevant Radio has broadcasts of daily Mass at 12 pm Central time, a live rosary at 8pm Eastern time, and a variety of Catholic talk and educational content.
Formed.org
Formed.org is a website devoted to Catholic media and educational content.
In addition to movies on the saints, devotionals, documentaries and instructional faith content, it also has daily Mass and live holy hours. You can view a live video of the Eucharist exposed in the monstrance in the chapel of the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Alma, Michigan.
Formed is a subscription-based streaming service. But a lot of parishes have a subscription code that they’re allowed to share with their parishioners. If your parish doesn’t have a subscription, Formed is having a 40-day free trial right now.
Laudate app
The Laudate app is a free app that has a ton of valuable Catholic resources for any time, but they’re especially valuable right now as we’re isolated.
It has the daily Mass readings, the prayers of the Mass, the Catholic Bible, the Catechism, and an examination of conscience.
It also has the liturgy of the hours prayers. If you’ve prayed them a lot from a physical copy of a Breviary in the past, you might find the different translation of them in this app to be a bit off-putting. The wording is only a little different, but it might be enough to trip you up.
Ebreviary.com
If you are interested in joining the Catholic Church in praying the daily prayers that all priests and religious say each day, Ebrviary.com has pdf files of the various daily prayers contained in the Liturgy of the Hours, in the exact same wording as a physical breviary uses.
The prayers are laid out in a simple format that’s very easy to follow, which is nice for any of us who have ever been intimidated by all the page-turning involved in praying with a hard copy of the Breviary.
Magnificat
Magnificat is that little magazine-style booklet that contains the readings for Mass each day of the month, along with daily reflections and prayers.
It costs a small fee to subscribe for the physical copies of the Magnificat. But right now, they’re offering free access to the online version of Magnificat to help us out during this trying time.
Your diocese
Our Catholic Church leadership knows that this is a strange and trying time for all of us. They’re doing their best to provide for us spiritually right now.
Google your diocese and see what resources they have online to help you in your spiritual life.
Many diocesan websites have daily live streams of Mass with the bishop, links to prayer resources, and even lists of mental health resources.
The Catholic Channel on SiriusXM
Missing a sense of faith-centric social life that you might have had from involvement in your parish or a ministry? You might enjoy listening to the Catholic Channel on SiriusXM satellite radio.
If you already have a SiriusXM subscription, it’s channel 129. You can also sign up for a free trial.
The Catholic Channel has things like daily Mass and Catholic news, but a lot of faith-centric talk shows that are often light and humorous. Check out the daily two-hour show from Catholic comedian and author Jennifer Fulwiler, which is hilarious!
“Find Your Blue Flame in the Dumpster Fire”
This is a free ebook from the above-mentioned Catholic comedian Jennifer Fulwiler. Its full title is Find Your Blue Flame in the Dumpster Fire: Encounter your most sacred gifts just before you die of coronavirus.
This is a 25-page booklet that talks about how to discover your gifts and put them to use for the good of others. It has specific exercises you can do with friends over video chat or do alone. It’s a light, easy read with a fair dose of humor.
The good thing about this ebook is that it aims to help us turn toward positive things we can do in the midst of this terrible time and also gives things to look forward to when this is over.
Anything that can help foster the sense of connection to the rest of the world that we’re probably missing these days can do a lot to help us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
