For Noemia Mascarenhas, the founder of “Daily Flash,” the celebration of the 25 years of the booklet is a confirmation that “God wants it.” “ It is a reassurance from God that “Daily Flash” must go on,” Noemia said with much happiness from her home in Vasco.
‘Explaining what motivated her to venture into this mission, Noemia says, “For several years, I had been considering bringing out a small, practical booklet of Catholic reflections, as many Catholics preferred Protestant booklets like ‘Daily Bread”, “Take 5’ to our lierature.”
Noemia, who edited the booklet for the first five years, says: I was the secretary to the Regional Commission for Christian Life which includes all three rites. I proposed the idea of providing Catholics material for reflection based on the daily scripture readings. I give full credit to the Archbishop Raul Gonsalves, Emeritus Archbishop of Goa, who was the then chairman of the regional Commission for Christian Life, who accepted the idea and encouraged me to go ahead by donating 25,000.00 rupees to launch the publication.”
“I went through a lot of struggles in its beginning in 1990, as we started with 1,000 copies. It was not cost-effective. By the end of the second year we could not manage the expenses. So I printed a note in the booklet informing the readers that we were on the verge of winding up though I had worked for it 24/7 days.”
The readers sent in cash which was sufficient to carry on the booklet. “It was a miracle that even the notes sent through in the envelop reached me, while many money orders had been lost earlier. Because the post man was signing and taking the cash. For me this was another miracle,” smiled Noemia.
“Actually it is Jesus who has started the work. We have just helped him,” she says.
Gratefully she remembers her neighbor and friend, Maude Pereira, a housewife, a devout and simple Catholic who along with her contributed the reflections for the pioneering Scripture Daily “Daily Flash” for the Laity and by the Laity, the tradition that has been carried on until today. Her husband Franscisco also contributed the reflections.
“Besides reflections on Daily readings we also put in fillers from the Vatican Documents. It was a type of Catechesis, Noemia explained.
“At first we had to base on the readings of two rites, Latin rite and Syro-Malabar rite. for the reflections. It was very difficult. The Malankara rite did not have a dioceses in this region,” Noemia added.
She experienced God’s help in different ways: A professional artist Silveira did the artwork for the Daily Flash free of cost, and Dominic Rosario did all the work of distribution.
The first issue gave the readers the idea about the message we wanted to communicate, so we got more people to contribute with writing.
“Initially we face hardships in getting it printed. We had to write, typeset and do the layout. The Printing Press would delay our work. Late Fr Freddie D’Costa came to our rescue when he started the New Age Printing Press. He had the best set up. Only the Govt Press has a similar set-up,” Noemia recalled.
Behind Noemia’s success is her husband, Francisco Dias. “He played a key role in the survival of “Daily Flash”, he provided his own office premises free for our operations for the first two years. He encouraged me that he never my zeal flag, and contributed his expertise in proof reading and other practical necessities.”
The aim of the Daily Flash from its inception is to help people read and reflect on the Word of God; to lead them to a faith encounter with God, to encourage them to give life witness to Christ, to guide the people to a renewal of Christian Life, oriented towards action, said Noemia. The booklet also comes in handy for family prayers and the meetings of Small Christian Communities.
Archbishop Philip Neri who was then (Fr Philip Neri) in charge of the Diocesan Centre for Lay Apostolate (DCLA) saw people appreciating the reflection in the booklet while he was travelling by train from Mumbai. In 1992 October DCLA took over the publication of “Daily Flash.” A year later, he began a Konkani version of the same titled “Jivitacho Prokas”. Presently it has a circulation of 29,000 and is coordinated by Fr Jean da Cruz Fernandes, the current Director of DCLA. The English version has a circulation of 12,500.
Speaking on the silver jubilee function, Archbishop Neri appreciated the efforts of the committed Laity. “This a way of responding to the call for the new evangelization and sharing the Word of God with others,” he said.
He also encouraged the Laity to reach out to more subscribers and increase its readership “not for mere numbers but for the love of Evangelization.”
The contributors were of one opinion: It has helped them to love and interiorize the Word of God. It helps them to be systematic and time bound, to go deeper in to the Scriptures, to be part of the Church in Evangelisation, to make a conscious effort in understanding the difficult passages which used to be left out.
A regular reader of “Daily Flash” says, “ This booklet helps me to know the readings of the day. The reflections given are very helpful. I read them either before or after the daily Eucharist because sometimes I do not understand the reflection points given by the priests.”
“Daily Flash” is now well established and quite self sufficient too. Looking back over the initial few year and how it survived through its struggles I am convinced that we were only instruments in what was primarily God’s work.”
“Getting it off the ground was a great faith experience for me and for my husband, as we had to depend on God for everything—from finances to the many generous writers who made “Daily Flash” a reality. We are so much richer for this experience,” Noemia said.