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CONTACT: info@worldfatima.com
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Countries’ List: WAF Regional
Centre – Africa
Cameroon http://worldfatimacameroon.blogspot.in/
Dem. Rep. Congo
Ghana
Kenya
Ivory Coast
Malawi
Nigeria
South Africa
Sudan
Tanzania
Togo
Uganda
Gabon
Zambia
Botswana
Mali
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SECOND REGIONAL CONGRESS OF THE WORLD APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA FOR AFRICA REPORT:-
From the 6th to the 10th of October, 2010 the Second
African Congress of the World Apostolate of Fatima took place at Abuja,
Nigeria; precisely in the Papal Ground at Kubwa, Abuja, where some
years ago the Holy Father, the Servant of God John Paul II, celebrated mass
before an enormous crowd. The African Congress was entrusted to John Paul II
as it considered the main theme of "The Fatima Apostolate in Africa and the New Evangelization in the light of the
African Synods."
Seven
countries sent nearly seventy delegates to this Second Regional African
Summit: Côte d'Ivoire , Cameroon (where the First Regional Congress
took place), Tanzania , Gabon , Botswana ,
Ghana and Nigeria (our
excellent host). Nearly three thousand members of the WAF-Nigeria attended
all the sessions of this Regional Congress and Third National Rosary
Congress.
For this special occasion, the
International President of the World Apostolate of Fatima, Prof. Américo Pablo
López-Ortiz and the Director of the WAF International Secretariat, Nuno
Prazeres, traveled to Nigeria .
Prof. López Ortiz offered two conferences on "The New Evangelization of
Africa and the Message of Fatima" and "Consecration to God through
the Immaculate Heart of Mary". Mr. Nuno Prazeres offered a talk on
"The Role of the International Secretariat in the Propagation of the
Message of Fatima."
A special guest of honour was
Nigerian Archbishop Jude Mary Thaddeus Okolo, Apostolic Nuncio to Central
African Republic & Chad, who offered a talk on the "The Fatima
Apostolate in Africa and the New Evangelization in the Light of the Synods of
Africa". Archbishop Jude Mary is a member of the WAF since he was a
child and, as he witnessed, his vocation to the priesthood comes from his
devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. As many other Nigerian priests attending
the Congress, he was sponsored by the WAF International as part of the
missionary effort of the WAF Secretariat to make possible their
ecclesiastical studies.
The international delegates paid a visit to His Grace
Most Reverend John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja and to the Apostolic Nuncio
of Nigeria, His Excellency Most Reverend Augustine Kasujja. The WAF-Nigeria is
in total consonance with the Church in Nigeria , working together for the
New Evangelization of the nation.
A great gratitude goes to Prof.
Michael Ogunu, the National President of the WAF in Nigeria, as well as to
Reverend Father Mark Binang, National Chaplain, for their excellent job in
coordinating a wonderful Programme of Events, including the Eucharistic
Celebrations, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Candlelight Procession with
thousands of participants, penitential services and confessions for all,
meditation of the Holy Rosary, Brown Scapular Investiture and Installation of
National Patrons/Patroness of the WAF Nigeria. One of them was the former
International Lay Delegate, Mr. Maurice Archibong, who attended the meeting
with his wife. Other special guests were His Eminence Edidem Emmanuel Ekpo Okon
Abasi Otu V, Obong of Calabar and Natural Ruler, who is a member of the
WAF-Nigeria and Mr. Dominic U. Jack, first organizer of the Blue Army in Nigeria and
National Secretary for many years.
Some of the remarkable talks were: "The Brown
Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and the First Saturday's Devotion" by
Prof. Michael Ogunu (a Carmelite Tertiary and National President of the
WAF-Nigeria); "The Rosary as an Indispensable Instrument of Evangelization
and an Unfailing Weapon against the forces of evil in African Societies"
by Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Michael Sasa, Rector of the Ss Peter & Paul Major Seminary
at Ibadan, Nigeria (more than 550 seminarians attend this seminary and
some of them attended the Congress too as WAF members) and "Promoting
the Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life among African communities" by Eng.
Jerry Okwuosama, a Pro-Life Specialist.
A great contribution was made by
His Excellency Bishop Evaristus Chengula from Tanzania, still an active
diocesan bishop, who presided Holy Mass and offered a great witnessing of
pastoral care with his presence as he has been doing for decades looking after
the WAF in his country.
Several Executive sessions were held
for the international delegates coordinated by Father Roland Berngeh, from
Cameroon, Regional Coordinator for Africa and member of the International
Board of Trustees of the WAF. These meetings were chaired by Prof. Américo
López-Ortiz, the International President of the WAF. A strong need for
materials was expressed by the delegates, especially in French. The
International WAF- Catalogue in English is much appreciated. All copies of dvd's
and books in English were distributed and very well received. The dvd in
English: "Fatima, Hope of the World - A Catechesis on Fatima "
by the International President offers 13 Programmes of 28 minutes each on the
main topics of the Message of Fatima to form national leaders at all levels and
is available from the International Secretariat.
Our
gratitude goes to the WAF-India and the WAF-USA in developing some of
these materials.
The delegates petitioned to the Holy
Father an apostolic exhortation on the First Saturday's Devotion for the
Universal Church. The original text was drafted by Mr. Polycarp, President of
the WAF-Cameroon and Fr. Roland Berngeh, Regional Coordinator and approved
unanimously to be submitted to the Holy See.
After five days of great discipline,
personal sacrifices of many participants to the Congress and special reverence
and love for the Good Lord and Our Lady of Fatima, mixed with unique human
warmth and friendship, the Congress finished as a great success. It was like if
"the sun have danced again" with a spiritual bouquet of graces and
mercy poured on the many participants. The Church in Africa
has a brilliant future.
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Lourdes at France stands as heaven’s reply to
illustration and rationalism, showing the great limitations of human knowledge
and power when confronted with sickness, aging and death. The great advances of
humanity are nothing when compared to the inexplicable intervention of God in
the individual history of men and women completely cured from their infirmities
when coming with faith to the waters of Our Lady’s well at Lourdes . Reason, technology, pride are mute
and humiliated by God’s acts. Then, suddenly, God is needed again in the
European heart! The heavenly mother showed the way to recover faith in God!
Fatima stands as heaven’s reply to the threats posed
by substituting God with the idol of material progress and totalitarianism. The
“paradise” promised on earth turns to be a real hell of hatred, struggles for
power, violence, assassinations, jealousy and genocide. The twentieth century
is the century of martyrs where millions of people were sacrificed to construct
an elusive “paradise on earth without God” that never came! The Message of
Fatima offers the best possible interpretation of the philosophy of history of
that century whose developments come well into our present XXI century forcing
our future generations to become protagonists in the drama of our times: We
must choose between the “civilization of love” or that of hatred; we must
choose between the “culture of life” or the “culture of death” as the great
options that will define our own collective history!
AFRICA MUST ALLOW HERSELF TO BE TOUCHED BY THE HOLY
SPIRIT
Fatima , we may say, is the Marian Pentecost in our
times. Through Fatima , the Holy Spirit has
given a Message to the world. The sins of the world have terrible consequences;
War, crimes, hunger, destruction of nations, persecutions against the Church
and the Holy Father, damnation of poor sinners… Precisely during his recent
pilgrimage on May 2010 to the Fatima Shrine, the Holy Father, entrusted to Our
Lady of Fatima the solution of the terrible moral and spiritual problem of the
sexual abuses of children by members of the clergy in some countries, an
abomination that has much to do with the prophesies by Blessed Jacinta Marto
about the sins against purity and the many souls condemned to hell because of
them.
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Saint Augustine
The
Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA FOCUSES
ON the sanctification of OUR FAMILIES
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This is the theme and inspiring sentence for the spiritual preparations for year 2011-2012: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God?” To develop this important topic we must know the theological nucleus which is “GOD THE SAVIOR” and the catechetical element which is “SHARERS IN THE REDEMPTION”. Catechists, homilists, parish priests and missionaries can develop a wonderful instrument for their respective apostolates. By the offering to God of one’s life we discover in our inner selves that Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, is our personal and communitarian Savior and that we must share with our brothers and sisters in the redemption process initiated and culminated by Him, as we share with Him our own efforts and sanctification of our daily duties; our prayer of adoration that discovers the Trinitarian face of God; our good deeds and merciful actions; our sufferings that make us closer to the Crucified One; our joys that are an anticipation of the eternal happiness in heaven; in other words, as we entrust to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary our being, our existence, in order for us to become like Christ – a pure sacrifice, an acceptable oblation to God the Almighty Father. And we become acceptable to God only because we are the loved disciples of Jesus Christ and when the Eternal Father sees us, he sees the image of Christ, His only Son, in us! Then, we can say along with Saint Paul: “I am no longer the one who lives; it is Christ who lives in me.”
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N.B.: Please contact info@worldfatima,com for discounted copies!
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The Fatima Apostolate in
Africa and the New Evangelization in the Light of the Synods on Africa
By Most Rev. Archbishop Jude Thaddeus
Okolo, Apostolic Nuncio to Central African Republic and Chad
The II Regional Congress of the World Apostolate of Fatima for
Africa had a special guest of honour, the Nigerian Archbishop Jude Okolo,
Apostolic Nuncio in the Central African Republic and in Chad. Apart from
presiding the Eucharist he also offered an inspiring talk on the "The
Fatima Apostolate in Africa and the New Evangelization in the Light of the
Synods of Africa", which is worthy publishing here in its entirety.
Archbishop Jude Mary has been a member of the WAF since he was a child and
his vocation to the priesthood comes from his devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.
Introduction
When the Archangel
Gabriel was sent to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to announce the divine intention of
sending his Son into the world, salvation dawned onto humanity. Subsequently,
on the occasion of Mary's visit to Elizabeth, she echoed a message which
continues to be valid till today: that all generations would call her blessed,
and that the Most High has done great things to her. She therefore, as our
Mother, comes back to our world to share with us the great things which the
Lord has done for her.
The Blessed Virgin Mary has therefore bequeathed to
humanity a very rich and gracious legacy. As
the first fruit of divine redemption, she is the most effective instrument of divine mercy. Through her, we draw closer
to her Son, to know what he wants of us.
The Christian Church
rejoices that it possesses a heritage of excellence, a patrimony of rich
piety and devotion, with a profound theological orientation, and which, over the
centuries, has had a dynamic continuity, a gradual evolution, and an open development,
faithful to its tradition.
It is a devotion which continues to find
its place within the Christological context. It is a devotion that is not too
attached to any particular epoch or people. It is universal. Its biblical context is the solid point of
reference for authenticity and relevance.
The Fatima Event
Ninety-three years
have come and gone by since Our Lady first appeared to the three little
children at the Cova da Iria, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, as they were busy pasturing their
sheep, on that beautiful and blessed 13th day of May 1917. The
Blessed Virgin Mary gave a message that was too much for the children to keep
to themselves, a message that was to touch the whole world - she invited everyone to prayer
and to penitential acts, to diminish the presence and the impact of sin/evil in
the world. She asked for the
consecration of the world, and that we pray for the conversion of Russia. She then promised that later, there would be
peace.
The geo-political
implications of the message were immediately evident. These implications created a
lot of sensitivity to the entire Fatima event - people feared unnecessary
interference in political matters. On the one hand, scepticism grew around it; on the other
hand, interested individuals sought to take advantage of it to project their personal ideologies,
especially against communism.
The three little children understood the
message, simple as it was in itself, simple as
it was communicated to them. Very strikingly, they also transmitted it simply
and honestly. Little as they were, they became efficacious and reliable
instruments of spreading the good
news of salvation.
Today, the World Apostolate of Fatima is here to do
exactly the same thing: to spread the good news
of salvation of mankind through "prayer and penance".
Our Lady assigned various intentions to
her request for prayer: for the well-being of the Holy Father, for the
conversion of sinners, for the conversion of Russia from communistic tendencies.
She warned that certain ideologies would
spread across the world, that the Holy Father would have to suffer a lot and
that many souls go to hell because of sin.
She made some promises: the end of the First
World War, the conversion of sinners, and in the end, her Immaculate Heart would
triumph.
The various intentions made an impression on the children. Obviously,
they did not understand everything. On one occasion, Jacinta, at that early age
of seven, was asked by Lucia if she had any preference regarding the intentions. She
simply replied: "I want
to pray for all the intentions". For her, they were all important; they
had the same level of priority and urgency.
Moreover, the little children felt that the need was immediate.
We are only seven
years away from the Centenary of the first apparitions at Fatima. In his
eminent homily on the 13th of May this year, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI said:
"May the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the
apparitions hasten the fulfilment of the prophecy of the triumph of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity".
This once again sounds
the note of urgency and immediacy concerning the message, and its actualisation. All
available means are supposed to be put into action for its full realisation.
It is a universal message, especially for adults - although it was received through the
mediacy of children.
If the call, or rather
the message of Our Lady of Fatima is still immediate and urgent, it means that
the Fatima event is not yet over. We have to acknowledge its relevance. In fact, as said the Holy
Father Pope Benedict XVI on his way to Fatima in May this year, we would be mistaken to think that the prophetic mission
of Fatima is complete. It is still
unfolding, and the dramatic effects are yet to be fathomed to the fullest.
Understanding the Fatima Message
We are here to answer a call. The call of
the Mother of Christ. To a mother's call, no
child remains indifferent. This time, the call was received through three
little children. In normal daily
life, examples of Christian life are found in adults who have matured, and have been tested by a variety of experiences.
However, when unexperienced children
are presented as examples of evangelical life, the reality becomes very
striking.
The organised appeal which the way of life of these children
imposes is inspiring and enticing, simple
and uncouth, eloquent and coherent, authentic and enduring. Its appeal
is not limited to age or class, to race or epoch. Its overwhelming and
impressive power of expression finds its outburst and projection in the words
and bold gestures especially of the two
last pontiffs.
It even seems that the childlike context
and vehicle gives it more appeal and authenticity.
Here, the words of Christ ring strongly: "unless you change and become
like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of God". And in
another place he says: "Allow
little children to come to me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".
The Universality of
the Message - going beyond political and cultural barriers and frontiers
One of the greatest
miracles which the devotion to the Blessed Virgin continues to perform is the
constant redefinition of natural borders. It is a continuation of the process of the Gospel message right from the
beginning. The Apostles had to go beyond their Jewish culture and borders, and
in all this, the image and presence of Mary is involved. Her presence in Ephesus shows this clearly. In
fact, there is a tradition which shows that the Assumption must have taken place in Ephesus and not in Jerusalem.
The evidence of the House of Mary in
Ephesus (present day Turkey) gives some clear verdict to this dimension and reality.
The tendency to go beyond frontiers is quite
evident in the message of Our Lady of Fatima: the word "world" was used
several times, meaning that the message was not simply for the three little children,
for their complaisance. It was to go beyond them.
The Christian message, valid in itself,
cannot be closed unto itself. It is like steam in an enclosure that seeks its own exit. "Go out to the whole
world, and proclaim the good
news", Christ told the Apostles (Mk 16, 7). If the message is good, valid,
authentic and fresh, it has to be disseminated. An interesting aspect of it is
this: in going beyond cultural
borders, the identity of the message is "reinvented", is
inculturated, but not modified. It fits into new milieux and contexts,
but remains the same. The new context gives
it a new validity and confirms its authenticity.
In going beyond
borders, the structure and the organisational form have to change, but the essence remains integral. In the
Fatima message, the three children no longer needed
to organise prayer sessions or forms. They did not make any effort to invite people to sit, in order to let them know the
contents of the message they brought. Others had to do all that for
them. The immense numbers later determined how, when, where, etc. The place
suddenly changed, in order to accommodate the crowds and the needs. Charisms,
ministries, groups, communities, religious orders, associations, were formed (even competing ones), each according to
competencies.
The message is thus
adapted to age, social conditions, ecclesial contexts, political sensitivities,
cultural forms, psychological and age constraints. A typical example would be the Pilgrim Virgin.
The organisational form of the Visit of the Pilgrim Virgin to Russia can never be
equiperated or compared with the same to Spain. In the one, it was discreet, in the other it was real
fanfare. Thus, the Church shows Mary in her various "faces", and discovers her as full of grace and charism,
capable of responding to all needs, adapting to geo-political
conditions, even to the extent of allowing herself to be typologically and variedly personified. She fits
into all generations, and they would call her blessed.
Whatever has good value, can never go
unperceived. The identity of Mary is also being discovered within ecumenical and interreligious circles.
Now, more than ever, Christians of other
faiths are increasingly informing Catholics not to usurp the Mother of Christ
to themselves as if she belongs exclusively to the Catholic Church. In those
years when the Block Rosary Crusade was in full bloom, when practically every
street in the major cities had a
Catholic prayer group, even the children from Anglican families wanted
to participate. Their parents had to hold them back. Eventually, in places like
Onitsha, the APA, Anglican Prayer
Association, was formed as a counter group.
Muslims, more and more, discover her identity through the
various references in the Koran. Obviously,
the various sensitivities have to be respected in these areas. However, it is opportune to make the mention within this
context of Marian cross-border interfaith reality.
Mary
does not exclusively belong to the Catholic Church. In the devotion to her as the
Mother of Christ, there are many spiritual realities. Those who believe in
divine revelation can also attribute to
themselves such aspects.
Renewal and
Relevance
The Christian message has remained dynamic
and relevant over the centuries and in the
various cultures. This is because of constant renewal and update. The
apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the form of private revelations in various
countries is part of this renewal of orientation and content. The human person
has the tendency to forget and lose awareness of realities, even urgent ones.
In many places, some aspects of this
renewal, due to human excesses, have taken exaggerated forms of fanaticism or irrational
devotional expressions, or even in our times on sometimes sees the demonstration of myopic hermeneutics
devoid of cultural and rational content.
Even the tendency towards secularisation or the neo-protestant iconoclasm have taken their toll. However, at the
end, what emerges is a mature, dynamic
expression of true devotion to Mary.
Even the effort to change the name of the
Association from "Blue Army" to "World Apostolate of
Fatima" is part of this effort towards reform, review, and reorientation. There
is no longer any 'Red Army' as such to be counterbalanced with the weapon of
the Rosary. The major battle which now faces us is that of a world which is losing the
sensitivity to the religious and the sacred. When the Christian society becomes
insensitive to moral evil, anything is possible.
In those places where
integral inculturation has been applied, the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary
has found its adequate place - not only through art but also and especially through liturgical
design, form and ornamentation, through popular devotion. Hymns and popular
chants have been composed in her honour, reflecting the prayers and thoughts of the
people.
All these have contributed towards a
concentration of attention to the maternal role of Mary in African traditions, in the
family, in difficult and challenging circumstances.
Thus, devotion to Mary has not been a static,
mental activity of Christian veneration which ended in Church celebrations. The
faithful have learnt, through inculturation and practice, through experience and need,
to take their heavenly Mother home with them, to find her in their natural, biological
mothers, to seek her help in their needs, to give her a place in their homesteads. That was what the
Block Rosary did for us, especially in the
seventies and the eighties.
As the facts can
prove very eloquently, one of the particularly impressive contributions of
Marian devotion in our times is that of a rich, dynamic catechesis. As a young seminarian, as a young priest, my
commitment was the direct care of the Block Rosary
Crusade. It was an efficient and simple means of education and the formation of
the moral conscience of children, leading them unto goodness. It was the
means, the context and the reason for catechesis, especially for the reception
of the sacraments. It was the pre-eminent
place for the inculcation of moral values. It was the point of reference for parents.
As is
evident through Marian devotions, for the common people, for the Nigerian faithful, the Blessed Virgin is not simply another
goddess far away, to be manipulated for our needs, and relegated
to a corner when these needs are satisfied. No, she is the Mother of the family, and she is the sure guide
along the path to God. She is our Mother.
The Laity and Evangelization
In Nigeria, just like in many other
places, the lay persons have been playing key roles in evangelization, and
these roles cannot be underestimated. Whenever the history of evangelization in Nigeria is written, the
pre-eminent role of the laity must always be highlighted. It is known, and it
is widely acknowledged that the laity has always been at the forefront of catechesis and evangelization in
Nigeria. It is not so much the literate, professional, well-groomed public
functionary, although this latter group is at its core, but here we are talking about the simple,
non-professional believer, the migrant Nigerian,
in search of his daily bread, who after the day's work, or at the weekend, without any prompting by any priest or religious,
looks around for a place of prayer.
As soon as a group is
formed, together with those who manifest a similar zeal, they look for the nearest parish house and
invite the priest to come and visit them. Thus, a mission post is already fixed. The ensuring activities become organized
around the most zealous of the new
community. He becomes the acting catechist - and begins his mission. With the little doctrine he knows or
remembers, he begins to teach the new community and you can be sure that his
teachings range from originality to authenticity, from heresy to fanaticism,
all manifesting his ingenuity and sometimes blunt ignorance. However, the central point is the belief in
Christ, and the trust in him. His docility leaves him open to receive
completion from the priest who visits regularly or occasionally depending on his zeal and depending on how much
his other commitments allow him.
This role of the
laity in our midst explains the rapidity with which the Fatima message was received
especially in the early seventies and eighties in Nigeria.
What Image for the
Future?
Reading along the
lines of the portrait presented to us by the Holy Father during his recent visit to Fatima, interpreting
the Secret of Fatima, with a cursory view of the reality in the world today, it is obvious that the Church is not going
to face a rosy, happy future. It has
already begun : from within and from without, the Church will go through very
bitter times and will be severely persecuted, the Holy Father will suffer a lot
(he is already undergoing real
suffering and embarrassment), many members of the faithful will lose their faith (as is happening in Europe).
We hope that it would not reach the point
of returning to the catacombs, in a different manner.
However, from the
little I know, I am convinced that we are drifting towards tragic times, and therefore
the clarion call to a great awareness of the new era of evangelization. The
call is urgent. The means were already defined 93 years ago: "prayer and penance". The goal is clear :
"the triumph of the Immaculate Heart", to the glory of the Blessed Trinity. It is therefore not allowed
to lower the level of attention. The "watchman"
is called to action. If the watchman sleeps off, what happens?
In the end, says Our Lady, "my Immaculate Heart will
triumph". With her will triumph also
all those who have been faithful to her call.
At a time when
globalization seeks to concentrate economic and political power in fewer hands and
larger entities, globalization in religion seeks to disseminate some religious realties and
impose them on others. Obviously, globalization offers the potential for human advancement, but then
it also makes individuals more vulnerable, more powerless. It also makes
negative values more difficult to be confronted. Making the world therefore a global village, the threats to religion find
themselves personified in persons
who position themselves in places where they can manipulate the thoughts and fears
of others, reinforcing the perception that the Message of Fatima has to make a difference in our present-day world.
A Message that Needs Attention
As we enter into the activities of the Congress, I would like to draw
our attention to two points, to help us not to lose sight of the central
message of Fatima: "simplicity" and "thoughtfulness".
Without knowing
it, we could be carried away by the maze and the craze of the world around us and forget our mission of
"prayer and penance". The world of today as we all know is drifting
away out of control. The sacred is no longer respected; spiritual values are
sacrificed very easily especially in the search for fame and resources.
Talking of
attention and thoughtfulness, Jacinta Marto was known for being thoughtful and
attentive. She received a message and gave it her full attention. Even at her young age, she knew how to see things in depth,
in the search to discover their profound meaning, and find ways to
communicate them. She was not indifferent to the world around her.
The
superficiality of our society can easily carry us along with it. The rush, the distractions,
the intense daily activities and duties could condition us to such an extent that we hardly find time to reflect and ponder on
matters of higher values.
Clear-sightedness, awareness, attention, sense of purpose, will help us
look and see beyond the surface. Consciousness of our
purpose, sense of orientation, will propel us out of our stupor of the present
moment into a clearer vision of the mysteries laid out before us.
While the
Mother of God would not want to be secluded within a sacred fence, inaccessible
except to a few, she would surely not opt for the uncontrolled secularized
perception of her place and role in the world.
Another danger would be the utilitarian tendency to use her for our
gains, when and where we need her. In a society where
the materialistic tendency is on the increase with an uncontrolled rapidity,
such a danger is real and has to be constantly addressed.
Conclusion — A Debt of Gratitude to Our Blessed Mother
We all owe a debt of gratitude to Our Blessed Mother Mary for all we
have received. I particularly, I owe my vocation to the
Holy Priesthood to her, in a mysterious way, difficult to
explain. We thank her for the positive influences in our lives, and we pray that she would continue to help us remain faithful to her Son
Jesus Christ.
We pray that the deliberations and discussions during this Congress
would go a long way towards the fulfillment of the
yearnings of Our Lady as she requested during her visit
to Fatima ninety-three years ago.
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Fatima is more urgent than ever before
because the present spiritual and moral situation of the world. The Message is
a response from heaven of the things that should be done to save our modern
societies from the terrible crisis. The members of the World Apostolate of
Fatima are trying to put into heir lives a response to the four petitions of
Our Lady of Fatima and their respective objective: (1) Meditative prayer: Through the meditation
of the mysteries of the Holy Rosary we will achieve inner peace and
contemplation of the mystery of God and this will bring peace on earth! (2)Penance: By the fulfillment of our daily
duties, we will bear our own cross and become true disciples of Christ, coming
closer to God, closer to perfection and holiness! (3)Eucharistic reparation: By
the Communion of Reparation of the Five First Consecutive Saturdays of the
month, Our Lady has promised all the necessary graces at the hour of death for
the salvation of souls and the great grace of unity and strength for the Universal Church Russia PROVIDENCE
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REPORT ON THE FIRST AFRICAN CONGRESS OF THE WORLD
APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA
By Prof. Americo
Pablo Lopez-Ortiz, International President of the WAF
Ave Maria!
From Thursday, 3rd of April to Sunday
6th of April, 2008 the First Regional Meeting of Africa and the 2008 National
Congress of World Apostolate of Fatima were held at Regina
Pacis College ,
in Mutengene, Buea Diocese ,
Cameroon Nigeria Michael Ogunu ,
National President), the Democratic Republic of Congo (H.E. Nestor Ngoy Katahwa , Bishop of Kolwezi
and National Spiritual Director), Côte D’Avoir (Mr. Matthew Assemian Fiand,
National President and Miss Sylviane Yacé) and Cameroon Togo
and Sudan
This international meeting follows the
policy of having regional meetings to coordinate the Pastoral Plan of the
region and strengthen the efforts of its members to spread the Message of Fatima
in their particular context The First Regional Meeting was that of Asia at Cebu City in
the Philippines Mayaguez , Puerto
Rico and the European Regional meeting at Fatima ,
Portugal North America
in the coming future. The regional meetings are focused on the New
Evangelization through the authentic Message of Fatima, the formation of lay
people, especially of families.
Father Roland Berngeh, National
Spiritual Director of the WAF in Cameroon
As International President of the WAF,
I was blessed with this opportunity to preside the congress, whose theme was:
“Living the Message of Fatima in Depth”.
I offered three talks in their English and French versions,
respectively: “A Marian Apostolate for our times”, “Guide for the Formation of
Leaders of the World Apostolate of Fatima” and “The Spirituality of the Fatima
Apostolate, The Primacy of God in the Message of Fatima.” The talks were followed
by “Questions and Answers” that elicited many important issues that were
clarified, specifically on the new charisma of the Apostolate, the New
Evangelization of lay people and families.
NEW
CHARISMA
By “Living the Message of Fatima in
Depth” we are implementing the NEW EVANGELIZATION proposed by the Holy Father,
John Paul II, the Great, and his successor, Benedict XVI. Africa is the center
of all hopes for the Universal
Church Africa the splendid atmosphere of the first Christian
communities sharing all they have with the poor and needy, strengthening family
ties, experiencing joy and happiness. It is Faith, Hope and Charity that
produces this experience of God, the living and personal God that comes to
dwell in our hearts, filling them with joy and peace!
The members of the World Apostolate of
Fatima in Africa are now aware, more than ever
before, that the promotion of the WAF Pledge and its specific spiritual
conditions is a wonderful tool for the New Evangelization, a suitable
instrument for the formation of lay people and family values development, to
make possible “a true Springtime of the Spirit”. As a public association of the
faithful, the WAF in Africa has a unique opportunity to contribute with its
wonderful spirituality and message to the efforts of the Universal Church
The liturgical ceremonies took place
at All Saints’ Parish at Mutengene. Fr. Celestine Diang serves as Pastor and
Fr. Michael Ngwa Suh is assigned to the parish. Both of them were very
enthusiastic of the World Apostolate of Fatima and its mission. The liturgies
were rich in their folklore, singing and dancing. The offering was rich of
symbolism resembling that of the first Christian communities in their sharing
of all goods among themselves. A sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, a knack
of doing things in the way of the Apostles, even the marriage at the closing of
the congress, portrayed a particular church living a new Springtime! Who says
that the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary has not begun already?
The detailed program included the
First Saturday devotion, two meetings of the International President with the
Bishop of Buea Diocese, a courtesy call to His Grace Christian Cardinal Tumi in
Douala
THE MESSAGE: URGENT CALLS
Our Lady of Fatima appeared at the
Cova da Iria, Fatima , Portugal Tuy , Spain Universal Church
WORLD IMPACT OF THIS MESSAGE
The impact is greater than anyone
could think. It is helping to renew the world and bringing a wonderful
spirituality to many souls in need: A new springtime for the Church! This is
why Pope John XXIII said about Fatima: “Fatima
is the center of all Christian hopes.”
Pope Paul VI said of the Message: “Fatima
is the Gospel adapted to our times.“ But, more than anyone, Pope John Paul II,
the Great, was the model of the Fatima message ; he had a special vocation to
the Fatima message that was discovered
after the assassination attempt
of May 13, 1981, on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, at Rome, at
St. Peter’s Square, a hand shot the bullet that tried to kill him, but another
hand, more powerful then the first one, that of Our Lady of Fatima, deviated
the bullet to save his life for the welfare of the world, that was served by
him for so many years from the throne of
St. Peter. The pontificate of John Paul II was one of the greatest in history
by making possible a renewal of the Church, the collapse of the Soviet Union
without violence, preventing nuclear war and granting the conditions for the
freedom of the Eastern European nations from atheistic communism, creating a
new era of possibilities including the new evangelization of these unfortunate
countries. The measures to be taken to prevent lack of Faith among nations are
foretold by Our Lady from Heaven, who promised that Portugal
MEMORIES FROM AFRICA
My grateful recognition for all our
brothers and sisters of the WAF-Africa, especially for those of Cameroon, in
particular to Fr. Roland Berngeh and his National Executive Committee, for your
affection, hunger for God’s message and detailed implementation of our pastoral
guidelines. I will always have in my heart the welcome at Douala’s International
Airport with nearly 500 members of the WAF in their beautiful blue dresses,
singing and dancing the welcome ceremony...Your offering of true friendship and
solidarity is unique...“A mfufbe Sim Sim o o o h zaa ee a... Z aa eeh - Zaa eeh, Zaa- Zaa ee ee ee”
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“THE NEW EVANGELIZATION OF AFRICA AND
THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA ”
By: Prof. Américo Pablo
López-Ortiz
International President of the World Apostolate of Fatima
“Repent and do penance! The Kingdom of God
The Message of Fatima has it all: The doctrinal
richness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; its freshness, images, gestures of the
primitive Christian catechesis; the calls to penance from Saint John, the
Baptist, preparing the way for the Redeemer; the strong eschatological accents
of Christ before the ruins of Jerusalem; the didactic force of Jesus’ parables;
the simple life of the villagers, their emotional gestures and learned prayers;
the prophetic contents of the Book of Revelation with the confrontation between
“the Woman dressed in sun… and the red dragon”; as well as God’s seal with the
miracle of the sun and the profound spiritual peace found in that holy place
where heaven and earth meet for the welfare of humanity.
Everything occurred in Europe: Three
apparitions of the Angel, the messenger who prepared the way for the visitation
of the Mother of God and seven apparitions of Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima
(including that special one to Lucia on her departure from Fatima) were located
in Portugal .
Then, two apparitions of great magnitude and transcendence occurred in the
other half of Iberia, Spain, at Pontevedra and Tuy, all of them forming a
unique and perfect message coming from heaven, having the objective of
explaining the Gospel of the beloved Son of God for our times so that nobody
could excuse himself or herself from not been capable of interpreting “the
signs for our time”.
Our Lady came to Fatima to speak to the world,
but firstly, to speak to Europe , her beloved
“old continent”, whose history of wars and conflicts, ideologies and politics,
geographical and scientific discoveries as well as technological developments,
had the greater influence to the rest of the world. Through Europe ,
Christianity was spread to most nations in a constant pattern of light and darkness
that produced many saints and heroes that portrayed some of the best of what
human beings are capable of, as well as some of the bigger tragedies in
history, armed conflicts, persecutions and slander. Then, at our modern times,
through Europe, the philosophical trends of illustration, rationalism and
dialectic materialism engendered a struggle against faith and morals, against
the spiritual destiny of humanity, against God himself; not only denying His
existence, but also persecuting in many ways those who believe in Him.
The Message of Fatima is heaven’s reply to
human pride neglecting God and pretending to build “a civilization without God”
because He is not needed any more.
Fatima provides an interpretation of God’s
intervention on the COLLECTIVE HISTORY of men and women of the XX and XXI
centuries as Lourdes
provided in the XIX century the historical interpretation of God’s intervention
in the INDIVIDUAL HISTORY of men and women longing for health and wellness in
the midst of misery and suffering caused by sickness.
God is still needed! The fall of the Soviet
Union, the collapse of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe and the reunification
of Germany , are all great
signs of the fulfillment of the Fatima
prophecy: “At the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph… Russia will be converted and a time
of peace will be granted to the world.” The great qualitative changes in the
world at the end of the twentieth century constitute an authentic new Marian
Lepanto, a great Marian triumph that occurred exactly on the same dates of
liturgical Marian feasts, commemorating the spiritual victories of the Woman
dressed in sun:
1. August 22, 1991: The attempt to overthrow
Russian President Mikhail Gorbachov failed. The Soviet Communist Party has
sealed its fate after three days of a military take over; three days of
confusion and despair in which the forces of the hard core atheistic Communists
confronted the forces of grandmothers and young citizens, ending in the
collapse of their attempt. –Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen!
2. December 8, 1991: It was announced publicly
that the new Community of Independent States substituted the USSR , precisely when the Catholic
world celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary!
3. December 25, 1991: On this date, the
Presidents of Russia , Ukraine and Byelorussia
announced the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union .
It was Christmas Day, the greatest joy in the life of the Blessed Mother, her
giving birth to her only Son, the great Solemnity of Nativity Day!
4. January 1, 1992: Russia emerges as an independent
state, open to religious freedom, public cult and religious practices. The new
Community of Independent States recognizes the independence and sovereignty of
the former Soviet republics. The Soviet Union of Marxist and atheistic
republics passed away at the age of 74 years. This day the Catholic Church
celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, principal Marian feast in the
liturgical calendar. (The Soviet Union could
not celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, that is, its 75th Anniversary.
The Fatima Message could! Both began on October 1917 at the same time!)
The four major dates of the historical changes
that ended an era are marked by the Marian presence, according to God’s will,
the Lord of History! The Servant of God, John Paul II, was a wonderful
instrument in the hands of God to comply with the petitions of Our Lady of
Fatima, including the entrustment of Russia and the world to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with all the bishops of the Catholic world
and those of the Orthodox Church who united with them. By this collegial
consecration of March 25, 1984, the Universal
Church complied with the desires of
Our Lady of Fatima, who prescribed this act of collegiality among the bishops
of the world to convert Russia
and many sinners and bring an era of peace to earth. Just six years later, the
world would see the great qualitative changes in the political map of Europe without the shedding of blood!
The great efforts and contributions of Pope
John Paul’s crusade to fulfill the Fatima prophesy are most remarkable: The
fall of atheistic communism in Eastern Europe, beginning with Poland, the
Pope’s Motherland; the collapse of the Soviet Union and its regime, without
bloodshed; the openness of the old Communist countries to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and religious freedom; the prevention of a disastrous nuclear war that
could have happened between 1985-1986, according to some disclosed documents of
the intelligence agencies and the correspondence of Sister Lucia with the Holy
Father; the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany; an end to
the old Cold War and the opening of a new era of collaboration and better
understanding between nations. The contributions of Pope John Paul II to these
achievements are of the greatest magnitude. These changes in the world
can be labeled as “the Great Miracle of the twentieth century”. Such GRACE AND
MERCY coming through Fatima should have
produced in the hearts of people the most profound gratitude to the Lord of
History who saved the the world from terrible threats of war and destruction!
That gratitude should have moved the people hearts to the conversion of many
sinners!
Although there were great improvements in
removing the malignant structures that prevented whole societies to believe,
love and serve God, it is also true that many more people have ignored the
great GRACE AND MERCY granted from heaven.
But humanity is free to follow God or to walk
away from His path. At present, the world is submerged into a spiritual and
moral crisis. Pope John Paul II, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, foresaw the
present crisis and launched precisely from the Shrine of Fatima the encyclical
letter “Centesimus annus” commemorating the 100 years of the encyclical letter
“Rerum Novarum” by Pope Leo XIII. The social doctrine of the Church and the New
Evangelization are offered by Pope John Paul II as the needed instruments to
build a new world after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. It is essential to substitute
the oppressive structures of the materialistic and atheistic societies of with
the “civilization of love” taught by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, acquiring the
values and lifestyle of Christian life. The world must be re-evangelized. God
must be at the center of cultures and civilization. God must be first! God has
the primacy!
SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
Many Catholics, including those with a cultural
formation and knowledge of the theology and spirituality of the Church, despise
the Social Doctrine as a mere assistance activity to help the poor and the
disabled. They forget that the principal role of the Church is the practice of
CHARITY. Precisely, there is no spirituality without charity. God himself is
charity, according to the First Epistle of St. John: 4:8.
Charity is the basis for Divine Liturgy. The
Eucharistic Sacrifice is pure charity. The Holy Communion is absolute charity.
Divine Office, the official prayer of the Church is charity in its maximum
expression. Thus, charity is the core of authentic spirituality! Spirituality
without charity is an empty devotional practice not acceptable to God! It is a
mere exercise of egocentric individualism.
Then, charity projects to all members of human
societies, inspiring justice and fair distribution of goods according to the
needs of our brothers and sisters.
Human ideologies with atheistic background and
totalitarianism can not forge the New World .
Their oppressive structures were the cause of great suffering and lack of
authentic democracy and personal freedom for millions of people throughout the
world.
On the other hand, an ideology, expressed in
its version of savage ambition for profits and luxuries, can not serve as
model. It would be like replacing one monster’s head with another, but still
the same dragon. Materialism is not only dialectic, it can also be pragmatic,
that of consumerism. Pope John Paul II understood from the beginning that this
should not be a political competition between systems. The savage ambition of a
system could not serve to rebuild the world since it will plunge people to a
spiritual and moral crisis, substituting God’s primacy with greed, goods
consumption and unfair distribution of riches. At the end, such system
will end in pragmatic atheism, a different head of the same monster of
Materialism.
MODERN CULTURE FORGETS ITS CHRISTIAN HERITAGE
On May 21, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI attended a
concert in honor of his birthday and the anniversary of his election as Pope,
offered by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill I. In his address at
that occasion, the Holy Father said how deep in these musical works is the soul
of the Russian people and therewith the Christian faith. The musical heritage
of Russian tradition in some way creates encounter, dialogue and synergy
between East and West, between tradition and modernity. The Pope said:
“It was of just such a unified and harmonious
vision of Europe that the Venerable John Paul II was thinking when, referring
to the image of the ‘two lungs’ suggested by Vjaceslav Ivanovic Ivanov, he
expressed his hope in a renewed awareness of the continent’s profound and
shared cultural and religious roots, without which today’s Europe would be
deprived of a soul or, at least, victim of a reduced and partial vision.”
The Holy Father added: “Modern culture,
particularly in Europe, runs the risk of amnesia, of forgetting and thus
abandoning the extraordinary heritage aroused and inspired by Christian faith,
which is the essential framework of the culture of Europe …
Today too these roots are alive and fruitful in East and West, and can inspire
a new humanism…to respond to the numerous and sometimes crucial challenges that
our Christian communities and societies have to face: first among them, that of
secularism, which not only impels us to ignore God and His designs, but ends up
by denying the very dignity of human beings, in view of a society regulated
only by selfish interests”
Pope Benedict XVI concluded: “Let us again let
Europe breathe with both lungs, restore a soul not only to believers, but to
all peoples of the continent, promote trust and hope, rooting them in the
millennial experience of the Christian faith. THE COHERENT, GENEROUS AND
COURAGEOUS WITNESS OF BELIEVERS MUST NOT NOW BE LACKING, so that together we
may look to our shared future, a future in which the freedom and dignity of all
men and women are recognized as a fundamental value, in which openness to the
Transcendent, the experience of faith, is recognized as an essential element of
the human being.”
To secularism we must oppose the witnessing of
believers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all, proclaiming that God is first,
speaking about the rights of God as Creator and Redeemer to humanity. This is
the great call of the Message of Fatima, capable of providing a religious
experience that can transform the human heart as it transformed the hearts of
Blessed Jacinta and Francisco and Venerable Sister Lucia. We should focus on
the formation of leaders that will guide our communities and societies to
construct the Kingdom
of God
THE NEED TO HAVE AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN
POLITICIANS
When the Holy Father, Benedict XVI received
participants to the twenty-fourth plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council
for the Laity on May 21, 2010, he invited them to reflect on the theme:
“Witnesses to Christ in the political community”.
The Pope told them that, although the
“technical formation of politicians” is not part of the Church’s mission, she
reserves the right to “pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public
order when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls
require it”.
Christ’s disciples in our days must accomplish
the great threefold mission, to defeat “the spread of a confused relativism,
and of a utilitarian and hedonistic individualism (that) weakens democracy and
favors the dominance of strong powers”:
- “It is up to the lay faithful
to show –in their personal and family life, in social cultural and
political life- that the faith enables them to read reality in a new and
profound way, and to transform it”, said the Pope.
- “It is also the duty of the
laity to participate actively in the political life, in a manner coherent
with the teaching of the Church, bringing their well-founded reasoning and
great ideals into the democratic debate, and into the search for a broad
consensus among everyone who cares about the defense of life and freedom,
the protection of truth and the good of the family, solidarity with the
needy and the vital search for the common good”.
- The Holy Father went on: “There
is the need for authentically Christian politicians but, even more so, for
lay faithful who bear witness to Christ and the Gospel in the civil and
political community. This need must be reflected in the educational
prospectus of the ecclesial community and requires new forms of presence
and support from pastors, Christian membership of associations, ecclesial
movements and new communities can be a good school for such disciples and
witnesses, supported by the charismatic, community, educational and
missionary resources of those groups”.
OUR SOCIAL COMMUNITES AND THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA
Pope Benedict XVI in his recent visitation to
the Shrine of Fatima, on May 13th, 2010, insisted that all
communities must live the Message of Fatima since all communities are called by
this message to repent and do penance, to convert to Jesus Christ and abandon
the evil spirit and his worldly deeds as was promised in our baptism. The World
Apostolate of Fatima, an international public association of the faithful has
as its charisma the formation of lay people in the New Evangelization using as
instrument the authentic Message of Fatima. This is the
educational prospectus of our association, to carry on this mission enriching
the ecclesial community with a new vision for our families in the present times
of confusion and uncertainty. As Pope Benedict XVI said at Fatima :
“DO NOT BE AFRAID TO TALK OF GOD!” The great challenge of our times is “the
separation and the opposition between secularism and the culture of
faith…something anomalous...must be transcended. The present moment is for the
two to come together, and in this way to discover its true identity.”
The world must renew its spiritual and
apostolic zeal, accepting the Gospel of Christ in its entirety and witnessing
with passion the experience of charity, the religious experience of God’s
mystery, that light shed from the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Fatima, which was
God himself, transforming the hearts of the three little shepherds of Fatima . The experience of God’s love to humanity will
transform also the hearts of the African continent with the ever new,
everlasting power of Jesus Christ Risen from the dead! Suffering, anguish and
death are all overcome by the power of the Risen One! This is the great
existential lesson of the Fatima Message for all!
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN HAS A GREAT NEED OF GOD
As the traditional procession marking the end
of the month of May 2010, month devoted to Our Blessed Mother, took place in
the Vatican Gardens, the Holy Father Benedict XVI remarked: “By its nature, the
Church is called to proclaim the Gospel everywhere and at all times, to spread
the faith to every man and woman and to every culture.”
He continued: “Mary remained with Elizabeth for
three months to offer her loving nearness, concrete assistance and all the
everyday services that were needed… and Mary, -who called herself ‘the handmaid
of the Lord’- made herself the servant of mankind. More specifically, she
served the Lord whom she encountered in her brothers and sisters.
It should be noted that ‘Mary’s charity’ is not
limited to concrete assistance but achieves its highest form in bestowing Jesus
himself, in ‘making him present’”, the Pope said.
The Holy Father continued: “THIS IS THE HEART
AND THE HEIGHT OF THE EVANGELICAL MISSION. THIS IS THE TRUE MEANING AND THE
MOST GENUINE PURPOSE OF EVERY MISSIONARY PATH: TO OFFER HUMAN BEINGS THE LIVING
AND PERSONAL GOSPEL, WHICH IS THE LORD JESUS HIMSELF. Jesus is the true and
only treasure that we have to give humanity. Today’s men and women have a
profound longing for Him, including when it seems they are ignoring or
rejecting Him. The society we live in, Africa
the entire world has a great need of Him.”
The World Apostolate of Fatima, Region of
Africa, has been entrusted with this extraordinary responsibility: To live with
joy and devotion the experience of the mystery of God, Jesus Himself, shared with us by the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in Fatima . Through
meditative prayer, daily sanctification of our duties, Eucharistic Reparation
and the entrustment to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the members of
the World Apostolate of Fatima use the Plan designed by Our Lady to bring
humanity closer to her Divine Son by softening the human heart with Grace and
Mercy!
The World Apostolate of Fatima must contribute
to reinforce the bond between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the African
cultural identity. As Christians, this is our duty!
Pope Benedict XVI declared during the
commemoration of Saints Cyril and Methodius on the month of May, 2010: “In
moments of trial and joy they felt that God accompanied them daily experiencing
His love and that of their brethren. We too understand that when we feel loved
by the Lord, and know that we return this love, we are enveloped and guided by
His grace in everything we do. Thanks to the effusion of the multiple gifts of
the Holy Spirit, the more we know we are loved and give ourselves to others,
the more that Spirit will come in our succor of our weaknesses, opening new
roads for our activities.”
It is this experience of God’s love that can
transform the routine of apostolic endeavors into something new and exciting.
We feel that we are contributing to Christ’s efforts to salvation of men and
women, we feel united with the Holy Spirit, fulfilling Christ’s mission on
earth through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Then, what was not possible
according to human standards is now possible and accessible since love
transforms all things, bringing joy and happiness in the midst of trials and
sufferings.
GREAT LESSONS OF THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER “CENTESIMUS
ANNUS”
On May 22, 2010, the Holy Father Benedict XVI
pronounced a speech to the “Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation” stating:
“Today, more than ever, the human family can grow as a free society of free
peoples so long as globalization is guided by solidarity and the common good
and by social justice, all of which find a precious wellspring in the message
of Christ and of the Church. The common good is the goal that gives meaning to
progress and development, which otherwise would be limited only to the
production of material goods. These goods are necessary, but without the
orientation to the common good, consumerism, waste, poverty and inequality come
to prevail, which are negative factors for progress and development.”
Today’s moment in history presents the terrible
financial crisis of the more developed countries, specifically more profound in
the United States of America and Europe, due to the wrong decisions made to
embrace a war in Iraq and not limiting the greed and avarice of the finance
stock and mortgage markets that threatens whole nations to bankruptcy. The
irresponsible speculation of so many should have been restricted by politics
that must have primacy over finance and by ethics that must be the guiding
force for them all.
After all, this is what happens when humanity
turns to the old ways of the Babel
Tower America
and Europe learn the lesson from history, from
its two great wars of the twentieth century, from its Cold War, from the
collapse of the Western economies?
Pope Benedict XVI stated: “The fundamental
priority for the development of the entire family of peoples, however, is to
strive to recognize the true scale of goods and values. The notion of integral
human development presupposes such things as subsidiarity and solidarity, and
interdependence between State, society and the market. In a global society
made up of many different peoples and
religions, the common good and integral development must be achieved with
everyone’s contribution. Religions have a crucial role to play in this,
especially when they teach fraternity and peace. THE EXCLUSION OF RELIGION FROM
PUBLIC LIFE –AND AT THE OTHER EXTREME, RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM – HINDERS AND
ENCOUNTER BETWEEN PERSONS AND THEIR COLLABORATION FOR THE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY.
PUBLIC LIFE IS SAPPED OF ITS MOTIVATION AND POLITICS BECOMES DOMINEERING AND
AGGRESSIVE”.
The Message of Fatima insists on three main
teachings in the same direction as the papal teachings of the encyclical
letter:
- God is first! He must be at the
center of human life. All things orbit around His laws and commandments.
This is the primacy of God!
- The fate of nations, the fate
of the world, has been entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We must
pray to her Immaculate Heart to obtain world peace. This is God’s will.
- The collapse of the Soviet
Union, the openness of Eastern Europe to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the
reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall, signs of the
beginning of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary promised at
Fatima, are a great grace from Heaven that must be completed by the
European efforts to build new societies based on the “civilization of
love” principles, the “globalization of solidarity” in a world full of
greed and exploitation, as the papal doctrine teaches.
A CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHICAL TREND IS NEEDED BASED
ON HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND INTERIOR LIFE
We must strive to put God again at the center
of public life by building a civilization of love and peace, a culture of life,
the Christian values portrayed by the great philosopher Saint Augustine , an African, Father of the Church, Father of Europe and of the Western Civilization. It is Saint Augustine who
focused on the role of religious experience and its significance in providing
the human heart with peace and happiness. It is precisely Saint Augustine the object of Joseph
Ratzinger’s doctoral thesis, whose symbol appears in the papal coat of arms,
for he considers himself a disciple of the Bishop of Hippo. And by Divine
Providence, it is Saint Augustine
the patron saint of the Diocese of Leiria-Fatima.
I must confide you that the great Saint Augustine , the most
prolific writer in history and the most quoted author of them all, must recover
his role in thought as provider of the great experience of God in the human
heart, the awesome psychological traits of interior life and his role in the
interpretation of history.
In the “City of God ”,
Saint Augustine
begins the philosophy of history with the great drama of the century, the
confrontation between the forces of the Redeemer and the force of the
Antichrist, competing to govern the human heart. But charity, true and perfect
love, triumphs over. The African Doctor of the Church teaches it all.
In the Message of Fatima, “the Woman dressed in
sun” confronts the red dragon and defeats it by the power of her Divine Son.
The spiritual Mother of humanity promises a great triumph of her Immaculate
Heart to bring an era of peace to all. And as St. Augustine is the master of Conversion
and the great teacher of the most sacred mystery of Christianity, the mystery
of the Most Holy Trinity, we see that the key and central topic of the Message
of Fatima is the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity revealed to the three little
children while the great call of the Message is that of Conversion: Conversion
to God, “metanoia”, a transformation of the ‘old creature’ to the ‘new one’
dressed in Christ’s grace and mercy.
At the Solemnity of Pentecost on May 23rd,
2010, Pope Benedict stated: “At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appeared as fire.
How different this fire was from that of wars and bombs…from the fires ignited
by dictators of all ages, even last century, which left behind them only
scorched earth. The flame of the Holy Spirit burns but does not injure, and yet
it achieves a transformation…However, this effect of the divine fire scares us,
we are afraid of being ‘scalded’ and would prefer to remain as we are. This
depends on the fact that our lives often follow a logic of having, of
possession and not of giving… On the one hand we want to be with Jesus to
follow Him closely, on the other we are afraid of the consequences this
brings”.
The Holy Father said: “We must be able to recognize
that losing something, losing ourselves for the true God, the God of love and
life is in fact a gain, it means rediscovering oneself more fully. Those who
entrust themselves to Jesus experience peace and joy of heart, already in
this life, things the world cannot give, and cannot take away once God has
given them to us.
IT IS WORTHWHILE THEN TO ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE
TOUCHED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. THE PAIN THIS BRINGS IS NECESSARY FOR OUR
TRANSFORMATION.”
The continent of Africa
must use her spiritual reserves to transform the great collective pain and
suffering caused by many wars, conflicts and the great inequalities and injustices
in the past and present crisis. I must say that of theses crisis the worst is
the crisis of identity, where many have lost a great amount of their cultural,
spiritual and moral values. Africa needs the
fire of the Holy Spirit, a fire which is Perfect Love, Charity, the only force
capable of redeeming.
The mystery of Pentecost is essential to the
Church. There is no Church without Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended over
the Apostles praying at the Cenacle with the Blessed Mother Mary. The Church
was “baptized” that day. The Holy Father said: “The Church lives constantly in
the effusion of the Holy Spirit without which she would exhaust her energies
like a sailing ship without wind. Pentecost is renewed especially in certain
particularly intense moments, both at the local and universal level, in small
assemblies and in great gatherings. Yet, the Church experiences countless
‘Pentecosts’ which enliven local communities: the liturgies, especially those
experienced at special moments in community life, in which the power of God is
perceived particularly clearly, infusing souls with joy and enthusiasm. Thus,
there is no Church without Pentecost. And I would like to add, there is no
Pentecost without the Virgin Mary. So, it was at the beginning, in the Cenacle…
So it is always, in all places and times. I myself witnessed as much a few days
ago in Fatima , Portugal
The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
promised at Fatima had begun already. It is a
difficult process that can be hastened or delayed, enhanced or diminished
accordingly with our correspondence with grace and mercy. As the miracle of the
sun was diminished because God was so much offended by the kidnapping of the
three little shepherds of Fatima by the local authorities of the government of
Vila Nova de Ourem; the triumph of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, begun with collapse of the Soviet Union, can also be affected by our correspondence with
grace. But we must have faith and hope. I believe in a new springtime for
the world. As the great Saint John Bosco, Marian prophet and precursor of the
Fatima Message prophesied, there will be a new Marian Pentecost in the first
third of the XXI century bringing a new springtime to the Church and the
triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In Africa , the
Bishops of the Catholic Church have celebrated several synods on the
Evangelization of the continent, guided by the Holy Spirit and the Successor of
Peter, the Holy Father. The Servant of God, John Paul II and his successor,
Pope Benedict XVI had launched the great challenge of the New Evangelization of
our cultures and civilizations as the only way to establish God’s Kingdom on
earth. The diocesan bishops have the charisma to judge the charismas, that is,
to discern what is good and what is bad for their flock, as the Holy Spirit
governs the Church. Let us follow their indications in communion with the Holy
Father. Let us discover the tremendous role of the Message of Fatima for the
success of this unique mission of evangelization. Let us put our trust in He
who has triumphed over suffering, anguish and death. Let us entrust ourselves
and our families to the Prince of Peace, Lord of History, who lives and reigns
forever and ever. Amen.
JOHN PAUL II, BELOVED SON OF OUR LADY OF
FATIMA
By:
Prof. Américo Pablo López-Ortiz
International President of the World Apostolate
of Fátima
Pope Benedict XVI will
celebrate the tenth anniversary of the beatification of Blessed Jacinta and
Francisco Marto with a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Fátima on May 13, 2010.
Ten years ago, the
Servant of God, John Paul II, the Great, beatified the little shepherds of
Fátima in a public ceremony before an audience of more than one million
pilgrims and many more millions of the faithful through satellite television.
At the end of the liturgical ceremony, the third part of the secret of Fátima
was revealed to the world by Angelo Cardinal Sodano, Secretary of State of the Vatican
Sister Lucia wrote
that during the Apparition of July 13, 1917, the three little shepherds of
Fátima saw “a bishop dressed in white who, half trembling, with halting step,
afflicted by pain and sorrow, crossed, together with other bishops, priests,
men and women religious, a great city in ruins, praying for the souls of the
dead that he found on the way and (he) climbed up a steep mountain, on whose
summit was a cross at whose foot he was killed.”
Pope John Paul II recognized himself as the
Bishop of Rome “dressed in white.” He suffered an assassination attempt on the
13th of May, 1981, the feast of Our Lady of Fátima and anniversary
of her first apparition. The Pope survived the attack as a maternal hand
deviate the bullet. In his autobiography, “Crossing the threshold of Hope”, John Paul II wrote that at the moment of the
assassination attempt, he felt spiritually carried to the Shrine of Fátima
where Our Lady covered him in her mantle as he felt protected and saved by
Divine Providence. It was a true miracle the saving of his life to serve the
See of Peter and the world for many years to come. As the Bishop of Fátima, Don
Alberto Cosme do Amaral, announced in his welcome address of John Paul II to
the Shrine of Fátima on the 12th of May, 1982, this assassination
attempt marked a change in the course of history, marking the Holy Father
himself with the shed of blood of martyrdom, as he offered his life with Christ
as a victim for the salvation of the world at the time he better understood his
personal vocation and mission on earth: “Totus tuus” (All yours, Blessed
Mother.)
Thus, the Holy Father,
summoned by the Message of Fátima and its third part of the secret, which he
read and meditated while still recovering at the Gemelli Clinic in Rome, began a
great crusade that changed the face of earth: Through calling all Christians to
prayer, especially children and young people, Christianity endorsed his agenda
of international meetings to urge the New Evangelization of our cultures and
societies; his encyclical letters to offer guidelines to the Church; the new
Universal Catechism to clarify the doctrinal
teachings of the Church to the world; the new code of Canon Law; the pastoral
plan for the third millennium of Christianity.
The Holy Spirit guided
him in an era of weakness and terrible confusion as to offer fortitude and
authentic truth with tremendous power: “Do not have fear!” John Paul II was
convinced of his mission as he put into practice the Message of Fátima and its
urgent calls, devoting himself to comply with the petitions of Our Lady of
Fátima. On March 25, 1984, John Paul II presided the collegial consecration of
the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with all the bishops of the
Catholic world and those of the Orthodox Church who united with him, complying
the desires of Our Lady of Fátima who prescribed this act of collegiality among
the bishops of the world to convert Russia and many sinners and bring an era of
peace to earth. In this same place of the collegial consecration, St. Peter’s Square,
the Holy Father had shed his blood in a 13th of May, feast of Our
Lady of Fátima and date of her first apparition! Just six years later, the
world would see the great qualitative changes occurring in the political map of
the world without the shedding of blood! The entrustment of the world to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary was made before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima
brought from her Shrine in Portugal
to Rome
The great achievements
of the Pope’s crusade: The fall of atheistic communism in Eastern Europe,
beginning with Poland, his motherland; the collapse of the Soviet Union and its
regime, without bloodshed; the openness of these Communist countries to the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and religious freedom; the prevention of a disastrous
nuclear war that could have happened between 1985-1986, according to some
disclosed documents of the intelligence agencies; the fall of the Berlin Wall and
the reunification of Germany;
an end to the Cold War
and the opening of a new era of collaboration and better understanding between
nations. The contributions of Pope John Paul II to these achievements are of
the greatest magnitude. These changes can be labeled as “the Great Miracle of
the XX century”, indeed the new Great Marian Lepanto at the end of the XX
century, announced by St. John Bosco, Marian Prophet and Precursor of the
Message of Fátima.
On the 13th
of July, 1917, Our Lady of Fátima said to the three little shepherds: “In the
end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia
Saint Padre Pio of
Pietrelcina, Spiritual Father of the World Apostolate of Fátima, (formerly the
Blue Army of Our Lady of Fátima) met at San Giovanni Rotondo a young priest,
named Karol Wojtyla, a student in Rome
Then, in 1962,
Wojtyla, then a bishop participating in the Second Vatican Council, wrote a
letter to Padre Pio, asking his prayers for the cure of his collaborator, Dr.
Wanda Poltawska, who suffered from a serious tumor. She was miraculously cured
and eleven days later, Bishop Wojtyla wrote a second letter to Padre Pio
thanking him for his prayers that granted such a great grace from heaven.
Angelo Battisti, an employee of the Secretariat of State of the Vatican offered
the testimony that when he read to Padre Pio the letter from Bishop Wojtyla,
Padre Pio said: “Angiolino, one cannot
say no to this”, because of the great importance that Karol Wojtyla, the future
Pope John Paul II, have for the Church.
The great signs of our
time are those that we need to see to comprehend reality in its full sense. We
must pray to the Holy Spirit to be able to see the signs of time, as the Holy
Scripture says in order to discover God’s voice behind the signs! These great
events in history occurred on the dates of Marian solemnities in the liturgical
calendar of the Catholic Church. Let us see the chronology:
- The attempt to overthrow President Mikhail
Gorbachov failed. The Communist Party had sealed its fate after three days
of a military take over; three days of confusion and despair in which the
forces of the hard core atheistic Communists confronted the forces of grandmothers
and young citizens, ending in the collapse of their attempt. August 22,
1991 – Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary!
- The
celebrates the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord; the greatest joy
in the life of a mother, her giving birth to her only Son. In this same day of
1991, the Presidents of Russia ,
Ukraine and Byelorussia announced the formal dissolution of
the Soviet Union . It was Christmas Day!
public cult and religious practices. The new Community of Independent
States
recognizes the independence and sovereignty of the former Soviet
republics.
The Soviet Union of Marxist and atheistic republics is dead. The passing
away of this materialistic state is dated on January 1, 1992 at the age of 74. This
day, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God,
principal Marian feast in the liturgical calendar. (The Soviet
Union could not celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, that is, its 75th
Anniversary. Fátima could! Both began on October of 1917 at the same time!) As
Josef Stalin once said: “How many divisions (of an army) has the Pope?” The lesson
to remind in our collective memory: Military force is nothing before God’s
power and mighty!
Are these
coincidences? The three major dates of
the historical changes that ended an era are marked by the Marian presence,
according to God’s will, the Lord of History!
John Paul II was a
wonderful instrument in the hands of God to comply with the petitions of Our
Lady of Fátima and her prophesy on the triumph of her Immaculate Heart and this
is why he deserves the title of the Fátima Pope. .
The triumph of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary has begun already. There are many obstacles on the
way. It is true that the triumph might be diminished or expanded according to
our response to God’s grace and mercy. The correspondence with grace may hasten
or delay her triumph. The triumph is a gradual process of highs and lows. But
at the end, a new era of peace and hope will be granted to humanity through the
Kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a new
Marian Pentecost, a new springtime for the Church!
Today, we may have the
great storms and trials. But “do not be afraid.” Thanks to the life and legacy
of John Paul II, humanity has a bright future again. Let us be proactive as the
great John Paul II was. Let us see the great changes occurred in Russia, her
children and young people longing for a religious experience, praying publicly
in their classrooms and public meetings, having crucifixes and icons of Our
Lady in public schools and buildings,
rebuilding churches
and monasteries to be handed to the Church, or building a Marian Shrine at
Kazan with public funds to be used by the Orthodox, Catholic and Moslem
communities to venerate the most sacred icon of Russia! (The same one venerated
at the International House of the WAF in its Byzantine chapel for many years
and returned to Russia
The Servant of God
rendered a service to the Church and fulfilled his mission on this earth in one
of the longest pontificates in history and perhaps the greatest since the days
of Saint Peter. Indeed, John Paul II was
a beloved son of Our Lady of Fátima. His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, his
loyal collaborator for so many years, who explained for the Church the third
part of the secret of Fatima , carries
brilliantly the legacy of Pope John Paul II into this XXI century. For this he
will have to suffer much but we will accompany him, “climbing up a steep
mountain on whose summit is a cross.”
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800 years ago St. Dominic, founder
of the Dominicans, made this
prophecy:
"One
Day, Through The Rosary And
Scapular,
She Will Save The World"
The Brown Scapular of Our
Lady of Mt. Carmel is a great gift from heaven. Our Lady wanted to signify her
spiritual motherhood over mankind. The Brown Scapular is the sign of that
spiritual motherhood. Our Lady was made Spiritual Mother of mankind by her Beloved
Son, Jesus Christ, at the Cross on Good Friday. There, John, the Apostle, the
preferred disciple of Jesus, received her in his heart and at his home, as
Jesus gave him His Beloved Mother to look after her as He was about to die. The
Church sees in St. John the image of mankind as all good Christians invested in
the Brown Scapular should become like John, other preferred disciples of Jesus.
Mother Mary wants us to become her preferred children too and the Brown
Scapular is the sign of that beautiful spiritual motherhood and of our
entrustment to her Immaculate Heart. Let us proclaim to the world that we are
the children of Mary, the beloved disciples of Jesus Christ!
Q. What is the Brown
Scapular?
A. The Brown Scapular is a
sacramental, a sign of faith. It is part
of the habit of Carmel. In miniature form, it consists of two small pieces of
brown material connected by string and worn over the shoulders. The Carmelite
Order, to which the scapular belongs, originated on Mount Carmel in the Holy
Land near the cave of Elijah the Prophet, who was the inspiration of the early
members of Carmel. During the last apparition at Fatima (October 13, 1917), the
Blessed Mother held in her hand a Brown Scapular while she presented herself as
Our Lady of Mount Carmel. When asked why Our Lady held it, Sr. Lucia answered,
“….because she wants everyone to wear the scapular… because it is our sign of
consecration to Her Immaculate Heart”.
Q.
What is the history of the Scapular?
A. Let us proclaim to the
world that we are the children of Mary, the beloved disciples of Christ by
using devoutly the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel! St. Simon Stock,
General of the Carmelite Order, was the man God chose to accomplish great work
in his Order. About 1251, when difficulties seemed insurmountable, Simon had
recourse to Mary, who he loved. According to tradition, she appeared to him and
made the scapular of the Carmelite habit a sign of her special love and a
pledge of her motherly protection, saying:
“This shall be to you and all Carmelites a privilege,that anyone who dies clothed in this shall not suffer
eternal fire; and if wearing it they die, they shall be saved”.
Catholic theology explains the promise to mean that
anyone dying in Mary's family (Carmelite Order or Scapular Confraternity) will
receive from her, at the hour of death, either the grace of perseverance in the
state of grace or the grace of final contrition.
The wearing of the scapular must be understood to mean
that one is striving earnestly to live up to all Christian ideals. It does not
take the place of the Church's sacraments, but is an outward sign of inward
commitment to virtue and Christian piety, under the patronage of Mary.
Saints and Pontiffs have often warned us of the folly of
abusing Mary's promise. At the same time Pope Pius XI joyfully professed: “I
learned to love the Scapular Virgin in the arms of my mother”, he also warned
the faithful that “…although it is very true that the Blessed Virgin loves all
who love her, nevertheless those who wish to have the Blessed Mother as a
helper at the hour of death, must in life merit such a signal favor by
abstaining from sin and laboring in her honor”.
To lead a willfully sinful life while trusting in the
scapular promise is to commit a sin of presumption.
Q.
What is the Sabbatine Privilege? How does it relate to the scapular?
A. The Church permits it to
be said that those who faithfully wear the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount
Carmel after being enrolled in the Scapular Confraternity, observe chastity for
their state in life and daily recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin
Mary will be released from purgatory, through the intercession of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, soon after death, and especially on Saturday (Sabbatine). All
priests have the faculty to permit the substitution of the daily Rosary or some
other prayers for the daily recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. This Sabbatine Privilege has been supported by Pope Paul V in the
seventeenth century as well as by Popes Benedict XV and Pius XI in the
twentieth century.
For the members of the World Apostolate of Fatima, the
Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary automatically gets substituted for the
Rosary.
Q.
What are the conditions for the Sabbatine Privilege?
A. The conditions for the
Sabbatine Privilege are: (1) Wear the Brown Scapular faithfully; (2) Observe
chastity according to one's state in life; (3) Say the Little Office of the
Blessed Virgin Mary which has been substituted for Rosary for all those who make
the Pledge and become members of WAF. (4) Live a Christian life of prayer and
penance.
Q.
What is the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary?
A. TheLittle Office of the
Blessed Virgin Mary is an ancient prayer of the Church, consisting mostly of psalms
and hymns commemorating the role of Mary in the great mysteries of our Faith.
It is arranged according to the eight hours of the liturgical office, and
requires from forty-five minutes to an hour. It is recited daily by many orders
of sisters and brothers.
Q.
Do I simply begin wearing the Brown Scapular, or must I be invested in it
first?
A. To obtain the full
benefit of the Brown Scapular devotion, one must be validly invested in the
Brown Scapular. The investiture “enrolls” the wearer in the Confraternity of
Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
A Catholic can be invested in the Brown Scapular by a
priest, using the Scapular Ritual for Priests in which the scapular is blessed.
Once invested, you are invested until
death. A Scapular Ritual for Priests, which also has a special blessing for the
scapular, is available for priests from the World Apostolate of Fatima upon
request. In many places, it is traditional to invest children in the Brown
Scapular on the day of their Baptism or First Holy Communion.
Q.
May a layperson receive the faculty for investing others in the Brown Scapular?
A. Only priests are
permitted to invest someone in the Brown Scapular.
Q.
May a non-Catholic wear the Brown Scapular?
A. Yes, and in so doing, a
non-Catholic will receive many graces and blessings with this special sign of
devotion to the Mother of God. Although baptized Catholics are the only one who
can be officially invested in the Brown Scapular Confraternity and share in the
special scapular privileges, non-Catholics are warmly encouraged to avail
themselves to this special way of honoring Jesus' Mother.
Q.
I was once invested in the Brown Scapular but have failed to wear it for some
time. Must I be reinvested in order to derive the scapular benefits?
A. Membership in the Confraternity
is not forfeited by merely laying aside the scapular. One need only begin
wearing it again.
Q.
How should I wear the Brown Scapular?
A. The scapular is a habit; Our
Lady's habit. The scapular is worn over the shoulders in such a manner that one
part hangs in front of the body and the other in back. It is usually worn under
one's outer clothing but not necessarily next to the skin. It can be carried
next to your body, as long as you carry it on your person. Members of the WAF
are encouraged to wear it over their neck to witness their Faith. The scapular
may be enclosed in some sort of case:
metal or plastic,provided the case does not prevent the scapular
material from being attached to the braid or chain. A deteriorated scapular
should be burned or buried; any metal or plastic covering may be discarded. The
new scapular must be blessed before using it.
Q.
Must the Brown Scapular be made of wool?
A. At one time, this was a
requirement. However, Carmelite regulations now permit the scapular to be made
from any suitable brown material.
Q.
May I substitute the Scapular Medal for the cloth Scapular?
A. While the Scapular Medal
enjoys all the privileges granted to those wearing the cloth scapular (except
for the partial indulgence for kissing the scapular granted by Pope Benedict
XV), the substitution of the medal for the cloth should only be made for a good
and serious reason. St. Pius X insisted that he “…did not intend that the
Scapular Medal should supplant the Brown Scapular in Europe and America”. He
said, “I wear the cloth; let us never take it off”.
Q.
There are many different scapulars. Why does the World Apostolate of Fatima
promote the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel?
A. The World Apostolate of
Fatima promotes the Brown Scapular because it is the sign of our personal
consecration to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Also, because of the
tremendous privileges granted to those who faithfully use it as a sign of their
efforts to come closer to God by living a Christian life. Those privileges are
protection in this life, at the hour of death a promise of salvation (either by
the grace of perseverance or by the grace of final contrition) and after death,
the maternal promise of Mary to bring us to heaven as soon as possible. In
addition, Our Lady appeared at Fatima on October 13, 1917 as Our Lady of Mt.
Carmel to show us the way to spiritual perfection.
The Ritual of Investiture admits the one being invested
to a participation “in all the Masses, prayers and good works performed by the
religious of Mount Carmel”. This participation, plus the great promise of
salvation and the privileges offered give an unspeakable spiritual value to the
Brown Scapular devotion.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII wrote the now-famous words
concerning the scapular: “Let it be your sign of consecration to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, which We are particularly urging in these perilous times”.
On 17th July 2011, Pope Benedict XVI referred to wearing
the scapular as a "particular sign of union with Jesus and Mary,"
when he addressed Polish-speaking pilgrims gathered at the papal summer
residence in Castel Gandolfo to pray the midday Angelus. "For those who
wear it, it is a sign of filial abandonment to the protection of the Immaculate
Virgin," he said. "In our battle against evil, may Mary, our Mother
wrap us in her mantle."
NihilObstat:
In accordance with Canon 827 of the New Code of Canon Law, this publication has
been submitted to the censor of the
Archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Msgr. Fernando Felices, and nothing has
been found contrary to the faith and morals, we hereby grant permission in
accordance with canon 824 that it may be published. +H. E. Roberto O. Gonzalez
Nieves, O.F.M., Archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, dated 4th November 2011.
N.B.:
The ecclesiastical permission implies nothing more than the material contained
in this publication has been examined by the diocesan censors and nothing
contrary to faith and morals has been found therein.
Apostolado Mundial de Fátima
Secretariado Internacional
Rua S. Vicente Paulo, 32 ANEXO
Apartado 1, 2495-438 Fátima, Portugal
Tel: 00351 249 539 865
Fax: 00351 249 539 864
Websites: www.worldfatima.com
www.apostoladomundialdefatima.org
www.WorldFatimaTv.com
children-of-the-eucharist.blogspot.in
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pROF. aMERICO pABLO
lOPEZ-oRTIZ
iNTERNATIONAL pRESIDENT OF THE
WORLD APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA
God
is love! God is also a family! We usually think about the Holy Family of
Nazareth, having Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as a member. But the Most Holy
Trinity is a family in a mysterious way. There is only one God, one nature, one
essence but three persons for that God. Every person is different in the way it
expresses its personality. The Almighty father
is the first person, the Creator. The Divine Son is the second person, the
Wisdom, the divine intelligence, the “Logos”. The second person has a second
nature, the human nature, as He is our Savior and Redeemer. He and only He is
the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the person with the function of sanctifying
our souls. The Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. This
Love between the Father and the Son is so unique, so perfect and marvelous that
He is the third person of the Most Holy Trinity. The Most Holy Trinity was
described by St. Augustine, the greatest of the Fathers of the Church. He
described the Most Holy Trinity in a symbol that will live forever: The triangle. One area is shaped by the three
sides of a triangle. The same is with the mystery of God. There is only one
nature shared by the three persons but every person is special and unique;
every member of the family has its own personality.
In
her personality, Mary relates to each of the persons in the Most Holy Trinity
in a different way. Mary is the daughter of God, the Father. Mary is the Mother
of God, the Christ. Mary is the wife of
God, the Holy Spirit. These are family relations. Mary is the child of the Father;
mother of the Son and spouse of the Holy Spirit. There you can find the perfect
relationship of the family, seen through the beatific vision of Our Lady. She contemplates
god in the Holy Mystery, in a
threefold relationship, setting up the model relation of a natural human family.
Then
we must state that Fatima is a message from heaven for our families, not only
because of the miracle of the Sun, or because the vision of the Holy Family of
Nazareth, but much more important, because of the relationship of the Blessed
Virgin Mary with the Most Holy Trinity, revealed at Fatima to the three little
shepherds-children.
In
the vision of the 13th October, 1917, the Holy Family of Nazareth
appeared in Fatima during the miracle of the Sun. Then, several apparitions
occurred, one after the other. Many scholars investigating the Message of Fatima
questioned why. There is an explanation: On the 13th October, 1917,
the Good Lord gave us a summary of the major Catholic
devotions that have contributed to the salvation of the greater number of souls
in the Church: (1) Our Lady of Sorrows, (2) St Joseph with the Child Jesus; (3)the
Holy Family of Nazareth. Then, a very curious one; which still has no name, is
that of the image of Jesus Christ risen with luminous rays coming from his
hands apart, as Sr. Lucia described in her Memoirs. This happened before the
apparition of Jesus of Divine Mercy to Sister Faustina Kowalska in Poland. The
devotion of Divine Mercy was not known in the world at this time. In my
opinion, this apparition to the three little shepherds of Fatima is that of (4)
Jesus of Divine Mercy, a devotion that would be crucial in our days to bring
many souls closer to God.
(5)Finally,
Our Lady of Mount Carmel with the Child Jesus carrying the Brown Scapular in His
hand. The Carmelite Spirituality has produced the greatest number of canonized
saints in the history of the Universal Church and comprises the same
spirituality of the Message of Fatima at the time that also served to show
Lucia her way to serve God as a Carmelite nun.
These
five devotions are a summary, a compendium of the best schools of spirituality
in the Catholic Church that have contributed so much to bring souls closer to
God.
In
the Church, sometimes we see so many competitions between apostolic movements. But
God who is wise cannot divide His own creation. The people of God all share one
Holy Spirit and call Him to come to their hearts, bringing unity and strength
to the Church, as He complements the gifts spread between them. All charismas
of the Church work to achieve a single goal: The salvation of souls for the
greater glory of God. The Message of Fatima is the same. It brings in the last
apparition at the Cova da iria
the summary of the major Catholic devotions responsible for saving so many
souls. Because the Message of Fatima is
not only for one apostolic movement, but a universal call to humanity, even to
those who are not Catholic, to pray, do
penance and seek God; offering peace, hope and joy to all those that put
the Message into practice.
But
a special call, the most important, is given to families. The great miracle of
the sun occurred so that all people might believe; this is God’s sign, His
personal signature on the Fatima events for all to see and believe that
authenticated the Message of Fatima. The miracle was cosmological. There is
only one precedent in the Old Covenant. The people of Israel were losing their
fight against the Philistines. God sent a cosmological event to change the
course of this battle. The people of God defeated their enemies because of the
intervention of God. Now, in the twentieth century, God intervenes to change
the course of another battle, when good people were losing the fight against
the forces of evil, when the terrible world wars were annihilating whole
nations, when the persecution against the Church was worse than ever, producing
the greater number of martyrs in that century; the Woman dressed in sun came to
the battle to confront the red dragon (Book of Revelation, chapter 12) in the
supernatural events occurred in Fatima, Portugal, on the 13th of
October, 1917. In the twentieth
century, the century of martyrs, in the century of two world wars, hundreds of
millions were assassinated, the Mother of God came to Fatima to defeat the
enemy of Christ, as she did before as prophesied in the of Book of Genesis,
chapter 3:15, responding to God’s mandate.
In
the Apparition of the 13th of October, the topic of the family is
presented in the Message of Fatima, because the Blessed Virgin Mary is the
spiritual Mother of humanity. As a mother, she brings to Fatima her concerns
and worries on how a human family will survive this moral, social and spiritual
crisis. The Mother is worried because her children are losing faith and
separating themselves from God. If you look at the statue of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary at Fatima, this spiritual motherhood of Mary over mankind is
shown. Our Blessed Mother is barefoot as she is the Handmaid of the Lord. The
statue is not crowned because it portrays this spiritual motherhood to her
children; because she comes mainly as a mother not as a queen. Her hands
are in this position because it represents the moment she embraces Sister Lucia
consoling her of her solitude and suffering. There is physical contact between
the Mother and the child seer.
This
is the same kind of physical contact that we see in the Apparition of the Miraculous
Medal. The Mother took her child in her lap, like a mother talks to her
daughter. This gesture of Mother Mary is a catechesis more profound than any
possible speech in Marian theology: A mother taking care of her child. We are
all there with our Mother. She is calling all the families of the world to live
the authentic Christian life. She is
calling families to pray together, especially the prayer of meditation, i.e. the
Holy Rosary; to love each other and be patient, to bear sufferings and
sacrifices out of love, to care for each other and be merciful, to communicate
and share time and efforts; which are the effective means more than ever before
to reject the worldly spirit, to abandon materialism and hedonism, the search
for worldly pleasures, pride and selfishness.
Families
are call to live simple lives, humble lives as simple and humble people are the
preferred people of God. Our families should learn to be hungry for salvation
and eternal happiness. We all are thirsty of God. We need to recognize that God
is first in our lives. This is the principal teaching of the Message of Fatima:
God’s primacy. God is first! The word “Fatima”
is an Arabic word that means “a high place from where light illuminates the
darkness of the surroundings.” Fatima is a unique gift given to the world to re-discover
Faith in God. If families live having
God at the center of their lives, families will be renewed, happy, at peace,
because God dwells in their hearts.
The
children of Fatima were renewed and transformed and with them their families
were renewed too. It is important that the instruments of God used in Fatima to
renew these families were three little children. It is if like the Good Lord
wishes to renew our families today through the role of the little ones in
bringing people closer to God.
The
family members were evangelized after the example of the three little shepherds
who lived the Christian virtues in an extraordinary and heroic way, re-writing
the manuals of theology as such little children were capable of living a holy
life, sanctifying themselves and their families in such a way that they can say
with St. Paul “It is no longer I who live… it is Christ that lives in me.”. The
three little shepherds became other Christ, their families were transformed and
we must look how!
Let
use examine the people in the village of Fatima in the days of the Apparitions.
Our Lady called first the children to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The
adults were more or less living a Christian life. But they were far away from
perfection. Through the children, their parents were called to come closer to
God. First, their parents tried to evangelize their children with good examples
and catechesis. But they were far away from perfection. Then, the conversion
and transformation of the children took place. The conversion of parents came later. This is
a great lesson of Fatima to our Pastoral work. Let us focus on children and
young people first; then parents and adults will come. The triumph of the Heart
of Mary will be a reality when this is achieved. The soul of the family is the
mother. The Mother portrays the love needed to keep the family together. The
father is essential to the family. But the mother is the soul of the family.
The same is Fatima: The soul of the Message of Fatima is the Immaculate Heart
of Mary.
The
Immaculate Heart of Mary represents the spiritual motherhood of Mary over
humanity. When she appeared to Sr. Lucia, Our Lady had the Heart in her hand
and she offered her heart to Lucia. Lucia was representing all human beings
when Our Lady said: “My heart will stay with you till the end.” Our Lady was
risen and assumed to heaven in body and soul, by her Son, Jesus Christ, but she
left the Heart with us on earth: the heart is the spiritual presence of Mary.
The spiritual action of the Mother is so much needed by her children. She wants
to save her children. She has given us her heart. So her Immaculate Heart is
with us on earth. We have two wonderful gifts from heaven. The most important
one is the divine and real presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed
Sacrament: His body, blood, soul and Divinity, till the end of times. The
second greatest gift is the spiritual motherhood of Mary given over humanity
given to us by Jesus Christ on the First Good Friday, when Jesus said to his
beloved disciple: “Behold your mother.” From that moment on, John the beloved
disciple of Christ, received Mother Mary in her Heart and in his own house.
From
the beginning, the Church has seen in St. John, the evangelist, the Children of
God, all human beings, receiving Blessed Mother Mary as their spiritual Mother.
This calls us to a new family life, rich in God’s grace and mercy!
1.
God is first. God
is a family. The Most Holy Trinity is a family. Our Blessed Mother relates to
each of the three persons in a threefold role as child (to the Father), mother
(to the Son) and wife (to the Holy Spirit).
2.
The family of
Nazareth which appeared on 13 October 1917 is the mother of all human families.
We better follow the Holy Family, not the bad examples set by other false idols
and celebrities of our sick societies that have abandoned Christian values and
virtues.
Those
who do not believe in marriage or the sanctity of life are in favor of a
culture of death. There are parents who spoil their children through TV, internet,
profane music, magazines, publications and movies. The false idols destroy the
authentic human family. We should not follow these fashions as they oppose the
Gospel. Our Lady said in the Message of Fatima: “Many fashions will come that
will greatly offend God.” So, Our Lady of Fatima is the Mother of families, the
mother for children; mother for the parents, mother for the husbands and wives.
We
must look at the the home of Nazareth to make our own home a domestic church,
in the model of the Sacred Family: Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Our own family must
be transformed from within by accepting the call from heaven. We have to love
each other, to communicate, to accept God’s, grace and mercy. We must consecrate
our family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so
that they will dwell in our own home.
Children
must look to Jesus Christ as their model in His obedience to God, the Father.
Wives must follow the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary in her offering of
herself and the acceptance of God’s will. Husbands must look to St. Joseph to
follow his marvelous example of the sanctification of his daily duties. The
spirituality of Fatima can transform the
family. We pray that the God Lord will bless our needy families granting the
Church a new Marian Pentecost. The authentic triumph of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary will come through our families. Grace and Mercy to all!
THE OFFERING TO
GOD OF ONE’S
LIFE
Prof. Américo Pablo López Ortiz
International President of the World Apostolate of Fatima
As Our Lady of Fatima
promised Sister Lucia that “My Immaculate Heart will lead you to God”, we can
also say that today’s believers will be leaded to God through the Immaculate
Heart of Mary if we follow the teachings of the Message of Fatima. The Shrine
of Fatima has developed a thematic itinerary to prepare spiritually for the 100th
Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions in the year 2017, following the request
of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage to the Fatima
Shrine on May, 2010.
For the cycle of years
2011-2012 the Fatima event of reference is the May 1917 Apparition, where Our
Lady of Fatima said to the three little shepherds: “Do not be afraid… Are you willing to offer
yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings
He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He
is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?” And the three
children of Fatima answered through Lucia: “Yes, we are willing.” Our Lady advised: “Then, you are going to
have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.”
“As Our Lady
pronounced these last words, she opened her hands for the first time,
communicating to the three children a light so intense that as it streamed from
her hands, its rays penetrated their hearts and the innermost depths of their
souls, making them see themselves in God, Who was the light, more clearly than
they could see themselves in the best of mirrors. Then moved by an interior
impulse from the Holy Spirit, they felt on their knees, repeating in their
hearts the prayers of adoration taught to them by the Angel of Fatima, the
Angel of Peace: Oh most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, my God, I love Thee
in the most Blessed Sacrament!”
(Source: LUCIA SPEAKS, published
by the WAF-USA).
This same statement
and question is stated and asked to us today:
Do not be afraid… Are we willing to offer ourselves to God and bear all
the sufferings He wills to send us, as an act of reparation for the sins by
which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?
First, an important
statement, so much repeated by the Blessed John Paul II during his pontificate,
is given to us, as Our Lady knows very well our psychological traits: DO NOT BE
AFRAID! The Good Lord calls us to a better life of intimate friendship with
Himself through our Blessed Mother Mary.
We must conquer fear
and respond in the same pure, brave attitude of the three little shepherds of
Fatima, entrusting ourselves to Divine Providence: “YES, WE ARE WILLING!” This
is possible when we abandon ourselves in God’s hands as we no longer fear since
we trust Him and we depend on His power. His grace and His mercy sustain us,
supporting us in a way that there is no stress, no anguish, no desperation, as
everything is taken care of by Himself. We will receive the peace of Jesus
Christ, our Savior, who conquered the world.
This is the theme and inspiring sentence for the spiritual preparations for year 2011-2012: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God?” To develop this important topic we must know the theological nucleus which is “GOD THE SAVIOR” and the catechetical element which is “SHARERS IN THE REDEMPTION”. Catechists, homilists, parish priests and missionaries can develop a wonderful instrument for their respective apostolates. By the offering to God of one’s life we discover in our inner selves that Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, is our personal and communitarian Savior and that we must share with our brothers and sisters in the redemption process initiated and culminated by Him, as we share with Him our own efforts and sanctification of our daily duties; our prayer of adoration that discovers the Trinitarian face of God; our good deeds and merciful actions; our sufferings that make us closer to the Crucified One; our joys that are an anticipation of the eternal happiness in heaven; in other words, as we entrust to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary our being, our existence, in order for us to become like Christ – a pure sacrifice, an acceptable oblation to God the Almighty Father. And we become acceptable to God only because we are the loved disciples of Jesus Christ and when the Eternal Father sees us, he sees the image of Christ, His only Son, in us! Then, we can say along with Saint Paul: “I am no longer the one who lives; it is Christ who lives in me.”
The offering to God of
one’s life is possible as we assume the life attitude of Mother Mary: “I am the
handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to thy word.” The principal
role of Mary in the life of the Church today is to mold our souls in the image
and likeness of her Divine Son. It is the essence of Mary, her “FIAT” of joyous
acceptance of God’s will. It is a free, voluntary and spontaneous giving up of
her personal freedom which is transformed into a loving promise with the
self-revealing Truth, God Himself. And
by “loosing” the personal freedom, by giving to God out of love her free will,
she bestows human dignity upon us again, making possible redemption. Christ,
our only Savior, chose His beloved mother to assist Him in the salvation
process.
If we correspond to
God’s grace and mercy, we will share in the life attitude of Mary and our
personal and communitarian “FIAT” will grant us human dignity which will
surpass all our possibilities as we submerge into the ocean of God’s infinite
love and affection. By coming closer to the mystery of God, the Trinitarian
face of love and affection for humanity, we will discover the way to happiness;
in this world, through the peace of Christ that nobody can take from us; and in
the eternal world when we will share in Christ’s divinity. This is God’s plan for
us, a plan that must be proclaimed everywhere through the New Evangelization,
the proclamation of the good news of salvation.
As a corollary to such
an attitude towards life, mortifying acts undertaken for love become possible,
to the extent of being willing to give up permissible pleasures, in order to
discipline ourselves spiritually and morally. Sacrifice will root our essence
in Christ, which will be the true directing center of our lives. Rooted in
Christ, our true essence, we will truly belong to Our Lord, as effective
instruments in the pursuit of His plans of salvation for our times. The results
will not be long in waiting, as Our Lady said in Fatima: “Numerous souls will
convert, because many are lost for lack of someone to pray and SACRIFICE for
them.”And after the conversion of many, other people will forsake their
indifference for an authentic fervor, while those already blessed with fervor
will attain high levels of perfection. We as believers must have the attitude of
offering ourselves to God often, as to renew our lives frequently “in that
light which is God himself”. The Message of Fatima is a perfect instrument for
the New Evangelization of the world, the most important task of the Universal
Church in the new millennium.
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The
Sanctification of our Daily Duties
International President of the World Apostolate of Fatima
In Fatima, reparation is offered in a threefold path: Penance,
reparatory prayer and reparatory Holy Communion.
The spirit of Penance is understood in its double significance as:
1.
Bearing our own personal cross, conforming our souls
to Christ’s himself, by patiently accepting God’s will, including suffering in
the same lifestyle attitude exhibited in Mary’s fiat (“I am the handmaid of the
Lord…”).
2.
Offering our own personal mortifications and
privations as to exercise ourselves in the “Christian art of Renunciation” so
that we can also become Christ’s disciples, as to strengthen our will in the
pursuit of true love, CHARITY. It is through this well ordained love that we
will pursuit those objectives of actual value in life, according to God’s
hierarchy in Creation. Fatima is most useful today in clarifying our own scale
of values, following not human logics, but God’s logics, so different to that
of mankind “that is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle that
for a rich man to enter into God’s kingdom.”
The New Evangelization is based on witnessing Jesus Christ in our lives,
becoming true disciples, bearing our personal cross and walking through life
doing our best to build the Kingdom of God on earth. We do this by sanctifying
our daily duties. In this way, we proclaim to the world the values and
attitudes of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has transformed our lives and we
are at peace in the midst of suffering and trial. Jesus Christ is the root and
cause of our happiness. “Look how much they love each other” was said of the
first Christian communities.
We need to express our Faith in concrete deeds that may seem completely
natural but that are really transformed by God’s grace.
The Good Lord sanctifies our daily routine as we deepen ourselves into
an interior life shared with Him. Everything is then transformed in His
presence. God dwells in ourselves, we share His life, grace and mercy and we
must irradiate it among our neighbors. This is the true religion, fed by the
sacraments, mostly by the Eucharist, by prayer and penance. The fruits excel themselves: Inner peace and
spiritual joy!
The revitalizing penance, understood in its most important significance,
as was taught by the Angel of Fatima, is the sanctification of our daily
duties: “Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God, as an act
of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the
conversion of sinners. You will draw down peace upon your country… Above all,
accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you.”
Our world needs this revolutionary idea to be spread among so many who
dwell in egocentric and selfish practices, ruining their lives and those of
their beloved ones and throwing themselves to destructive pleasures and vices.
The true Gospel of Jesus Christ must be made known in its authentic splendor.
By sanctifying our daily duties we grow in the image of Jesus Christ, the Son,
who obeyed the Heavenly Father and followed His plans, lovingly, offering His
sufferings for our redemption.
The sanctification of our daily duties will crush the evil in our souls,
it will forgive our faults, thus improving the spiritual health of the Mystic
Body of Christ, the Church, “which today suffers and bleeds for so many
afflicted parts” (Pope Paul VI). Therefore, let us contribute to “the economy
of grace” whereby the situation of the People of God improves when one of His
sons and daughters return to the sheepfold, as is taught to us by the doctrine
of “the communion of saints”.
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WHAT
IS THE NEW EVANGELIZATION?
By: Prof. Americo Pablo Lopez-Ortiz
International
President of the World Apostolate of Fatima
The Church must
fulfill its mission and to do this the Church must remember its condition of
disciple of Jesus Christ, living the faithfulness and docility to the Word of
God, to the Eucharist and to the service of charity. The Church has a need for
a “pastoral conversion”, so that the pastoral actions of the hierarchy move
from a conservative pastoral to a missionary pastoral.
There is a great need
for a new attitude of “missionary audacity”, as requested by Pope Benedict XVI,
an attitude portrayed by Blessed Jacinta and Francisco of Fatima, where the
message of the Gospel, contained in the Message of Fatima, properly understood
and lived, is a radical call to holiness. The children-shepherds of Fatima became
holy by following Our Lady’s requests with fidelity and commitment as Blessed
John Paul II said at their beatification ceremony. By sanctifying their daily
duties in a spirit of reparation, they offered themselves to God, in an act of
entrustment and consecration, thus living their baptismal promises in the best
possible way.
Pope Benedict XVI
asked European bishops meeting at Tirana, Albania, to be audacious in thinking
of new ways to spread the Gospel message. The Fatima message is an echo of the
Gospel adapted by Our Lady, the Mother of Jesus, to our present needs. To
present as models to the Universal Church, the little shepherds of Fatima, for
their heroic virtues and holy lives; is really a true move in the direction of
the “missionary audacity” requested by Pope Benedict XVI.
The present pope has
structured the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization,
presided by Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, who sees the present lack of faith
of many as an opportunity for growth: “The New Evangelization is an opportunity
given to us to read and interpret the current historical moment in order that
the Church’s work might become extraordinary,” he said. “In other words, we are
called to live, in an extraordinary way, the ordinary event in the life of the
Church, which is the evangelization.”
“Evangelization is the
manifestation of the Church’s life and vitality. It should not be understood
simply as a pastoral activity, but as the manifestation of its very nature and
mission.” This very important statement was made by the European Bishop’s
Conference. The New Evangelization is
for everyone! “It seeks to proclaim Christ, true God and true man, crucified to
bear every human grief, raised from the dead, that we may have life.” Through
our baptism we are all called to take part in the New Evangelization: families,
young people, parishes, apostolic movements, new communities, places of
catechesis, Catholic schools. New technologies should be used, internet, social
networking sites… But first, we have to follow the example of the Christians of
the Acts of the Apostles, we must open our hearts in a new way to the Holy
Spirit as “there will be no New Evangelization without a New Pentecost.”
In our days, there are
many nations that received the Gospel and developed faith that have produced
abundant fruits but at present, because of secularism and the growth of
religious sects, that faith is deteriorating and weak; this is when the New
Evangelization is needed to proclaim the Gospel in its integrity “with a new
fervor, new methods and new expressions.”
Our modern world has
very positive developments like new sciences and their applications, new
medical treatments to cure sickness, a greater conscience of human rights and
respect for minorities. But, there are developments that have caused a severe
crisis in the moral, spiritual and cultural spheres: Extreme individualism, the
negation and rupture of solidarity among people, the inability to observe
engagements for life, like holy matrimony and family ties. Secularism makes
people live as if there is no God. People turn indifferent toward religion and
reject moral values. This mentality affects, little by little, even those who
have known the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And at some time, even the faithful turn
out to be unfaithful in their attitudes, mores and folkways. Then, the
Christian civilization is diminished and people who are still hungry for God
walk away from the right path.
Formation is much
needed. As a public association of the faithful of pontifical right, the World
Apostolate of Fatima, must devote to its mission of contributing to the New
Evangelization through the authentic Message of Fatima. The Message of Fatima
is a charisma for the Universal Church, an ideal instrument to spread the Good
News of Salvation to our modern societies that have been losing their “sense of
God”, their faith and Christian morality, thus falling into a profound
spiritual crisis that is precisely the central topic of the Message of Fatima,
that stands as a formidable medicine for our needy times.
Following the examples
of Blessed John Paul II, who launched the call to the New Evangelization of
Europe and the whole world from the Shrine of Fatima by presenting the
encyclical letter “CentessimusAnnus”, and Pope Benedict XVI, who during his
recent pilgrimage to Fatima invited the Universal Church to live in every
Christian community the Message of Fatima as the way to accelerate the triumph
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the world; the World Apostolate of Fatima is
ready to fulfill its ecclesial mission.
The evangelical
message at Fatima, a message of CONVERSION; PRAYER AND PENANCE;
ENTRUSTMENT TO GOD THROUGH THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY; EUCHARISTIC REPARATION AND SANCTIFICATION OF
OUR DAILY DUTIES is more actual now, more urgent, more needed and represents
the ideal call to the New Evangelization.
NEW BOOK MUST FOR ALL W.A.F. MEMBERS AND MARIAN DEVOTEES:
THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN TODAY’S CHURCH.
October 13, 2012
95th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at
Fatima, Portugal
Dear reader:
May I take this opportunity to introduce you to
my book: THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN TODAY’S CHURCH. This book has three parts.
The first part is devoted to the role of our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary,
in today’s Church. The Second Vatican Council will guide us in our formation.
The second part focuses on the New Evangelization and the Message of Fatima,
the great sign given by heaven to overcome the present spiritual, moral and
religious crisis. The third part provides for the first time an account of the
apostolic work of the International World Apostolate of Fatima as a public
association of the faithful of pontifical right, present in 110 countries.
By this book you will be introduce in a simple
but profound way to the religious experience of Fatima, where you will discover
God’s primacy in your life as you will be able to contemplate the mystery of
God, the Trinitarian love that will transform your life forever as the three
children-shepherds of Fatima were transformed: Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco.
I hope and pray that this book will also serve
as a handbook for all WAF members and leaders in their spiritual and doctrinal
formation so as to serve the Church in the New Evangelization, using the
Message of Fatima as the ideal instrument for this most important task of the
Church in the third millennium of Christianity. The WAF is present in 110
countries having millions of members among its ranks.
Again, I am most grateful for all you can do to
spread the good news about this book. Thanks again to dear Dr. Celcio Dias, the
International Secretary of the WAF, for all his support and hard work in making
possible the publication of my book. Thanks to the sponsors that made it a
reality. May the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Woman dressed in sun, show you
her joyful smile and serve you as refuge, fortress and sweet maternal home in
our needy times.
In Christ and Mary Queen,
Prof. Américo Pablo
López Ortiz
International
President of the World Apostolate of Fatima
The
First Saturdays Devotion
1.
Introduction
Besides conversion
through Prayer, Penance and Sacrifice Our Lady requested two other important
things at Fatima:
- The Collegial Consecration of Russia to
Her Immaculate Heart.
- The Five First Saturdays of Reparation.
As we all know, the
First request depended on the hierarchy of the Church and specially the Holy
Father. We also know that the Holy Father late John Paul II accomplished the
consecration on 25th March 1984 thus accomplishing what was
requested of them
As a result we have
seen how communism got abolished in Poland, disintegrated in Russia and all the
other good things that followed as a result.
However, we have to
further the conversion of Russia and sinners and the promised peace by
spreading the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the First Saturdays
of reparation .
Unlike the
Consecration, the fulfillment of this request depends on us the lay faithful
and the WAF with cooperation from the local bishops and the parish priests.
Both the Collegial Consecration and First Saturdays are required to obtain the
Promises of Mary
2.
Vision of Hell
On July 13, 1917,
Our Lady appeared for the third time to the three children of Fatima and showed
them the vision of hell and made a few prophecies.
Frightened and as
though pleading for help, the children raised their eyes to Our Lady, who said
with kindness and sadness: “You saw hell, where the souls of poor sinners go.
It is then she predicts war, hunger, persecution of the Church and the Holy Father
if her requests are not granted To save them, God wishes to establish devotion
to My Immaculate Heart in the world. If they do what I shall tell you, many
souls will be saved and there will be peace”. Our Lady adds: In order to
prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my
Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on First Saturdays.
Our Lady promised
that she would come back to ask for the Communion of reparation on the First
Saturdays….
3.
Our Lady keeps Her promise
Eight years later,
on December 10, 1925, Our Lady did indeed come back. She appeared (with the
Child Jesus) to Lucia in the convent of the Dorothean Sisters in Pontevedra,
Spain.
The child Jesus
spoke first: “Have compassion on the heart of your most holy mother, which is
covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce at every moment, while
there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation”.
4.
The Great Promise
Our Lady then said: “My daughter, look at My
Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every
moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console Me,
and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death with all the graces
necessary for salvation. All those who, on the First Saturday of Five
consecutive months go to (1) Confession and receive Holy Communion, (2) recite
Five Decades of the Rosary and (3) keep me company for a quarter of an hour
while meditating on mysteries of the Rosary, (4) with the intention of making
reparation to Me”.
Imprimatur: Santuario de Fátima, 21st of September, 1939, JOSE, Bishop of Leiria
As our Mother, Mary
is deeply concerned about the salvation of each and every one of her children.
As Jesus will leave the 99 sheep and go in search of the one that is lost
(Mat.18:12}, since He loves each one of us individually, so it is with His
Mother. It was to express her personal love for each one of us, her children,
that Mary included a personal promise for the First Saturdays. Calling each one
of us for First Saturdays Mary said
“I promise to assist
at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for salvation all those who,
on the FIRST Saturdays of five consecutive months, go to Confession and receive
Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for a
quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the
intention of making reparation to me.”
The promise of dying
in God’s favour for having consecutively made “Five First Saturdays is a bonus
for her children as individuals. First Saturdays, nonetheless are to be made
primarily for the good of others, for the Pope and for the universal Church.
Our Lady promised
Lucia that she would remain many years upon earth as God wanted her to make
known and loved devotion to His Mother’s Immaculate Heart. On June 13, 1929 Our
Lady appeared to Sr. Lucia to ask for the Consecration of Russia to her
Immaculate Heart, “promising by this means to prevent the spreading of its
errors and to bring about its conversion”. She was making a Holy Hour at
midnight before the Blessed Sacrament at the time. Sr. Lucia wrote:
“Suddenly the whole
chapel was illumined by a supernatural light, and a cross of light appeared
above the altar, reaching to the ceiling. In a bright light at the upper part
of the cross could be seen the face of a man and his body to the waist
(Father), on his breast there was a dove also of light (Holy Spirit) and,
nailed to the cross, was the body of another man (Son). Somewhat above the
waist, I could see a chalice and a large host suspended in the air, on to which
drops of blood were falling from the face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound
in His side. These drops ran down on to the host and fell into the chalice. Our
Lady was beneath the right arm of the cross (…it was Our Lady of Fatima with
her Immaculate Heart. …in her left hand. … without sword or roses, but with the
crown of thorns and flames. …). Under the left arm of the cross, large letters,
as of crystal clear water which ran down over the altar, formed these words:
’Graces and Mercy.’
“I understood that
it was the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which was shown to me, and I
received lights about this mystery which I am not permitted to reveal.”
“Our Lady then said
to me: ‘The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father, in union all the
bishops of the world, to make the Consecration of Russia to my Heart, promising
to save it by this means.”
5.
Why are there FIVE First Saturdays and not Seven or Nine?
The Five Reasons
Lucia once asked
this question of Our Lord and received as an answer: “My daughter, the motive is
simple. There are Five kinds of offences and blasphemies uttered against the
Immaculate Heart of Mary; (1) Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception;
(2) Blasphemies against Her Virginity; (3) Blasphemies against Her Divine
Maternity; (4) Blasphemies of those who openly seek to Foster in the Hearts of
children indifference or even hatred for this Immaculate Mother; (5) The
offences of those who directly outrage Her in Holy Images.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church, in 2148, states that Blasphemy is directly
opposed to the second commandment.
Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and His holy name. It is in
itself a grave sin.
From the above, it
is easy to see that each of the Five Saturdays can correspond to a specific
offence. By offering the graces received during each First Saturday as
reparation for the offence being prayed for, the participant can hope to help
remove the thorns from Our Lady’s Heart
On May 18, 1936, Sr
Lucia wrote to Fr. Gonzalvez about the Collegial Consecration of Russia: “…Without
any doubt, through this act, the Holy Father would gladden our Lord and the
Immaculate Heart of Mary. Intimately, I have spoken to our Lord about the
subject, and not too long ago, I asked Him why He would not convert Russia
without the Holy Father making that consecration.”
“Because I want my
whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, so that it may extend its cult later on, and put the devotion to
this Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to my Sacred Heart.”
“…The Holy Father.
Pray very much for the Holy Father. He will do it, but it will be too late.
Nevertheless, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will save Russia. It has been
entrusted to her.”
Lucia said
that the Apostolate would have to
respond to this Consecration to further the conversion of Russia and sinners
and the promised peace by spreading the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary and the First Saturdays.
6.
What do I have to do?
The devotion of
First Saturdays, as requested by Our Lady of Fatima, carries with it the
assurance of salvation. However, to derive profit from such a great promise of
Our Lady, the devotion must be properly understood and duly performed.
The requirements as
stipulated by Our Lady are as follows:
- Good Sacramental Confession
- Receive our Lord in Holy Communion while
in grace
- Five Decades of the Rosary
- Keep Mary company for at least 15
minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary
(All four to be
offered in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on five consecutive First
Saturdays)
7.
Conversion
Unless sinners are
converted, the movement against God and for sin will continue to spread,
promoting wars and persecutions, and making the attainment for peace and
justice impossible for this world. One means of obtaining conversion of sinners
is to practice the Fatima Message. The stakes are so great that to encourage
Catholics to practice the devotion of the First Saturdays, Our Lady has assured
us that She will obtain salvation for all those who observe the First Saturdays
for five consecutive months in accordance with Her conditions.
At the supreme
moment the departing person will be either in the state of grace or not. In
either case Our Lady will be by his side. If in the state of grace, She will
console and help him to resist whatever temptations the devil might put before
him in his last attempt to take the person with him to hell. If not in the
state of grace, Our Lady will help the person to repent in a manner agreeable
to God and so benefit by the fruits of redemption and be saved.
8.
Jesus reminds Lucia
On 16th
February 1926 the Child Jesus met Lucia in the garden while she was taking out
the garbage. Jesus asked her “What is being done to establish in the world the devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of My Mother?”
Lucia replied that
though her Mother Superior ardently desired to propagate this devotion, she
could do nothing by herself.
Jesus replied “It is true that your
superior can do nothing by herself. With My Grace she can do all”.
Jesus comes back
again and again, to explain, to clarify this devotion, to answer questions
posed by Lucia’s Confessor and her Superior.
In
March 1939 Our Lord appeared to Lucia, “Ask, ask again, insistently for the
promulgation of the Communion of Reparation in honor of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary on the First Saturdays. The time is coming when the rigor of my justice
will punish the crimes of diverse nations”.
9.
Pope John Paul II
The late Pope John
Paul II not only encouraged but practiced the devotion of the First Saturdays
by leading the Rosary on the Vatican Radio every First Saturday.
10.
Why Five First Saturdays in Parishes?
In the First place
this devotion in a Parish does not impose any extra work on the Parish Priest
except may be of making an announcement. On the contrary it helps him in his
mission of bringing people to Church and a life of prayer.
Public prayer
especially in churches is of the greatest benefit for Five Chief reasons:
- Normally our minds are far more alert
during public prayer than they are when we pray alone.
- When we pray in common, the prayer of
each one belongs to us all and these make but great prayer together; so
that if one person is not praying well, someone else in the gathering who
prays better may make up for his deficiency.
- For example, someone who prays the
Rosary alone gains the merits of one Rosary, but if 30 people say it
together, they gain the merit of 30 Rosaries.
- Pope Urban VIII attached extra
indulgences whenever the Rosary was prayed in two choirs.
- Public Prayer is far more powerful than
private to appease the anger of God and call down His mercy. Holy Mother
Church, guided by the Holy Spirit has always advocated public prayer in
times of public tragedy and sufferings…
Finally, when we
pray the Rosary together it is far more formidable to the devil then one said
privately, because in this public prayer it is an army that is attacking him.
Just as the
apostles, together with Mary, “went up to the Upper Room”
and there, “with
one accord devoted themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:13-14), so too, shall we gather in our churches which will be
our “Upper
Rooms” where Mary, Mother of Our
Lord, will be in our midst.
Plenary indulgences given: - 1) On Jun 13, 1912, Pope Pius X gave a to
the faithful, who performed “some special exercises of devotion on the First
Saturday of the month in reparation to the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate”.
2) On Nov 17, 1920 Pope Benedict XV, at the hour of death to those “who
once in their Lifetime performed such a devotion exercise on the First Saturday
of eight successive months
11.
The Fatima Pledge
Dear Queen and
Mother, who promised at Fatima to convert Russia and bring peace to all
mankind, in reparation to Your Immaculate Heart, for my sins and of the whole
world, I solemnly promise:
- To offer up everyday the sacrifices
demanded by the daily duty;
- To say the Rosary daily while meditating
on the mysteries;
- To wear the Scapular of Mount Carmel as
profession of this promise and as an act of consecration to You,
- To observe the First Saturday Devotion.
I shall renew this promise often, especially
in moments of temptation.
Morning Offering
O my God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, (Here kiss your Brown Scapular as a sign of your
Consecration). I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus present on all
the altars of the world, joining with it the offering of my every thought, word
and action of this day.
O my Jesus, I desire today to gain every indulgence and merit I can, and
I offer them, together with myself, to Mary Immaculate, that She may best apply
them to the interests of Thy most Sacred Heart. Precious Blood of Jesus, Save us! Immaculate Heart of
Mary, Pray for us! Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy on us!
(Pope
Benedict XV, in 1916, granted an indulgence of 5oo days for each time the
scapular is kissed with reverence).
So, let us sincerely
make efforts to spread the First Saturdays in our Parishes.
12.
Act of Collegial Consecration of the World and Russia in particular.
By Pope John Paul II and World’s Bishops on March 25, 1984
“We have recourse
to your protection, holy Mother of God.” As we utter the words of this antiphon
with which the Church
of Christ
We find ourselves united with all the Pastors of the Church
in a particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college, just as by
Christ’s wish the Apostles constituted a body and college with Peter.
In the bond of this union, we utter the words of the present
Act in which we wish to include, once more, the Church’s hopes and anxieties
for the modern world.
Forty years ago and again ten years later, your servant Pope
Pius XII, having before his eyes the painful experiences of the human family,
entrusted and consecrated to your Immaculate Heart the whole world, especially
the peoples for which by reason of their situation you have particular love and
solicitude.
This world of individuals and nations we too have before our
eyes today: the world of the second millennium that is drawing to a close, the
modern world, our world!
The Church, mindful of the Lord’s words: “Go … and make
disciples of all nations … and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the
age” (Mt.28:19-20), has, at the Second Vatican Council, given fresh life to her
awareness of her mission in this world.
And therefore, O Mother of individuals and peoples, you who
know all their sufferings and their hopes, you who have a mother’s awareness of
all the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, which
afflict the modern world, accept the cry which we, moved by the Holy Spirit,
address directly to your Heart. Embrace, with love of the Mother and Handmaid
of the Lord, this human world of ours, which we entrust and consecrate to you,
for we are full of concern for the earthly and eternal destiny of individuals
and peoples.
In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those
individuals and nations which particularly need to be thus entrusted and
consecrated.
“We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God”:
despise not our petitions in our necessities.
Behold as we stand before you, Mother of Christ, before your
Immaculate Heart, we desire, together with the whole Church, to unite ourselves
with the consecration which, for love of us, Your Son, made of Himself to the
Father: “For their sake,” He said,, “I consecrate myself that also may be
consecrated in the truth” (Jn. 17:19). We wish to unite ourselves with our
Redeemer in His consecration for the world and for the human race, which, in
His divine Heart, has the power to obtain pardon and to secure reparation.
The power of this consecration lasts for all time and
embraces all individuals, peoples and nations. It overcomes every evil that the
spirit of darkness is able to awaken; and has in fact awakened in our times, in
the heart of man and in his history.
How deeply we feel the need for the consecration of humanity
and the world - our modern world - in union with Christ Himself! For the
redeeming work of Christ must be shared in by the world through the Church.
The present Year of the Redemption shows this: the special
Jubilee of the whole Church.
Above all creatures, may you be blessed, you, the Handmaid
of the Lord, who in the fullest way obeyed the divine call!
Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming
consecration of your Son.!
Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the
paths of faith, hope and love! Help us to live in the truth of the consecration
of Christ for the entire human family of the modern world.
In entrusting to you, O Mother, the world, all individuals
and peoples, we also entrust to you this very consecration of the world,
placing it in your motherly Heart.
Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the menace of evil,
which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose
immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block
the paths towards the future!
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self destruction, from
every kind of war, deliver us.
From sins against the life of man from its very beginning,
deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the
children of God, deliver us.
From every kind of
injustice in the life of society, both national and international,
deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments of God,
deliver us.
From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of
God. Deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us.
Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of whole
societies.
Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all
sin: individual sin and the “sin of the world,” sin in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed, once more in the history of the
world, the infinite saving power of the
Redemption: the power of merciful Love! May it put a stop to evil! May it
transform consciences! May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of
Hope!
How do we know that
the Act of Consecration of the Holy Father has accomplished the Collegial
Consecration requested by Our Lady of Fatima ?
At Fatima Our Lady asked for the consecration of Russia Russia Russia
In response Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 31, 1942 and renewed the same on July 7,
1952. Pope Paul VI entrusted the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on
November 21, 1964. Pope John Paul II consecrated/entrusted the world to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary on June 7, 1981, May 13, 1982 March 25, 1984, May 13,
1991 and finally October 8, 2000. In the official Vatican Document for the
Doctrine of the Faith, entitled “The Message of Fatima”, Sr. Lucia was quoted
as having personally confirmed that the solemn and universal act of
consecration of March 25 1984 corresponded to what Our Lady wished. In her
letter of November 8 1989, Sr. Lucia, the sole surviving seer of Fatima stated: “Yes it has been done just as Our Lady
asked, on 25 March 1984.
Our Lady Keeps Her Promise
- Within
two months of the Consecration, on May 13, the 67th Anniversary
of the First Apparition at Fatima, an explosion destroyed 80% of the
- On
December 13, 1984, an explosion in Siberia destroyed the
- The
- Just
one year after the Consecration, in March of 1985, the President of the
- Around
August 15, 1989, the Solemnity of the Assumption,
- On October 7, 1989, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, the Hungarian Communist Party votes to transform itself toward European democratic socialism.
- On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. The fall of the “Iron Curtain” was an event that many of us never expected to see in our lifetime.
- On
December 1, 1989, Gorbachev met with Pope John Paul II and promised
religious freedom. The Holy Father referred to this meeting as a “sign of the times …a sign that is
rich in promise”. The Pope would say that this meeting was “Divine
- On
March 15, 1990, the
- In May of 1990, Bishop Amaral of Leiria-Fatima said: “Everything leads us to think that the consecration requested by Our Lady has been done”.
- On
June 13, 1990, Cardinal Paskai of
- On October 13, 1990, the first religious service, since the Communist Revolution of 1917, was held at the Cathedral of the Assumption inside the Kremlin. Prior to this, the Cathedral was used as a museum of atheism.
- On
November 11, 1990, when congratulated for
- On August 19 1991, the Communists tried to overthrow Gorbachev. Just days later, on August 22nd, the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, the Reds were defeated.
- The
first Russian pilgrims in years came to Fatima on October 13 1991, the 74th
anniversary of the 6th apparition of
- December
8 1991, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, marked the start of the
- On
Christmas Day, 1991, the Communists flag came down for the last time over
- For
years pilgrims to
- At
perhaps the most often used entrance to the Fatima Sanctuary, there is
dramatic testimony giving honor to Our Lady of Fatima and to Pope John
Paul II for the events of March 25, 1984, a large piece of the Berlin
Wall! This monument, dedicated on August 13, 1994, gives evidence that Our Lady keeps her promise. Grafitti
can be seen on the side of the Wall that faced
13. Rosary Mysteries for First Saturday
Joyful Mysteries
1. The Annunciation.
(Intention: Population
and right to life)
When the darkness of sin covered
mankind, your love and humility, kind Mother, turned the face of the Father
toward His erring children. Though the message of the Angel was difficult for
you to understand, you accepted the Will of God with trust and love.
You
questioned neither His Power nor His Wisdom, but asked only how this great
Mystery was to be accomplished. We live in a world that does not accept the
Father’s Wisdom, does not trust in His Providence, does not believe in His
Power. We cannot see beyond tomorrow and so the present moment is bereft of the
knowledge of His Presence.
Your trust
in the Father’s Will made the miraculous simple. Why can’t we trust His plan in
our lives as you trusted Him in yours? Even though the child born to be the
Saviour would suffer untold agonies, you never for a moment hesitated in your
Fiat. The women of our day fear the future of their unborn children. In an act
of misguided zeal they sometimes deprive the Father of the opportunity to
manifest His Power. Bestow upon us His Goodness and populate the Kingdom with
children of light.
Give us a
share of your Faith and Hope that we may bow before the Infinite Wisdom of God
and accept the treasures He deigns to bestow upon us. Let us leave creation to
His Omnipotence, the future to His Providence and mankind to His Wisdom.
2. The Visitation
(Intention: Aged and
Social Justice)
What impulse of love made you
hurry to visit your cousin Elizabeth, kind Mother? At a moment when you had
every right to rest in the jubilant news that you would be the Mother of the
Messiah you left the place of your exaltation.
No doubt
the advanced age of Elizabeth Elizabeth
Your zeal
to carry Jesus to others, no matter what the cost, embarrasses us and causes us
to blush with shame. We neglect the aged because we are too busy. We permit the
Generation Gap to widen because we do not possess the love to bridge the
distance. We permit social injustice because we do not wish to be our brother’s
keeper. Holy Mary, bring Jesus to us through the merits of your visit to Elizabeth
3. The Nativity.
(Intention:
Motherhood, Poverty, Social Ethnic Groups)
We look with wonder at the
Wisdom of God as the Promised Woman gives birth to the Promised Messiah in a
cold cave! Deprived of all material things, the Splendor of Heaven entered the
world - that work of His hands - in abject poverty.
Jesus and
Mary want us to know that their love for us is pure and devoid of any
selfishness. The Mother of God says to all Mothers. “Let the dignity of your
Motherhood rise above created things and the richness of your love cover your
poverty”.
Can we ever
imagine the ecstasy of Mary as her eyes met the eyes of God in her tiny Infant?
Can our hearts ever feel the agony as she saw His outstretched arms from a
cross? Can we in our finest moments ever fathom such love and pain?
Sweet
Mother; we want to take our place with the Shepherds to tell Jesus of our love
and gratitude. We want to reach out to the men of all nations just as the
Infant reached out to the Wise Men of the East. We want to put aside our
prejudice and bigotry and offer the gift of our love to all men.
Obtain for
us the grace to see Jesus in the lowly and offer Jesus to the forgotten. Teach
us how to be holy, so we may give the Father the glory and Jesus the pleasure
of making sinners into saints.
4. The Presentation.
(Intention: Mentally
Retarded)
Kind Mother, did another
Magnificat rise to your lips as you walked up the Temple Temple
If you
expected great things to be pronounced, was your heart torn by the realization
that this Child was a sign of contradiction - destined for the rise and fall of
many?
You did not
fall beneath this bitter-sweet experience. The plan of God may not have been to
your liking but you accepted it with all the love of your pure Heart.
Obtain for
all parents, whose retarded children are specially chosen, like Jesus, to
accomplish hidden works for the glory of God - the same courage you manifested
in the Temple
5. The Finding of the
Child Jesus in the Temple
(Intention: Family
Life and Youth)
Kind Mother, we cannot conceive
the agony of your pure Heart as you looked for your Child for three days. The
unspeakable torture of wondering what you had done wrong must have pierced your
soul to its very core.
Even the
joy of finding Him was mixed with the wonder of why it happened. Today, dear
Mother, many families are torn with the grief of those who stray from the right
path. Your Son was found in the Temple
Though the
place in which we find them is different, the agony is the same. Obtain for our
families a deeper union with the Trinity. Make the father head, the mother
heart, and the children members of one another. When the sword of separation in
mind, heart or ideals tears the family apart, grant that the healing balm of
love may find them in the Temple of God’s Will, listening to His voice speaking
of harmony in the depths of their souls.
Luminous Mysteries
1. The Baptism of our
Lord in the Jordan
While Jesus was being baptized
in the river Jordan by St. John
The outward
signs of baptism were both symbolic and prophetic: symbolic in that water is a
sign of cleansing and a sign of life – living, rushing water; and prophetic
because they pointed to the events that were taking place in our Lord’s own
life. He was immersed in our human condition in all things except sin. He grew
up as a young boy full of grace and truth, obedient to Our Lady and St. Joseph Calvary .
He paid the penalty of sin, which was death, even though he himself had no sin.
Finally,
coming out of the water, he pointed to the victory of the resurrection: by
dying he destroyed our death, rising he restored our life. In baptism we put on
Christ so that our whole life becomes a sharing in the life of Christ. If we
suffer, we suffer with Christ. If we work, we work with Christ. When we die, we
die with Christ, so that as we have shared in his death, we may share also, by
his power, in his resurrection from the dead.
2. The Wedding Feast
at Cana .
Jesus and
his disciples, together with our blessed Lady, were invited to the marriage of
a young couple from Cana . In this mystery we
begin to see the role of Our Lady in the life of her divine Son and in the life
of the Church. She saw the need of the young couple – they had run short of
wine – and at her intercession, Jesus anticipated his hour. His words to her
remind us of this: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? Mine hour is not yet
come. And yet, now his hour was indeed come: and he performed his first
miracle. The words of Our Lady, the last words of hers recorded in the Gospels,
are a summary of her whole life. Her first words to the angel Gabriel were: “Be
it done unto me according to thy word”, and her words to the servants and to us
are similar: “Do whatever he shall tell you”.
Our Lord
provided the best wine. God is not mean, and the jars of water, twenty to
thirty gallons in each, were filled to the brim. God is not kill-joy: he has
sanctified human joy in the joy of the young couple in Cana .
But this wedding celebration was not only the wedding of the young couple, but
also the marriage-feast of the Messiah with his bride, the Church. In the Old
Testament, the Messiah, the promised Saviour, was often spoken of a bridegroom,
and the chosen people as the bride, even though the bride had to be purified
and sanctified. That marriage-feast of the Messiah with the Church would reach
its climax on the cross on Calvary , when he
would wash away all the defilement of sin from the bride, so that she might be
presented without spot or wrinkle in the eternal banquet. It was fitting that
the best wine be provided for the wedding-feast of the Messiah with the chosen
people, the Church, and the love of the young couple in Cana
intermingles with the human and divine love of the Messiah for the Church.
Our Lady
was there at the very beginning of her
son’s public life and was instrumental in anticipating his hour; so also was
she present at the final moments of his life, when Our Lord gave us his mother
to be our mother when he was dying on the cross on Calvary .
Woman, behold thy son. She is there to intercede for the needs of her children, and one day to show unto
them the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus, in all his glory and all his beauty.
3. The Proclamation
of the Kingdom and the Call to Conversion.
The proclamation of the kingdom
and the call to conversion were already begun in prophecy and promise in the
Old Testament: The people who lived in darkness and in the shadow of death has
seen a great light: for a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and
his name shall be called wonderful counselor, father of the world to come, prince
of peace. The prophet Isaiah had foreshadowed that kingdom and that call to
conversion when he said to the chosen people who had abandoned the God of
Israel: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be washed white as snow;
though they be red as crimson, they shall be washed white as wool – washed
clean in the precious blood of our Saviour. And that kingdom was proclaimed by
the angels at the birth of our Saviour: Glory to God in the highest, and peace
to men of good will.
The words
of Jesus show the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: I am come not to call the
just, but sinners to repentance. Jesus’ words to so many sinners remind us of
this: to the paralytic, My child, thy sins are forgiven thee; to the woman
taken in adultery, Go now and sin no more; to Mary Magdalene, weeping at his
feet, many sins are forgiven her because she has loved much; to those who are
disheartened and discouraged, Come to me all ye who labour and are overburdened
and I will give you rest for your souls; to those who crucified him on Calvary,
Father forgive them for they know not what they do; and to the penitent thief
at the very last moment of his life, This day thou shalt be with me in
paradise. With the publican at the back of the church we cry out, Lord have
mercy upon me a sinner; and the power of God’s grace can wipe away our sins and
make us share in his victory.
That
victory comes to us especially through the sacraments he established. The words
of the priest in absolution, I absolve you from your sins, echo our Lord’s own
words, and indeed the call to conversion and that power of forgiveness are not
just a memory in the past, but a reality through the sacraments our Lord has
established: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you
retain, they are retained, and not only mortal sins, but venial sins too are
wiped away in confession.
4. The
Transfiguration.
Jesus took with him Peter, James
and John to the top of the mountain, where he was transfigured before them.
They saw him, his face brighter than the sun, His garment dazzlingly white,
talking to Moses and Elijah. And a voice came from the cloud: This is my son,
the beloved; listen to him.
Our Lord
shows his disciples something of the glory that was his. No wonder that Peter
could only cry out: Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make here three
tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses and one for Elijah. St. Paul
Moses’ and
Elijah’s speaking to Jesus was a reminder that he was the fulfillment of all
the promises of the Old Testament, a Messiah who would bring salvation to his
people. But then they saw only Jesus, and Jesus descended from the mountain
with his disciples and spoke to them about the cross: The son of man is to be
handed over to sinful men and be put to death and on the third day rise again.
Peter exclaims, Lord this must not happen to thee. But Jesus replies, Be off
Satan! Thou think as man thinks, not as God. The only path to the happiness of
heaven is the royal path of the cross. Our Lord says to His disciples and to
us: If anyone wishes to follow me, let
him take up his cross daily and follow me.
5. The Institution of
the Holy Eucharist.
Our Lord at the last supper gave
His disciples the greatest gift of his love, that of himself in sacrifice. The
gospels tell us that on the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread
into his hands and said, “This is My body which is to be handed over for you in
sacrifice on Calvary; and This is My blood which is to be shed for you – shed
in sacrifice”.
This was
above all a sacrificial banquet. As the Exsultet puts it: This is our Passover
meal, when Christ the true lamb is slain His blood consecrates the homes of all
believers. In the institution of the Holy Eucharist, Christ gave himself to his
disciples in sacrifice. This was truly the climax of the greatest love story of
all time. Our Lord’s answer to the betrayal of Judas was to give Himself in
sacrificial love. That sacrifice was consummated the following day, when what
Christ had promised was fulfilled and he was crucified on the cross on Calvary . And there at the foot of the cross was our
blessed Lady. In giving us his body in sacrifice, he gave us also his mother,
to be at the foot of our cross: Behold thy son, Behold thy mother. The
Eucharist, in the words of Pope John Paul II, is above all else a sacrifice,
and that sacrifice offered at the last supper was completed on Good Friday when
our Lord laid down his life for mankind.
The fruits
of that sacrifice were the gift of his body and blood as food for the journey
through life, and his abiding presence: “I am with you always, even to the
consummation of the world”. And our Lord said to his disciples, “Do this in
memory of me”: he gave them power to make present that self-same sacrifice
until the end of time, giving himself in love, providing food for the journey,
and abiding always with his disciples and the church.
Sorrowful Mysteries
1. The Agony in the
Garden.
Jesus and His disciples went to
a place called the Garden
of Gethsemane
Jesus said,
“Sit down here while I pray”. He then took with Him Peter, James and John. Why
did Jesus ask these to go an extra way with Him? Even today, He asks some to go
that extra mile. Can we not assume that when, today, Jesus asks something extra
of us, that He is placing us in the same company in which He placed Peter,
James and John? And what a blessing this is… for we know Peter became the
cornerstone of our Church… John was the one who loved Jesus the greatest and
was greatly loved by Jesus …and James, the brother of John, became so devoted
to Jesus that he traveled the farthest ends of the earth spreading the word of
God, and he became the first Apostle-martyr.
And Jesus
went off to pray. He was overcome by a supernatural vision which caused Him to
see all that He would undergo. This sight was full of such horror that His
Sacred Heart was filled with sorrow to the point of death. But, being God as
well as man, Jesus knew why His suffering had to be. There were souls already
awaiting redemption through Him…and Jesus beheld the just of the Old Law, His
Mother’s parents, His beloved foster father, and St. John
The vision
of His Passion and of the sins which made this Passion necessary caused an
agony so intense that His Blood began to flow that night through sweat falling
in drops of blood.
The answer
to His prayer came when, exhausted and trembling, He exclaimed: “My Father, if
it be Thy will, remove this cup from Me.
During
these ten Hail Marys let us beg our most holy Mother to intercede for us that
we may understand the great challenge which is ours to be chosen by Jesus, to
follow His tremendous example of the need for prayer …. And to understand in
depth the words the Angel of Fatima spoke: “Pray, pray a great deal… the Hearts
of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you”.
2. The Scourging at
the Pillar.
At daybreak, the elders of the
people, the chief priests, and the scribes assembled again. They brought Jesus
before the council and asked, “Tell us, are you the Messiah?” He replied, “From
now on, the Son of Man will have His seat at the right hand of the Power of
God”. Soon they had reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led Him away, and
handed Him over to Pilate.
Pilate
asked, “Are you a king?” And Pilate was not kidding. Being a man of authority,
Pilate recognized authority. When he looked into Jesus’ eyes, he saw the eyes
of a king, and he asked, “Are you a king?” Jesus admitted that He was.
At this point,
if we watch Pilate we are taught a grave lesson indeed. Pilate could see no
wrong committed by Jesus. He saw in Jesus the grand manner and authority of a
king. This insight was a tremendous blessing from God. Yet Pilate failed to
take advantage of this blessing. He acted through fear of the people instead of
fear of God. And it was to satisfy the people that Pilate permitted the Son of
God to be scourged and then put to death.
And Jesus
was scourged at the pillar.
Consider
the magnitude of the suffering Jesus underwent. His body was vastly more
sensitive than ours. Everything Jesus felt throughout His life was felt to a
degree of perfection far greater than anything we have ever felt. And this
scourging was so severe that it took three pairs of scourgers a quarter of an
hour each to complete their tasks. Each pair came at Jesus with fresh fury.
Jesus shuddered in His agony… and He continued to pray.
These men
who were scourging our Saviour were motivated by a diabolical hatred. As we
watch them move with fury and act with cruelty, we watch Jesus submit His will
to God’s … we watch Jesus silently pray at the very moment His sacred body is
being caused such agonizing pain.
During
these ten Hail Marys, let us once again implore our heavenly Mother to pray for
us… that we may understand how to submit our wills to God’s … that we may
understand this mystery of redemption as She was able to understand it…and that
we will understand to a far greater degree the words of the Angel at Fatima:
“Above all, accept and bear with submission all the sufferings God sends into
your life”.
3. Jesus is Crowned
with Thorns.
The soldiers now led Jesus away
into the hall known as the praetorium, where the whole cohort was assembled.
They mockingly dressed Him in a royal purple mantle that was much torn and
soiled and began to prepare a crown for His head. The mob now assembled within
the inner court of the guardhouse, stood jeering and laughing, thus adding to
Jesus’ sufferings. Their laughter encouraged the guards as applause does an
actor.
And Jesus
was crowned with thorns.
They placed
upon His sacred head a cap made of skillfully woven thorns…the thorn-branches
were three fingers thick, the thorns of which grew straight out. In weaving the
thorn-branches, care was taken to have as many thorns as possible point inward.
Amid the jeers of the crowd, this crown was placed on Jesus’ head and crushed
downward until some thorns pressed into His brows, while others cut into His
ears and the entire top of His head. Though blinded by blood, He could still
hear the laughter and shouts of mockery of the people about Him. He seemed
alone, without anyone to lend support.
With mock
solemnity, they knelt before Him and bowing low, placed a reed in His bound
hands. They hit Him with assorted weapons, spat into His sacred face, threw
insulting words at Him and mocked Him with shouts of “Hail, King of the Jews!”
Jesus, deep in prayer with His Holy Father, spoke not a word in protest or
defense.
Through
such diabolically infested hatred, it appeared to those present that Jesus was
beaten and destroyed… that they had defeated Him. Yet they were wrong. For
despite the cruelty of their attack, they were unable to touch Jesus’ will… and
here lies the secret of His undefeatable strength. Jesus was prepared to face
whatever they wanted to inflict on Him, for this was the price of our
redemption and He had come to pay that price.
Recall that
God wills everything that happens… He either causes it, or He permits it. If it
is impossible for good to be the final outcome, God will not permit it. Through
the outrageous outpouring of evil inflicted upon Jesus that day came our
redemption. A redemption for all mankind – from the first man born to the last
one who ever will be! To bring about such good – such is the power of God!
Through
these next ten Hail Marys, let us ask our holy Mother to teach us to conform
our wills to God’s so that we, too, will be able to fulfill God’s plan in our
lives. Let us ask Her to help us understand the deep meaning in the words She
spoke at Fatima : “If you wish to offer up to
God all the sufferings He desires to send you, you will have much to suffer,
but the grace of God will comfort you”.
4. Jesus Carries His
Cross.
They brought Jesus to another
part of the house of Pilate where they stripped Him of the purple mantle and
dressed Him in His own garments.
The
executioners loaded the heavy cross upon His shoulders and then tied ropes
around Him so as to be able to jerk Him forward or pull Him backwards. In this
way, Jesus was never sure, step by step, which way He would be pulled.
Painfully,
Jesus started His journey of carrying His cross.
Since the
Last Supper of the preceding night, Jesus had been without food, drink or
sleep. He was now consumed by loss of blood, wounds, fever, thirst and
unutterable interior pain. Thus, under faltering steps, He moved through the
streets amid the confusion and turbulent noise of the crowd, His back bent low
under the weight of the heavy cross, His feet bleeding.
Insults and
horrible affronts were still being hurled at Him. He had fallen under the
weight of the cross onto the jagged stones of the street. Because of the many
deep lashings which struck His shoulder, the cross which was resting on His
shoulder bone caused Him excruciating pain. His knees were open wounds from
falling. His eyes, which had been looking all around Him with such divine
mercy, finally fell upon the face of His Mother! No words were spoken; no words
had to be. Their souls cried out, “My Son!”… “My Mother!” How Mary’s heart
broke at the sight of Her Son being so outrageously treated. How She suffered
within Herself the pains being inflicted upon Her adorable Son. Yet there was
nothing in Her outward appearance to reflect any feelings against those who
were causing this pain.
How could
Mary keep silent at such a time? Being ‘full of grace’, She knew there was only
one course of action She could follow which would be fruitful. Mary prayed.
And what
was the result of Mary’s intercession? Suddenly there was a very radical change
in the Passion. First, there was a reduction in the weight of the cross, for
now Simon was helping Jesus. A woman came forward and wiped Jesus’ face. A
whole group of women began to weep for Him. Jesus now received acts of love and
consolation where before there had been none.
During
these ten Hail Marys let us ask our holy Mother to intercede for us and to
teach us to look with Her great glance of love upon the life of Her Son. Let us
ask Her to help us understand fully the meaning of Her words at Fatima : “Offer up your daily duty in reparation for the
sins of the world”.
5. The Crucifixion.
Jesus was stretched on the cross
by His executioners as bystanders moaned with sighs of pity; some turned their
heads away, unable to endure what they were seeing. Then God sent them this
sign – the sun, which had been burning brilliantly in the sky, became obscured
by a murky, red fog. This filled them with great fear.
As they nailed His sacred hands and feet to the
cross – with the aid of ropes, and levering themselves against the cross for
added strength – His executioners pulled His arms and legs far beyond their
natural reach in order that His hands and feet would extend to the appropriate
points on the cross. Thus His bones were dislocated from their sockets; His
shoulders were distended; His elbows, disjointed. As the nails were hammered
in, Jesus emitted moans which were cries of pure pain.
The sacred
hands which made the heavens and all that exists were now held in place by
nails, and it appeared to man that Jesus
was helpless. “If thou art the Christ, help thyself!” came mocking voices
from the crowd.
Yet, to
God, the scene appeared quite different.
This was
His beloved Son, fulfilling His mission. Instead of being helpless, the power
of God was upon Him….and never had God looked upon Jesus with more love and
tender compassion than He did at that moment.
As the
ninth hour approached (three o’clock in the afternoon), fear filled the crowd
and the scoffers were silenced because the sky was becoming still darker. It
appeared as though they were in the midst of a chaotic night. Slowly, various
groups among the crowd left for the safety of their homes. Jesus’ Mother and
the holy people with Her remained at the foot of the cross.
As the holy
Mother witnessed all that was happening to Her Child, Her grief was so intense
that Her outward appearance changed to such a degree that those closest to Her
could hardly recognize Her. Only by the power of God was She able to endure the
pain She felt that day.
No one need
ever doubt the importance of the Mother of God in our lives. Jesus could have
given us His Mother during any part of His life, but He chose to give Her to us
during His last moments here on earth when He had nothing on His mind except
our redemption. Therefore, as part of our redemption, Jesus gave us His Mother.
During
these ten Hail Marys let us ask our heavenly Mother to help us understand as
She did the mystery of Jesus’ agony on the cross. Let us remember with deep
awareness Her words spoken at Fatima : “So many
souls are lost because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them”.
Glorious Mysteries
1. The Resurrection
The Word of God: He is not here but has risen. Behold the place
where they had laid Him to rest.
Reflection: Christ
triumphed over sin and death. With the help of His grace, rise to a new and
better life.
Petition: Pray
for the spirit of faith, joy, peace.
Points for
Consideration
1.
Easter Sunday dawns bright and serene. The risen Jesus
appears to Mary His Mother, all smiles.
2.
The holy women hurry to the Lord’s tomb in the morning
twilight to
anoint His
body fittingly.
3. They are amazed and frightened to find the
entrance open, the stone rolled back, the tomb empty.
4. The two angels calm their fear saying: He is
risen. Go and tell His apostles and disciples.
5. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene to soothe
her broken heart at the loss of her beloved Master.
6. She rushes back and bursts into the midst
of the apostles saying: I have seen the Lord, Jesus.
7. The risen Jesus manifests Himself to the
crestfallen but repentant St. Peter to reassure his love and confidence as head
of the apostolic college.
8. He joins the two disciples on their way to
Emmaus. They recognize Him at the breaking of the bread.
9. Jesus enters the barred room. He assures
the apostles that it is Himself: Peace be to you all.
10. He breathes upon them and gives them power
to forgive or retain the sins of fallen mankind.
Note Well
Insist on doing even the most
ordinary duties of the day according to your state of life with extraordinary
love, fidelity and generosity to please God alone.
2. The Ascension
The Word of God: And He was
taken up to heaven and sits at the right hand of God: Mk.XVI. 19.
Reflection: Jesus returns to His
Father. God is our destiny and Christ our advocate. Salvation was bought at a
great price.
Petition: Pray for everlasting bliss in
heaven above.
Points for
Consideration
- Jesus shows His resplendent glory to His disciples on and off for full forty days.
- The
task appointed by His Father being completed Jesus goes to
- He says to His apostles: I shall not leave you orphans but send the Paraclete to help and guide you right up to the end of the world.
- He deputes them to preach and teach the Good News even unto the ends of the earth.
- Then raising His hand in benediction, gradually He ascends to His Father in Heaven.
- A nebulous cloud absorbs Him vanishing out of sight before His bewildered disciples.
- They still stand and stare at the heavens with mixed feeling of joy and understandable sorrow.
- Two men in immaculate white suddenly appear in their midst saying: Why stand you and stare?
- This same Jesus will come back again on the last day to judge the living and the dead.
- The
apostles then return to
Note Well
Insist on doing even the most
ordinary duties of the day according to your state of life with extraordinary
love, fidelity and generosity to please God alone.
3. Descent of Holy
Spirit.
The Word of God: Suddenly there
came a sound from Heaven and there appeared to them parted tongues; they were
filled with the Holy Spirit: Acts. 112.
Reflection: I shall not live you
orphans. The Paraclete will teach you all things. Be My faithful witnesses.
Petition: Pray for zeal for souls to
God’s greater Glory.
Points for
Consideration
- The apostles and disciples go back to the Cenacle where the Last Supper was held in farewell.
- There, one in mind and heart, they persevere in prayer and holy expectation for the Will of God to be made manifest.
- The Mother of Jesus and the holy women have also joined this community in prayerful living.
- The time between the Ascension and Pentecost is spent in a close bond of charity and fervent worship.
- On Pentecost Sunday, whilst at prayer, the sound of mighty and strong wind heard.
- It fills and echoes through the Upper Room during the routine prayer get-together session.
- On the head of each one of this pious assembly, they see parted tongues as if of fire.
- Instantly, all present are filled with the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, the promised Paraclete.
- They begin to speak in diverse tongues under the inspiration of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
- Filled with new zest and courage, they now step out to rout and subdue the enemies of God.
Note Well
Insist on doing even the most
ordinary duties of the day according to your state of life with extraordinary
love, fidelity and generosity to please God alone.
4. The Assumption
The
Word of God: Now a great sign appeared in heaven - a woman adorned with the
sun: Revelation. XII. 1
Reflection:
The ample reward of Christian fidelity. No pains, no gains. No cross, no crown.
Petition:
Pray for a good life and a happy death.
Points for Consideration
1. As
the apostles disperse our Lady goes to stay with St. John
2. A
life on earth is drawing to a close. She yearns and pines to be with Her Son,
Jesus.
3. Those
who knew and loved Her in life, start for Her home to be with Her in Her last
moments.
4. They
gather around her bed side anxiously awaiting some parting advice. They are sad
to lose Her.
5. But
their sorrow and grief is not without any hope. They are resigned to God’s holy
will.
6. They
waste no time in fruitless lamentations. Instead, they fervently pray for calm
and peace.
7. With
the greatest affection and reverence, they embalm Her body before the burial
ceremony.
8. Later,
they are astonished not to find Her body in the tomb where it was laid to rest.
9. Exultantly
it dawns upon them that Jesus must have lifted Her body and soul, incorrupt
into heaven.
10. What a
splendid and befitting reward for the heroic role the Blessed Virgin played in
our redemption.
Note Well
Insist on doing even the most
ordinary duties of the day according to your state of life with extraordinary
love, fidelity and generosity to please God alone.
5. The Coronation
The Word of God: Thou art the glory of Jerusalem
Reflection: Pray the Rosary daily with
attention and devotion meditating on the mysteries they contain with practical
concrete reference to our daily duties.
Petition: Pray for the gift of final
perseverance.
Points for
Consideration
1. Amidst choirs of angels, Our Blessed Mother, is
triumphantly borne into heaven.
2. She is seated on a throne next to Her Divine Son in
ravishing resplendent celestial glory.
3. She is crowned Queen Mother and Mediatrix of heaven, the
Cherubim, Seraphim and the whole of creation before the throne of God
4. God the Father rejoices in his daughter’s most perfect
submission and execution of his holy will.
5. God the Son looks with rapturous filial love on His best
and greatest conquest of earthly mould.
6. God the Holy Spirit is thrilled and captivated at the
sight of His one and beloved Spouse.
7. Her bewitching beauty of body and soul send the whole
court of heaven into an ecstasy of joy and love.
8. From heaven, our Queen and Mother, dispenses all graces
through the merits of Jesus Christ.
9. Even as we say this Rosary in her honour, She readily
grants us mercy and pardon for our sins.
10. Pray the Rosary daily with deep faith and due attention
and devotion. As promised our Heavenly Mother will pardon sinners and save
their souls.
Note Well
Insist on doing even the most
ordinary duties of the day according to your state of life with extraordinary
love, fidelity and generosity to please God alone.
CONCLUSION: Our Lady to
Lucia in 1920: “I promise salvation to all those who embrace it (The First
Saturdays Devotion) and their souls will be loved by God as flowers placed by me
to adorn His throne”.
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