"... rediscovery of the relevance” of the Fatima message

 



Pontificate of Pope Francis consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima

  

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Lisbon, Portugal, May 14, 2013 / 12:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At the Holy Father’s personal request, Cardinal Jose Polycarp, the Patriarch of Lisbon, consecrated the pontificate of Pope Francis to Our Lady of Fatima on her feast day.

Addressing Our Lady of Fatima during the ceremony, Cardinal Polycarp said, “Grant (Pope Francis) the gift of discernment to know how to identify the paths of renewal for the Church, grant him the courage to not falter in following the paths suggested by the Holy Spirit, protect him in the difficult hours of suffering, so that he may overcome, in charity, the trials that the renewal of the Church will bring him.”

In statements to CNA, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said, “As we know, an important celebration takes place on May 13 in Fatima during which it is normal that the pontificate be entrusted to Our Lady of Fatima.”

The consecration took place at the Portuguese shrine dedicated to Our Lady, with thousands of the faithful present.

Cardinal Polycarp recalled that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI visited Fatima and expressed his desire that Pope Francis do so as well.

“From here, at this altar of the world, he will be able to bless humanity, to make the world of today feel that God loves all men and women of our time, that the Church loves them and that you, Mother of the Redeemer, lead them with tenderness on the paths of salvation,” the cardinal said.
The path of Church renewal leads to a “rediscovery of the relevance” of the Fatima message and of the need to “converse with God,” he explained.

“Contemporary humanity needs to feel loved by God and by the Church,” Cardinal Polycarp said. “If humanity feels loved, it will overcome the temptation to violence, materialism, estrangement from God, loss of direction, and it will be able to advance towards a new world in which love will prevail.”
During the Mass, Bishop Antonio Marto of Leiria-Fatima read a message from Pope Francis to the
Apostolic Nunciature in Portugal.

“The Holy Father said he was pleased with the initiative and expressed deep acknowledgment for satisfying his desire united in prayer with all the pilgrims of Fatima, upon whom he whole-heartedly confers the apostolic blessing,” the message stated.

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Taken from: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pontificate-of-pope-francis-consecrated-to-our-lady-of-fatima/

"Our Lady wants us to stay close to her Divine Son in the Eucharist.”

 



Our Lady of Fatima, Pope Francis and Us

Fatima Is More Important Than Ever

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by Joseph Pronechen Monday, May 13, 2013 4:27 PM .... 

As we honor Our Lady of Fatima today, the 96th anniversary of her first appearance to the three children in Portugal, one new and one little-known but major fact should give us a real boost to listen to her.

The new?

Pope Francis requested that Cardinal José Policarpo, the archbishop of Lisbon, consecrate his pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima, which the cardinal was going to do at the shrine along with the Portuguese bishops at the end of the Mass of the International Anniversary Pilgrimage.
This act of Pope Francis should make us take notice because he’s showing us how important to him the significance of Our Lady of Fatima and her message is in these dire times for peace in the world.
The little-known, major fact?
This first apparition on May 13 took place on a day celebrated liturgically back then as the feast of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
That title was given to Our Lady by St. Peter Julian Eymard, known as "The Priest of the Eucharist," who founded the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament on May 13, 1856.
What does Franciscan Father Andrew Apostoli of the Friars of the Renewal have to say about this?
In his book Fatima for Today (Ignatius 2010), Father Apostoli tells us: “Since heaven’s choices are never made randomly, we must assume that Jesus was sending his mother with a message of his love and peace on a feast day that reminds us of the awesome gift he had already given us: his precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist.”
At that same first apparition on May 13, our Lady stressed to the children: Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.
It is the request — the directive — she gave to us through them in each of her six apparitions at Fatima. She even went on to identify herself, saying, I am the Lady of the Rosary.
Put Our Lady’s two titles together at Fatima and she puts together for us the Eucharist and Marian devotion as the answer to all the world’s woes.
“The Mother of God herself came from heaven with a message of hope and a plan for victory,” says Father Apostoli.
He reminds that even before our Lady appeared she sent a powerful lesson in Eucharistic devotion given by the Angel of Peace’s third apparition to the children to prepare them for our Lady and her messages.
“This apparition would instill in the young children a very ardent devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament,” says Father Apostoli.
So what happened?
The Angel held a chalice with a host suspended in the air over it. Drops of blood fell from the host into the chalice. The Angel left the chalice and host suspended in the air, knelt, repeated three times:
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.
Then the angel rose and gave the host to Lucia and the Precious Blood to Jacinta and Francisco as he said, Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ terribly outraged by the ingratitude of men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.
Father Apostoli explains that from this apparition we learn the importance of Catholic Eucharistic devotion. The angel was teaching the children how Eucharist adoration, receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, “are the essential elements of our Catholic devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
Then at our Lady’s May 13 apparition, she opened her hands bathing the children in a heavenly light that the children knew was the light of God, and Lucia described that “By an interior impulse of grace we fell to our knees, repeating in our hearts: ‘Oh, Holy Trinity, we adore You. My God, my God, I love You in the Blessed Sacrament.’”
After that, our Lady gave that first of the repeated directives: Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.
Then in her July 13 apparition, our Lady puts both together by telling the children of the Communion of Reparation, which, as Father Apostoli explains, is “an essential part of her request for the Five First Saturdays devotion. Our Lady wants us to stay close to her Divine Son in the Eucharist.”
And look what Blessed John Paul II had to say in his encyclical Ecclesia De Eucharistia (On The Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church): “Mary is a ‘woman of the Eucharist’ in her whole life.”
And again, “If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist.”
And we know also how much John Paul II urged us to pray the Rosary, and how he credited Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life from the assassin’s bullet.
Seems like what John Paul said, and what Benedict would also say, and what Pope Francis is now doing at Fatima on May 13, 2013, is a fulfillment of St. John Bosco’s famous dream of the turbulent waters being calmed by the Holy Father firmly anchoring the ship of the Church to the pillars of the Eucharist and Marian devotion.
So, beginning on this feast of Our Lady of Fatima, also once celebrated liturgically as Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, we need to heed her message to have a profound reverence for the Body and Blood of her son in the Blessed Sacrament to make reparation for the outages and sacrileges committed against the Eucharist, and to pray the Rosary daily to bring that peace she promised.
As Father Apostoli affirms, “We, too, need to put into practice our Lady’s requests to pray the Rosary daily for peace in our times and an end to the culture of death so prevalent today.”
By the way, Archbishop Orani João Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro said he intends during this pilgrimage to consecrate to Our Lady of Fatima the work of World Youth Day to be held at Rio de Janeiro on July 23-28.

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Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/joseph-pronechen/our-lady-of-fatima-pope-francis-and-us#ixzz2TDccpP8A

Pope Francis: God loves us and always forgives us



(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday called on the faithful to recognise God’s love for us and to share it with our brothers and sisters. The Pope was addressing crowds of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the General Audience. Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni... As has become customary in these occasions, Pope Francis took his time to stop, greet and exchange a few words, as well as kiss the babies and children as he made his way through the crowds thronging St. Peter’s Square for the weekly General Audience. And continuing his catechesis on the Creed, the Pope turned his attention in particular to “The Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life”. With a reference to the Creed, Pope Francis explained that the Spirit is “Lord”, fully God, the third person of the Blessed Trinity. He is the gift of the Risen Christ, who draws us, through faith, into communion with God. And speaking of the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts, and is the pure source of “living water, springing up to eternal life”, the Pope said - the Spirit purifies, renews and transforms us; he grants us his sevenfold gifts and makes us children of God our Father. And inviting us all to see things with the eyes of Christ, the Pope said “we are loved by God as His children, we can live as children of God, as Jesus did. He concluded his reflection inviting those present to be silent and to listen to the Holy Spirit who tells us: “God loves us and always forgives us”. Please find below Vatican Radio's fult translation of the text: Dear brothers and sisters, good day. The season of Easter that we are living with joy, guided by the liturgy of the Church, is par excellence the time of the Holy Spirit, given to us "not by measure" (cf. John 3:34) by the crucified and risen Jesus. This time of grace ends with the feast of Pentecost, when the Church relives the outpouring of the Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles gathered in prayer in the Upper Room. But who is the Holy Spirit? In the Creed we profess with faith: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life." The first truth to which we adhere in the Creed is that the Holy Spirit is Kyrios, Lord. This means that He is truly God as are the Father and the Son, on our part object of the same act of worship and glorification that we direct to the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, in fact, is the third Person of the Blessed Trinity; the Holy Spirit is the great gift of the Risen Christ who opens our minds and our hearts to faith in Jesus as the Son sent by the Father, and who leads us to friendship, to communion with God But I would like to focus on the fact that the Holy Spirit is the inexhaustible source of God's life in us. In all times and in all places man has yearned for a full and beautiful life, a just and good one, a life that is not threatened by death, but that can mature and grow to its fullest. Man is like a traveler who, crossing the deserts of life, has a thirst for living water, gushing and fresh, capable of quenching his deep desire for light, love, beauty and peace. We all feel this desire! And Jesus gives us this living water: it is the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and who Jesus pours into our hearts. Jesus tells us that "I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly" (John 10, 10). Jesus promised the Samaritan woman that he would donate an eternally abundant ‘"living water” to all those who recognize him as the Son sent by the Father to save us (John 4: 5-26; 3:17). Jesus came to give us this' "living water" that is the Holy Spirit, so that our life may be guided by God, may be animated by God, may be nourished by God. When we say that a Christian is a spiritual man, this is what we mean: a Christian is a person who thinks and acts according to God, according to the Holy Spirit. And do we believe in God? Do we act according to God? Or do we let ourselves be guided by so many other things that are not God? At this point we can ask ourselves: how can this water quench our deep thirst? We know that water is essential for life; without water we die; it quenches our thirst, it cleanses, it renders the earth fertile. In the Epistle to the Romans we find this sentence: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (5:5). The '"living water," the Holy Spirit, the Gift of the Risen One who comes to dwell in us, cleanses us, enlightens us, renews us, transforms us because rendering us partakers of the very life of God who is Love. This is why the Apostle Paul says that the Christian's life is animated by the Spirit and by its fruits, which are "love, joy, peace, generosity, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal 5:22 -23). The Holy Spirit leads us to divine life as "children of the Only Son." In another passage from the Letter to the Romans, which we have mentioned several times, St. Paul sums it up in these words: "All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And you… have you received the Spirit who renders us adoptive children, and thanks to whom we cry out, "Abba! Father. “The Spirit itself, together with our own spirit, attests that we are children of God. And if we are His children, we are also His heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we take part in his suffering so we can participate in his glory "(8, 14-17). This is the precious gift that the Holy Spirit brings into our hearts: the very life of God, the life of true children, a relationship of familiarity, freedom and trust in the love and mercy of God, which as an effect has also a new vision of others, near and far, seen always as brothers and sisters in Jesus to be respected and loved. The Holy Spirit teaches us to look with the eyes of Christ, to live life as Christ lived, to understand life as Christ did. That's why the living water that is the Holy Spirit quenches our lives because it tells us that we are loved by God as His children, that we can love God as his children, and that by his grace we can live as children of God, as did Jesus. And us? Do we listen to the Holy Spirit who tells us: God loves you? Do we really love God and others as Jesus did? Share

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/08/pope_francis:_god_loves_us_and_always_forgives_us/en1-690184
of the Vatican Radio website