Praised Be Jesus!
I hope all of you are well and that you are all enjoying this joyous Easter season. I'm back!!! After a little hiatus, I'm back! And it's my favorite month of the year, May, the Month of Our Blessed Lady! There's something about May which brings me right back to my time in Catholic elementary and high school. May was always filled with May Mary Altars, and May crownings, and processions, These outward signs of devotion have greatly shaped my devotional life in faith. We also celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima during this month, a feast that has special meaning for me and my life.
I'm sure many of you are not aware that I'm a convert, and the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima were first presented to me in a sixth grade religion class in the form of the 1952 movie, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, and after seeing that movie, I was deeply touched by something about Momma's love for us, and how much she wants us for her son. From that moment, my love for the Faith began to grow and blossom inside my soul; I was received into the Church Easter of 2008.
In these days, I have been meditating on the message of Our Lady, and what has touched my heart the most is Our Lady's desire for the salvation of all souls and for her faithful children to take an active role in the Plan of Salvation. What I have always found interesting about Our Lady's message is that she says, "Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them." I find it interesting that the emphasis on the loss of so many souls is neither on preaching nor on admonishment, but on prayer and sacrifice. As we try to navigate the murky waters of our modern age, where it seems that evil and sin abound, the Blessed Mother asks prayer and sacrifice as the remedy.
When I look at Facebook and other social media these days, I run across a lot of Catholic articles and articles about current events, and consequently the comments on said articles, and sadly, the comments are filled with scathing remarks about people and souls, things that border the hateful in the name of Charity, and I say there is very little charitable about it. What the Virgin is calling for us to do is, yes, that we speak the truth, never hide the truth, but at the same time, we must want the conversion of others more than anything, that we will open our hearts to sinners, make them one of the pinnacles of our prayer life, and then offer sacrifices for them, and this more than anything will save souls from eternal damnation. We as Christians have to ask ourselves: Do we really want all souls to be saved, or has our own sense of righteousness dulled our want for the salvation of others? Have our ideals dulled our senses to the need to love as Christ loves and sacrifices for the most unworthy?
Our Lady's call is asking us to take part in the responsibility for our brothers, that our love for them may not grow cold, but that a fire for their salvation may burn inside of us! So, yes, speak the truth! But remember that speaking the truth must be tempered with prayer and sacrifice, for the salvation of their souls, and for their hearts to be softened and receive the divine light of grace, to bring them to conversion.
OUR LADY OF FATIMA, PRAY FOR US
+AVE MARIA+
Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee 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 whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.
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