25th Sunday OT (A)
September 22, 2017
Republic Day wake-up call
September 22, 2017

Madonna to all ~ peace, reconciliation, fellowship & faith

Pilgrims from the Curepe/Valsayn/St Augustine communities are expected to flock to our parish church to see Our Lady of Fatima, Queen of Peace during her visit with us. Our invitation is extended to all: Roman Catholics, as well as persons of all faiths who seek peace, reconciliation and healing with/for their brothers and sisters across this land.

Join us for singing Mary’s Magnificat in prayer, work, creative expression and fellowship – a Eucharistic attitude of praise and thanksgiving in the model of the “new Woman”. Mary is the Woman who shows us the way to Jesus, comfort and mercy to all Creation.

Almighty God tells us in Holy Scripture that the Blessed Virgin will defeat the devil, his followers and plots: “I will put enmities between thee and the Woman, and thy seed and Her seed: She shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for Her heel.” (Gen. 3:15).

In Her appearances at Fatima, the Mother of God solemnly promised us final victory over the forces of evil in our own time. “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph,” She told us, “the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me. Russia will be converted and a period of peace shall be given to mankind.”

Because the warnings that Our Lady gave the world at Fatima are so stern and terrible, many have mistakenly characterised Her Message as “apocalyptic”. Yet at the heart of the Fatima Message is the promise of peace which the Blessed Virgin offers to all men and women of faith and good will. In both its simplicity and its universality, Our Lady’s Message is a unique Heaven-sent opportunity for all people everywhere to work for a real, lasting peace in our homes, churches and nations.

“If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.”

Our Lady’s Peace Plan is founded on three simple, but powerful requests. The first is a request for prayer, most particularly the Holy Rosary and the devotion of the Brown Scapular. The second calls for us to make reparation for the sins and outrages perpetrated against God’s Grace and blasphemies against the Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The third request is for consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, both on a personal basis and, publicly, that of Russia (and Russia specifically) by the Pope and all the world’s bishops.

Each time the Blessed Virgin appeared to the three children at Fatima, She repeated Her requests that we pray the Rosary each day. In the final vision, on October 13, 1917, Our Lady silently held out the Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel as a sign of Her desire that we undertake this great devotion. In fact, Sister Lucy has stated that “the Scapular and the Rosary are inseparable.” Emerging from faith, prayer becomes the unshakeable foundation for peace in Heaven’s plan for our salvation.

At Fatima, Our Lady told the seers that Our Lord is much offended by sin and declared that “people must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.” She also told them that She would return later to ask for a new devotion of reparation in order to save souls. True to Her word, on the evening of December 10, 1925, She and the Child Jesus appeared to Sister Lucy in her convent cell in Pontevedra, Spain.

Showing the young nun a Heart encircled by thorns, Our Lady told her to announce to the world in Her Name that she would assist, at the moment of death, all those who, on the First Saturday of five consecutive months confessed, received Holy Communion, recited five decades of the Rosary and spent fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to Her. Arising from hope, this great devotion of the Five First Saturdays now unites millions of hearts in an unbroken chain of reparation for sin and atonement for offenses against the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

To consecrate is to make holy, to dedicate to God and to declare as sacred. Our Lady’s Plan for Peace is a call to both personal and public consecration. In accordance with the Holy Gospel, the Mother of God asks each of us to consecrate our lives to Her Immaculate Heart, letting it become our gateway to Her Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. At the same time, Our Lady also asks the Church to publicly acknowledge Her divinely-appointed role as the Mediatrix of all Graces and Queen of Peace.

http://www.fatima.org/essentials

All are invited to spend some time with us before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, Queen of Peace, during the period of October 7 – 20.