The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Our Lady of Fatima. Our Lady of the Rosary.
St. Joseph. Blessed Francisco and Jacinta. Our patron saints and guardian angels.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today we celebrate the anniversary of Our Lady's first apparition at Fatima to the three children,
in which she brought the message of,
of warning, and yet also guidance to a world that had been going astray,
had been following not her son, but had, in many cases, at 1917,
we see the beginnings of what we're experiencing today,
this atheistic and materialistic rejection of God.
Already in Portugal with communism,
masonry having its influence there,
and also we know the revolution that would begin soon in Russia,
which would bring about the modern atheistic state.
We can see that Our Lady was sent by her son to,
to be a mother, to warn her children,
and to give them the way to find a way out of this difficulty.
We see in the gospel, you know, it's always the passage for Our Lady of Fatima,
is the passage from Our Lady standing at the foot of the cross.
And Our Lord's words, you know,
woman behold your son, and then to the disciple,
behold your mother.
And from that moment, the disciple made a place for her in his home.
It would seem that Our Lady gave us a very practical way at Fatima to bring Our Lady into her.
And that is the daily recitation of the rosary.
She asked of the children to pray the rosary every day for peace in the world,
she said, and such a simple thing that the mother of God gives to us.
And yet it's probably still rare or still not so common to find Catholic families
where they pray the rosary every day as a family.
There may be individuals,
in the family that pray it,
but sad to say sometimes it's only the one of the spouses that prays it
because the other doesn't want to,
or they don't seem to even be able to have the charity to pray it together.
You know, that's sad because Our Lady gave us a very simple remedy.
Because when we begin to pray the rosary,
then Our Lady can begin to bring about her,
her influence on hearts and on souls,
and give the graces that God has promised for doing such a simple act of devotion,
but one done with great love,
if we do it out of obedience to our mother.
Recently I heard, you know, and I still believe that Our Lady asked us to pray the rosary at Fatima
because it would have a special efficacious grace of not only blessing,
you know, family, but protection from whatever may come about
because Our Lady said, you know, war is a result of sin.
And we have so many sins that we're promoting today
that I can't imagine what kind of war is going to result
if we don't convert and do it soon.
But I think Our Lady also meant for us to pray the rosary
to have her special protection.
We know the story of the Jesuits
who prayed the rosary already shortly after the message of Fatima was promulgated.
And when they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima in Japan,
that they were spared from the effects of radiation sickness
and all the devastating effects of the nuclear bomb being dropped on that city.
And there's a certain sign these men were like the three men
in the fiery furnace.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you know,
who were protected from the hot furnace
because they were praising God.
They were seeing the praises of God.
And who can do that better than when they pray the rosary?
And I think that was a sign of Our Lady's giving her special protection
to those who would pray the rosary.
And they would suffer, but they would not suffer like those who didn't.
And then, we saw, you know,
recently I read how a grandmother told her her young daughter
who was going off to college asked her to please promise
to pray the rosary every night before she went to bed.
And she said, don't worry if you fall asleep even praying the rosary.
I would just ask you that you would promise
that you would pray the rosary every day.
And the young lady did fulfill that promise to her grandmother.
She prayed the rosary.
Every day many times fell asleep with the rosary in her hand
and never finished it.
But this happened to be Florida State University where she went
and she was in a sorority.
And that was when the mass serial killer Ted Bundy was on the loose.
And he broke into her sorority and he killed a couple
of her fellow sorority members.
And he went into her room to kill her.
But when he opened the door,
he said there was this strange presence that seemed to keep him
from entering and he looked and he saw and she woke up
and saw him standing over her.
And he saw the rosary in her hand and all he could do,
he said later on, because he told this Monsignor who was called
to come and speak to Ted Bundy before he was executed said,
you know, I couldn't enter the room.
I just became, I fled.
And he said, you know, I couldn't enter the room.
And so we see that, you know, our lady's promise was fulfilled again
in a very simple way by just doing what she asked us to do.
And obedience always brings with it many graces.
And so we see that this young lady fulfilled a promise
to pray the rosary, not just to maybe, you know, to her grandmother,
but she was doing it indirectly to our lady as well.
And I think that today, as we ponder the message of Fatima,
we see that the situation our world is in today,
that the only one who has the solution is our lady.
She has to be a supernatural solution to this problem
that is facing our world today of so much sin,
so much evil being promoted in a universal way
throughout the world that definitely our lady has to give us the grace,
the grace of God.
The grace of Jesus and the solution to this problem,
the way out of this mess that we're socially and spiritually in.
We also are reminded today that Pope Francis today
has asked the Cardinal in Portugal to consecrate his papacy
in a special way to Our Lady of Fatima.
And is Pope Francis that Pope of Fatima?
We know that Our Lady and the message of Fatima,
Fatima always has had a special blessing and special message for the popes.
We know that Our Lady told the children to pray for the Holy Father.
He will have to suffer much.
And that Jacinta always prayed for the man in white
that she saw in the vision who would be struck down and killed.
And when they asked Pope Benedict about the message of Fatima,
that somehow was the message of Fatima already fulfilled and concluded
because of Pope John Paul II being shot on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima
in St. Peter's Square?
He said no.
He said the message of Fatima is still to be fulfilled.
The prophecy and the message of Fatima has still much to be accomplished.
So we pray for Pope Francis.
He in many ways,
has a lot to do and a lot to accomplish.
And remember Pope Francis is named after St. Francis who was marked with the stigmata.
So he definitely will have much to suffer in the way of fulfilling his role as the vicar of Christ.
But we pray for Pope Francis because in many ways he has shown already in these short days of his papacy,
his dedication to Our Lady's message.
Going to St. Mary Major's on the first Saturday to pray the rosary and to ask Our Lady's help and assistance
to him as the pope and to all the church.
And so when we look to this message of Fatima,
it is the sign of hope in our world today.
That God has not given up on us because he has given us his mother.
And if that should not give anyone who is, you know,
those who are in despair
or those who are wondering if there's any hope for humanity,
well, it's because our Lord has given it to us from the cross
when he gave us his mother to be our mother,
to pray for us, to assist us.
And she truly is the highest honor of our race,
and she is there to assist us.
And we should turn to her like the faithful have throughout the ages.
Whenever in trouble, we fly,
as in the third century prayer,
sub tuum praesem, we fly to your patronage,
O Holy Mother of God, to your protection.
And truly, we should be flying to her protection.
Seems like today, though, in many cases,
we're crawling and not flying.
And we need to really take to heart
what Our Lady,
what Our Lady said at Fatima about praying and doing penance,
stop sinning,
and, you know, to make reparation
for those who do not realize
the terrible results and consequences of the sins,
the choices that they make for evil.
Let us today pray and ask Our Lady to bless Pope Francis today
as he consecrates his papacy to Our Lady of Fatima,
that she will bless him and protect him,
give him the graces he needs to speak boldly
and to bring down the graces that we need
so dearly in our world today.
And ask especially Jacinta and Francisco
to, in their place from heaven,
as they were so devoted to the Pope
and to the Vicar of Christ,
that they will also beg graces,
pray for them, and ask them to bless him.
And ask for our Holy Father
that he will truly be that Pope
who will proclaim that dogma of Our Lady
so necessary for the triumph of her Immaculate Heart,
which she prophesied at Fatima.
She said it would be done, but it would be late.
And I think it's getting kind of late.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
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