20 november, 2013
Since the end of 2010, the Shrine is traveling an itinerary of preparation and celebration of the Centennial of the Apparitions. The purpose of this thematic itinerary guiding the Shrine’s life throughout these seven years is to study the most significant themes of the Message of Fatima, by connecting them in an organic and coherent way. The starting point for each year is one of the apparitions of Our Lady, which allows us to identify the fundamental ideas of the Message of Fatima and find, for of the seven yearly cycles, a set of proposals capable of presenting and illuminating it.
The pastoral year 2013-2014 is going to be dedicated to July’s apparition. The chosen theme is ‘Enveloped in the love of God for the world’ as the aspect which better allows to approach the different contents of the Message of Fatima communicated in this apparition.
After having urged the Little Shepherds to pray the Rosary every day, Our Lady tells them: “Make sacrifices for sinners and say often, specially whenever you make some sacrifice: «O Jesus, it is for the love of You, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary!»”. This is a prayer of entrustment or offering of the sacrifices made. The prayer is addressed to Jesus Christ, because, by our sacrifices, we unite our entrustment to Christ’s entrustment on the Cross for us. The prayer indicates the motivation for all the sacrifices made by the Little Shepherds: “It is for the love of You”. It is in response to the love of God – which the Little Shepherds strongly experienced – that they are willing to make sacrifices. It was love that motivated them: the love of God, which Our Lady made known to them and made them experience, and to which they tried to correspond.
July’s apparition is still marked by other prayer, a short prayer, taught by Our Lady to the Little Shepherds: “When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: «O My Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of Hell and lead all souls to Heaven, specially those most in need of Thy mercy!»”. It is to comply with this express will of Our Lady that we repeat this prayer after each mystery of the Rosary. But, once again, what justifies this prayer for sinners is love: the love of God for each one of them and the love each believer is called to have for them, as a response to God’s immense love.
It is still in July’s apparition that Our Lady entrusts to the Little Shepherds the famous Secret. Well, what the Secret is all about is God’s immense love for the world. Because our history is not unknown to God, Who, because His love for us is without limit, won’t allow it to fall into the abyss.
We are indeed truly “enveloped in the love of God for the world!”
This theme brings us back to the core of the Christian message and to the core of the Message of Fatima. The revelation of God as Love truly constitutes the core of the Christian message. St. John says it this way: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1Jn 4, 16). But here is also the fundamental core of the Message of Fatima, which we are called to discover: the love of God that the Little Shepherds experienced so intensely and changed their lives; reparation; devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary…
The theme for the new pastoral year is an invitation, taken from the Message of Fatima, for us to be aware of that great love of God for us; but it is also a challenge for us to live, in a concrete way, that love for God and the brothers, as the Little Shepherds did.
Fr. Carlos Cabecinhas, Rector of the Shrine of Fatima
2013-2014
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