Do You Believe in Miracles?

Do You Believe in Miracles? ...
   
Blessed Mary, our heavenly Mother appeared in Fatima every month from May to October 1917. She delivered a series of messages during that time to three young children, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto. While Our Lady discussed many things with the children, the message of Fatima can be seen in three ways:

· Prayer can bring love, life, healing and hope to change a troubled world. A powerful instrument of prayer, is the Rosary
· Become spiritually healthy through our relationship with Our Lord
· Let our Mother Mary, as the Christ-bearer and His first disciple, help guide and interceded for you on your journey.

The message of Fatima is both practical and life changing. On October 13, 2017, I was privileged and blessed to be in Fatima, Portugal on the 100^th anniversary of the final apparition to the children and the anniversary of approximately 70,000 who witnessed the Miracle of the Sun. We, who attended the 100^th anniversary of this miraculous event, held in our hands and raised light to bring the Lord’s message through His mother to the world – one of courage, love, life, healing, hope and peace to the world.

Like in 2017, now 104 years later in 2021, Mary’s Invitation to Pray the Rosary is needed more than ever. Every time the Blessed Mother appeared to the children, she asked them to pray the rosary. A week and a half ago at the Basilica, and then at    St. John’s, we listened to Our Lady and prayed a rosary of light, A Living       Rosary. It has the power to bring peace. The power to heal. The power to make a difference in life, your life,  the lives of your loved ones, and in the world. It teaches us to slow down to focus on Jesus, calm our fears and worries, move forward from the past, offer our struggles and challenges to God, and to listen. As a loving mother, she wants us to bring our troubles to her Son, Jesus. Then, as she did at Jesus’ first miracle at  Cana, she told the servants – Do what He tells you! Let us pray, let us listen.

Pope Francis tells us that in difficult and challenging times, [in this time of pandemic, scandal, and uncertainty] it is necessary to trust in God’s help through childlike prayer. Let us join in community, in a time of renewal, to be in Communion (common-union) with Our Lord as he sends His mother forth, to rebuild and renew our world. Let us be sent forth as missionary disciples in communion with heaven and from an earthly community of love, healing, hope and peace . . .  Let us pray . . .

Fr. John