After the Consecration of our Parish
to Mary’s Immaculate Heart
It was wonderful to see our church so full for the Fatima Centenary last week when we had a beautiful Marian procession outside and then the Consecration of our Parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary followed by a Solemn Mass. I have received a number of messages and emails from parishioners saying how much they were inspired by the occasion. This is very good to hear and thank you for going to the trouble of letting me know that. I read in the ‘Catholic Herald’ last week that thousands of these consecrations have taken place throughout the world this past year. So we are clearly part of a new trend! Our Lady is very powerful and I believe this Consecration will bring us many blessings.
So now the Centenary has passed, we must not allow ourselves to put the message of Fatima on the shelf and relegate it to something of yesteryear. The magnitude of the Miracle of the Sun demonstrated its urgency and importance for our future and the salvation of souls. So let us take up with zeal the heavenly weapons of the Holy Rosary and the Devotion of the Five First Saturdays. Confess your sins often. The Mother of God herself has asked us to do these things. The need for prayer, repentance and conversion is always urgent but particularly so in our day. There can never be any lasting peace in the world without the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and that will be hastened by our own personal holiness. Our Lady said, “Say the Rosary every day… People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.” This is nothing other than the message of the Gospel.
“To Jesus through Mary” is a phrase often used by spiritual writers. Mary is not the goal, but the guide who leads us to her Son. She is our Mother too, and when we pray to her, she in turn points out Him who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” As she said at the wedding at Cana, “Do exactly as He tells you.”
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
Fr Paul Gillham IC
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