September 2025- Newsletter Live
World Apostolate of Fatima England and Wales
SEPTEMBER 2025 Newsletter
Featured this month: a beautiful insight into our children embracing the Fatima Message at a school visitation in the Archdiocese of Westminster - more here ...
Dear Readers,
This is the third edition of our new updated newsletter, for the month of September. We hope you will enjoy reading about the latest Fatima news both locally and internationally..
SEPTEMBER - MONTH OF THE SORROWS OF MARY
September, as the Month of the Sorrows of Mary, invites us to meditate on the compassion and suffering of Our Lady, especially as she stood by her Son at the foot of the Cross. This devotion was vividly brought to life at Fatima, where Our Lady not only asked for prayer and penance but emphasised the need for reparation to her Immaculate Heart. Just as Mary suffered in union with Jesus for the salvation of souls, Fatima calls each of us to join our prayers and sacrifices to hers, consoling her heart and working for the conversion of sinners.
NEWSLETTER CONTENTS
๏ปฟMESSAGE FROM OUR NATIONAL PRESIDENT
NEW / RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
FOCUS ON FIRST SATURDAYS!
WAF AGM & VOLUNTEERS - URGENT APPEAL
FROM OUR NATIONAL SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
NOTICES - FOCUS ON ACTIVITY
PLEDGE MEMBER FEEDBACK FEATURE
FATIMA ARTICLES
FATIMA GLOBAL NEWS FEATURE
EVENTS / VISITATIONS
DONATIONS
News updates from Patrick Cunningham
Dear WAF Members
Pilgrim Virgin Statue Visitations
Since our last newsletter in July, WAF-E&W visited the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Taper in the Diocese of Cardiff and Menevia. This visit was part of the centennial year of celebrations for the Five First Saturdays devotion requested by Our Holy Mother. This September, we will visit St. Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle Upon Tyne. For more details, please visit: https://www.worldfatima-englandwales.org.uk/events
National Pilgrimage to Fatima
In July, a group of 54 pilgrims went to Portugal. They first went to Santiago de Compostela, where they visited the famous basilica where St. James the Apostle is buried. The next day, they travelled to Pontevedra by coach and celebrated Mass at the Dorothean convent. It was here that Sister Lucia witnessed the apparition of the child Jesus and Our Lady, when she requested the Five First Saturdays devotion on December 10, 1925.
The pilgrims then visited Coimbra and the memorial museum to Sister Lucia before travelling on to Fatima. The pilgrimage was a great success and was also attended by WAF-E&W Patron Archbishop Mark O'Toole and National Spiritual Director Canon Jason Jones.
WAF-E&W / EWTN-GB Collaboration
As you may recall, WAF-E&W and EWTN-GB are collaborating to promote the message of Fatima and the First Five Saturdays devotion. We are reaching new audiences through the internet, social media, and via print. Several podcasts and short films are in production and will soon be released. These will feature highlights from the May 3rd visitation to St. Joseph's Cathedral in Swansea, as well as faith-based witness statements. We will also release podcasts and a short documentary film recorded during the national pilgrimage to Fatima in July.
WAF-E&W AGM
The WAF-E&W AGM will be held at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Chessington from Thursday, October 23rd, to Saturday, October 25th. All are welcome to attend! For further details, please see the poster above.
Nominations requested for Trustees
Two Trustee posts will be vacated this year as the current post holders are stepping down after completing their third term in office—the maximum allowed under the Charity Commission Constitution. If you would like to be considered for one of these roles, please read this document, and contact our national secretary, Kathleen Too.
Please note that only Promoters may apply for the role of Trustee and must be seconded by another Promoter.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the current post holders for their time and commitment. It is important that we fill these roles to ensure future generations continue to know the message of Fatima.
Promoter Formation
The Promoter on-line formation is proving a great success and many thanks to all involved. Please note the next on-line TEAMS formation sessions will be held on 20th October and 15th December respectfully. Details will be made available nearer the time.
Monthly On-line Rosary
The monthly on-line rosary is held on the first Sunday of every month commencing at 7pm. Please try to attend and support the rosary prayer intentions, particularly for world peace. See the poster for details.
NEW / RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Useful Resources and Media๏ปฟ
Our website
We have updated new content on our website. Please visit and explore.
www.worldfatima-englandwales.org.uk/
Insights from Archbishop O'Toole
Our Patron Bishop Archbishop Mark O'Toole reflects on the Fatima message and the First Saturday devotion in a
short video.
WAF Introductory Video
This video emphasises the importance of the Fatima message for our times and how we can best respond.
View the video here.
FOCUS ON FIRST SATURDAYS
We hope you were able to participate in the Fatima Five First Saturdays devotion recently. Here are some useful resources to help you understand better this important devotion.
WAF AGM & VOLUNTEERS - URGENT APPEAL
๏ปฟPlease look at this information about the WAF AGM in October this year, and our need volunteers to help our mission to spread the message of Fatima. The poster can be printed off and shared from the link below. Also this image can be shared on social media.
FROM OUR NATIONAL SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
Spiritual reflections from Canon Jason ๏ปฟ
Dear WAF Family,
As we enter the month of September, the month dedicated to the Our Lady of Sorrows, there is a particular focus on the feasts of the Holy Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows, on the 14th and 15th September respectively.
There are other feasts of Our Lady also in September, namely the feast of her Nativity on 8th September, and of her Most Holy Name on 12th September. These memorials keep us close to Her.
It is good for us to consider the appropriateness of the message of Our Lady of Fatima on 13th Sept 1917, in the light of the above feasts.
During this apparition, she said, “Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Dolours and Our Lady of Carmel. Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. God is pleased with your sacrifices. He does not want you to the rope on, but only to wear it during the daytime.”
From the beginning of the Fatima story, and the appearance of the Angel in the spring of 1916, there have been various requests and mentions of penance. Penance for sin, penance in reparation to the Immaculate Heart, penance for sinners so as to obtain their conversion.
In the September account of the words of Our Lady we hear about the rope that the little shepherds had discovered and which, because of its roughness, they had decided to wear as a penance. This act of mortification, resembling the practice of wearing a hair shirt which irritated and rubbed the skin, is commented on by the Blessed Virgin.
First God is pleased by this act; but he is a kind father and realises that the penance was affecting their sleep.
Part of the WAF pledge is doing one’s daily duty as a means to holiness and sanctification. It is hard to undertake this when one is tired after a bad night’s sleep.
The fact that Our Lady specifically tells the children not to wear it in bed is a good reminder to us that we need to sleep well at night in order to serve the Lord well during the day. We cannot offer God our work if it is done half heartedly and without focus and attention because we are falling asleep during the day.
The Shepherd Children of Fatima, like you and me, were called to live in the world. We need rest. We can certainly appreciate the danger of undertaking a night time penance if it then made us fall asleep at the wheel the next day.
The focus of September and the Holy Rosary are a timely reminder for us to review our mortifications and our daily penances, which don’t necessarily have to be spectacular:
We can instead concentrate on things like:
How do we keep patience when the lights are red?
Do we keep a smile on our face when someone is boring us or testing our limits?
Do we bite our tongue or give our opinion when no one has asked for them?
The cross is always there without us having to look for new crosses, and in embracing the cross which comes our way we also embrace its fruit of resurrection.
We will always have a cross of some sort, for that is the sign of our Faith but we also take comfort that at every cross Our Lady stands with us.
Let us ask Our Lady of Sorrows to give us some of her strength for the crosses and trials we face, and to offer these in reparation for our sins and those of the whole world.
With prayers
Fr Jason
Canon Jason Jones
WAF National Spiritual Director - England and Wales
FATIMA NOTICE BOARD
Click on the section below for more about our important events or activites
PLEDGE MEMBER FEEDBACK
Reflections, thoughts and insights from members
Do you have something to share? A story or an experience which helped with your journey of faith ... please let us know.
FATIMA & MARIAN ARTICLES
Informative and topical articles related to the Message of Fatima
September is the month dedicated the Sorrows of Mary
September is the month traditionally dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, and the feast day for this falls on 15 September, the day after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Clearly, it is very appropriate that these two feasts, representing the sorrows of Christ and Our Lady, should be celebrated so close together, given that the Blessed Virgin was the one who stood so steadfastly at the foot of the Cross on Calvary during the awful sufferings of her Son.
As Fr Jason indicated, there are also some other notable Marian feast days in September, including the feast of the Nativity of of the Blessed Virgin on 8 September, and the feast of the Holy name of Mary on 12 September. And there is also the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham on 24 September.
These feast days are all part of a rich historical tradition. The celebration of the Nativity of Our Lady in the Eastern Church goes back to the seventh century, and it was likewise celebrated during the time of Pope Sergius I (687-701) in Rome, from whence it found it way to other European countries. There is no scriptural record of the birth of Mary, but it is mentioned in the apocryphal
Protoevangelium of James, which dates from the second century.
The Feast of the Holy Name of Mary expresses the idea that after the name of Jesus, her name represents the highest expression of holiness in the light of her extraordinary sanctity and her role as Mother of God. This feast day was celebrated in Spain originally but was extended to the whole Church by Pope Innocent XI after the defeat of the Ottoman army at Vienna by the forces of the Polish King Sobieski on 12 September 1683. Sobieski attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin.
Traditionally, the seven sorrows comprised the following incidents from the life of Our Lady:
- the prophecy of Simeon that a sword should pierce her soul
- the flight into Egypt, when the Holy Family had to escape the wrath of Herod
- the loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, an incident which was a cause of such anguish to both Mary and Joseph
- Our Lady meeting Jesus on the way of the Cross
- the bloody Crucifixion of Jesus on Mount Calvary
- the piercing of his side by the soldier after his death and the descent of his body from the Cross
- and finally, his burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea nearby.
These seven sorrows show how closely linked the lives of Jesus and Mary were, and that she was present at all those crucial moments of pain and distress, and so shared as fully as possible in his sufferings.
And this is relevant to our own time and lives, too, since the theme of suffering is prominent in what Our Lady said to the children at Fatima. During the very first apparition, on 13 May 1917, after telling them that they would go to heaven, she said: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners?” Lucia replied, “Yes, we are willing,” to which the response was, “Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.”
During the August apparition, the sadness and suffering of Our Lady at the plight of mankind in its opposition to God was also apparent. Sr Lucia tells us that at the end of this apparition, “looking very sad” she said, “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.”
And she also records that this same sadness during the final apparition on 13 October 1917, once again saying that the Blessed Virgin was “looking very sad” as she said, “Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended.”
So during this month dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, we can certainly think about the historical sorrows of her life, which came about because she was the Mother of Christ, the Man of Sorrows, but it would also be good to remember her continuing sufferings as the Mother of the mystical Body of Christ, of all Christians, and do what we can to alleviate those sufferings through our prayers and sacrifices.
FATIMA GLOBAL NEWS
Fatima News highlights from around the World
Vatican Grants Pontevedra Jubilee Year
Vatican grants a Jubilee Year to the Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Pontevedra for the centenary of Our Lady’s Apparition to Sister Lucia.
The Vatican has granted the Convent-Shrine of Pontevedra, in Spain, the privilege of celebrating a Marian Jubilee Year from December 10, 2025 to December 10, 2026, on the occasion of the centenary of the apparition of Our Lady and the Child Jesus to Sister Lucia. It was during this apparition, on December 10, 1925, that the devotion of the First Five Saturdays of the month was requested by Our Lady.
Read more.
Jubilee of Marian Spirituality - October 2025
The Jubilee of Marian Spirituality is a special event within the larger 2025 Jubilee Year, focusing on deepening devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It will take place in Rome from October 11-12, 2025, with events centered around major basilicas and culminating in a Mass presided over by the Holy Father.
The Jubilee aims to inspire reflection, prayer, and celebration of Mary's role in the faith, inviting clergy, religious, and laity to participate.
EVENTS / VISITATIONS
Some video highlights of recent Fatima events and media.
Video from the first ever school visitation in the Archdiocese of Westminster, in June - St Thomas More Language College in Cadogan St., Chelsea, London.๏ปฟ
Procession of the Fatima Pilgrim Virgin Statue opened event at St Chad's Cathedral
On Saturday 28 June, St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham hosted the Visitation of the National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, and the Relics of Saints Jacinta and Francisco. You can see more details about this event, including a photo gallery and video, here...
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