4 May/4 October -  Introductory Day 

“Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, “Woman, this is your son.” Then to the disciple he said, “This is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” John 19: 26-27  

In John’s Gospel this is almost Jesus’ final act before his death on the cross. He entrusts his mother to John’s care and then, in turn, he

commits John, and through him all of humanity, to Mary’s care. At his moment of greatest test and suffering, Jesus gives us the most precious gift of Mary as a mother to us in our times of trial and need.

Over the last 2000 years Our Lady has shown her motherly care for us time and time again at pivotal moments of crisis for humanity. One such moment occurred just over 100 years ago. Amidst the carnage of World War One, Pope Benedict XV in early May 1917 appealed to Christians to pray a novena in honour of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, asking her intercession to help end the terrible conflict. On day eight of the novena, Sunday 13 May, Our Lady appeared with her response to three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos and her younger cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, while they were tending their sheep in the fields outside their village near Fatima, Portugal. 

It might seem like a charming picture – a pastoral idyll with innocent children and a radiant Madonna... But there is nothing sentimental about Fatima – from the very first of the six apparitions we enter a world of gritty and graphic realism. Our Lady and Lucia (who we need to keep on reminding ourselves was only 10 years old at the time!) immediately enter into a conversation concerning the reality of heaven, purgatory and Satan, the salvific power of the rosary, how offended God is by human sinfulness and the urgent need for us to make reparation through penance and prayer. War is shown to be the tragic result of human sinfulness and peace the fruit of human contrition and conversion.

In the apparitions which follow, the children will be transcended into heaven and shown the horrors of hell; they will be given specific details about the fate of Russia, about how Communism and Nazism will spread their poison across the globe and how this will lead to the brutal persecution of the Church. This most ‘political’ of Our Lady’s messages will directly predict the coming of the Second World War and give exact details about the signs signalling its beginning. The world is blindly heading for the abyss and Our Lady, with her maternal care, urgently gives us the remedy for our sickness. 

This remedy calls each one of us firstly to reject sin and live good, holy lives; secondly, do sincere penance so that sin may lose its power over us; and thirdly, offer acts of reparation and intercession for those who  have forgotten God or who deliberately offend him. Our Lady also repeatedly speaks of God’s desire that humanity should establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart as a way of answering its deepest needs and  contributing to the salvation of souls. 

Our Lady appeared in Fatima at a time of unprecedented human suffering through the horrors of war, the seismic tremors of the atheistic Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the outbreak of the Spanish flu pandemic which within just two years would infect one third of the world’s population. Over a century on, the degree of indifference even hostility to God is surely much deeper across the globe than it was 100 years ago and the carnage of conflict and war still scars our world. But Our Lady’s message at Fatima continues to offer a powerful antidote to the evil and trials of our times. 

Therefore, just as Pope Benedict XV sought light in the darkness of May 1917 through a novena of prayer to Our Lady, so may we gather together so as to offer a novena in honour of Our Lady of Fatima. From 5 May  up until her feast Day on 13 May, we are invited to be united in daily reflection and prayer before Our Lady of Fatima. Each day we will recall one of the apparitions – both of Our Lady to Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco  between May and October 1917, and also the apparitions of the Angel of Peace to the children in 1916 which prepared their souls for the great graces they were to receive at Our Lady’s hands. We will see how the revelations of each apparition continue to speak to the tests and trials of today. 

In the spirit of Our Lady of Fatima’s message and mission, we will be invited to pray urgently for our own deeper personal conversion, for the healing of our society and human family from the evils of our day, and for true peace and renewal of faith in God in our world today.