Fatima One Year On

This time last year I was in Fatima with the crowds celebrating the 90th anniversary of the apparitions.

Since returning home I have made sermon references, written in the parish magazine, and talked to St Saviour's Walsingham Cell about the experience.

My love of Our Lady is increased. At Fatima she revealed herself as 'Our Lady of the Rosary' and asked for regular recitation, pleaded for the practice of penance, and devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.

We are approaching the Feast of the Immaculate Heart which is kept on the Saturday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost (the day following the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The Opening Prayer of the Feast has a Pentecost note in it:

"God our Father, You created a worthy dwelling place for the Holy Spirit in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Grant that, through her prayers, we may become a fit temple for Your glory."

To be 'devoted' to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means to make 'Saying Yes to God:May His Will be done' the defining centre of one's whole life, that the Kingdom may come.