May 12, 2026 • 31 mins
St. Josemaria made many Marian pilgrimages throughout his lifetime, seeking Our Lady’s intercession for his continual conversion and of the whole world. Today’s meditation commemorates in a special way St. Josemaria’s pilgrimages to Fatima and his personal friendship with Sister Lucia, one of the visionaries of the apparition.
Fr. Marty Miller offers a brief historical account of St. Josemaria at Fatima and reflects on the message of Our Lady calling us to deeper prayer, conversion, and love for God.
Listen and reflect on:
- The message of Our Lady of Fatima
- The call to prayer and daily conversion
- Offering sacrifice in reparation
- Trusting in God through Mary
- Living the message of Fatima today
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SPEAKER_00 (00:10):
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit, Amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
I ask your pardon for my sins,grace to make this time of
prayer fruitful.
(00:30):
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my Father and Lord, my
guardian angel, intercede forme.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, forthese days of celebration in the
month of May, especially thematernity of our Lady, of your
mother and our mother,celebrating motherhood in
(00:52):
general as well, in many placesthroughout the world.
Celebrate this month as a monthin celebration of motherhood,
Mother's Day in many countriesduring the month of May, of
course, and special emphasis andattention to the maternity of
Our Lady for all of usChristians.
(01:13):
Saint Jose Maria liked to sayvery much Mother of God and my
mother, or Mother of God and ourMother.
We are very connected with thatsentiment and with that call to
have a greater awareness of Maryas our mother.
(01:34):
We are aware of during thecenturies of there being
interventions and moments in thehistory of the church in which
the Blessed Virgin Mary has evenmade it more clear that she is
our mother and that she ispraying and constantly vigilant
for the well-being of herchildren on earth, uh, and
(01:59):
guiding us to keep close toJesus or to draw us near to
Jesus.
And in a way, uh she is mothernot of only of all Christians
and Catholics in particular, butof uh all peoples, really.
Uh Mary is the mother ofhumanity, uh redeemed in Christ
(02:23):
now, as the document of VaticanII, Gaudi Metzpez, says that
Christ, through his incarnation,somehow has united himself in
his sacred humanities, to thehumanity of every person, that
we are united to Jesus throughour humanity, and to that we
(02:43):
have to be very grateful to theBlessed Virgin Mary, who gave
Jesus all of his humanity thatcame from her, and continues to
be in heaven, to uh redeem usfrom heaven.
Jesus is there in body and bloodand soul and divinity, the right
(03:05):
hand of God the Father.
Jesus' sacred humanity ispresent, really present in Holy
Communion, in the BlessedSacrament.
Jesus is truly present also inhis sacred humanity, in a way,
through his mystical body, whichis the church.
And to this we have to be extragrateful to our lady as an
(03:27):
instrument of God, as Mother ofGod, to share and to unite our
humanity with the sacredhumanity of Jesus.
We know that theologically,Lord, but we have to be reminded
of it in a motherly family way.
(03:47):
Uh just like our naturalmothers, uh human moms, we
celebrate this month, at leastin the countries of the West, uh
United States and Canada.
Uh I don't know a lot of theother countries uh and their
exact Mother's Day celebrations,but I know in this part of the
(04:09):
world Mother's Day is celebratedat some point during May.
And you say, well, I always lovemy mother.
I mean, that's uh kind of anautomatic uh reaction of who I
am as her child.
I think about my mom a lot, evenif our mothers have already gone
(04:30):
to heaven, have completed theirjourneys.
We think about our mothers alot.
We are reminded of their carefor us.
We have lots of memories storedup that uh as we grow older, we
fondly look upon, and even someof the smells of our mom's
kitchen or her voice, uh, evenif she was kind of upset with
(04:55):
us, we in a way, if if we thinkabout that as older persons, and
even if our moms are not with usanymore, we still kind of look
fondly even upon thosecorrections and those small uh
admonitions that moms lovinglygive us because they know we
need it.
(05:15):
It's not that they want to chideus or something like that, get a
joy out of uh ruling over us asour mothers or something like
that, uh, but that they reallycare for us and they know that
sometimes we get a bit off trackor in the baseball season now, a
little bit off base, and we needto keep close to uh the reality
(05:36):
of the game we are playing, weneed to keep attentive to our
next steps.
So our lady is really helpfulfor us as our mother, and she
reminds us through history ofthat, um, especially in the
those apparitions of the BlessedVirgin Mary through history.
We don't have time today to gothrough all of them.
(05:56):
But uh the feast day of May 13,and if you're listening to this
edition on May 13, this episode,well, you and I are celebrating
the feast of Our Lady of Fatima,which is a relatively recent, uh
just over a hundred-year eventin which the Blessed Virgin Mary
(06:19):
made it very clear to the churchand to the world that she was
watching over us, that she caredvery much for our spiritual,
emotional, and physical health,uh even social health, right?
Because as we'll consider Mary,our Lady of Fatima, warned a lot
(06:40):
about and asked us to pray verymuch for world peace, which is
continued intention for thechurch in these days, and to
pray for peace and to um prayfor conversion of those who wage
war, of those who are at thetime were spreading errors uh
(07:02):
throughout the world and doing alot of political violence and
these kinds of things throughthe communist revolutions at the
time in Russia and Mexico, andthen later in Spain and other
parts of the world.
Uh, and even then, of course,the uh the calamities of World
War II and everything, Our Ladywas warning us against the
(07:24):
dangers of not turning to Godand to pray for peace and to
trust our lives and our effortsto God.
And she did so in a very strongway through the apparitions of
Our Lady Fatima.
But it was it was also in a veryloving way, in a very motherly
(07:45):
way.
Um, these kinds of warnings ofthe secrets of Fatima that were
revealed to the children.
Um I'm not a particularspecialist in the apparitions of
Our Lady of Fatima.
Personally, I've I've not beenthere yet.
I hope to go one day to pray atthe shrine of Our Lady of
Fatima, but I try to put intopractice, as I'm sure you do
(08:10):
too, try to put into practicethe basics of the teachings of
Fatima, which were to pray therosary, to be devoted to Our
Lady, uh, to uh try to live somesort of devotions up to Our Lady
on set on the first Saturdays ofthe month.
Um and you can look at awebsite, uh, a couple of
(08:31):
websites about those devotions.
They're trying to promote thosedevotions on first Saturdays
more in some parishes, andthere's some very good people
promoting those devotions.
Um and and praying for peace,and uh, and above all, uh, which
seems to be the general messageof all the apparitions of Our
(08:52):
Lady to the world, is prayer andconversion, right?
To turn to God in prayer, toturn away from selfishness and
sin.
It's the basic dynamic that Maryteaches us as a mother
throughout history, uh, as ourown mothers would tell us, you
(09:13):
know, hey, you know, stop beingbad.
Start being good, try to begood, stop, stop being bad.
So, I mean, it's kind of thesame dynamic of the Blessed
Virgin Mary.
Turn away from sin, turn toJesus, turn to God, turn to the
life of faith, not the life ofyourselves and your your just
(09:37):
your own pursuits and thingslike that.
So uh in that way, theapparitions of Our Lady of
Fatima were very much in the uhconsistence consistently uh
line, lined up with withprevious uh uh appearances of
Our Lady for different reasonsthroughout history.
(09:59):
And so we we celebrate todaythat motherly care that Mary has
for us.
Perhaps we look at today beingalso uh consideration in the
month of May, the our overalldevotion to Mary, and of course,
this episode of the podcast ofthe St.
Jose Maria Institute, we canlook at a little bit the uh
(10:22):
devotion uh St.
Jose Maria had toward Our Ladyof Fatima in particular.
Um within the context of hisoverall devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary, which was immense,which was great, and as big as
his devotion to Mary was, wasgreater his love for Jesus,
(10:46):
because the more he loved ourlady, the more he loved the Lord
Jesus, which is the this is theproper order, the proper dynamic
to live there, to to know andlove Jesus more in a particular
way through the intercession ofMary, through the leadership of
Mary, through the motherly careof Mary.
(11:09):
Uh it is true we call out toyou, Jesus, directly from our in
our prayer, in our hearts and inour minds.
We do that frequently too.
So it's not like it always hasto be, you know, a sort of
Marian intervention at alltimes, uh, because we we are
free to address the threepersons of the Blessed Trinity
(11:33):
through the sacred humanity ofChrist.
We reach out to God the Father,who loves us as the greatest of
our fathers, could could everbe, uh, and the Holy Spirit who
guides us in the church dayafter day is all-knowing,
all-powerful, inspires us dayafter day.
So we have uh a contemplativeand a real relationship with all
(11:57):
the three plus persons of theBlessed Trinity.
But I bet if you peel it back alittle bit in your own personal,
you can consider this in yourown personal prayer today, that
if you peel it back a littlebit, you will see, as I do too,
that somehow our lady isinvolved in all of those
aspects.
You know, she is daughter of Godthe Father, mother of God the
(12:20):
Son, spouse of God the HolySpirit, as stands to reason
because Mary, conceived withoutoriginal sin and assumed into
heaven, is given the life inChrist as the greatest of all
saints and queen of heaven, tohave particular intercessory
(12:46):
power for all the faithful andto continue to guide us.
And so we shouldn't be surprisedat that.
But also always kind of a littlebit in the background, like
during the Easter season, wepray that uh Mary is is we we
pray to her as mother of God,mother of the church, mother of
(13:07):
the apostles, but we don't seeher in the Acts of the Apostles,
other than right at thebeginning on the day of
Pentecost where she is presentwith the apostles.
Did the Blessed Virgin Mary eversay anything else?
Of course she did.
Uh did she did she comment onaspects of the apostles how they
(13:28):
were doing?
Probably, you know, at somepoint giving them some advice or
giving them some encouragement.
We just don't have it writtendown.
Um but we know that she'spresent.
I think it's overall, that's ait's kind of a summary of Marian
devotion for us Catholics, isthat we have a constant
(13:48):
awareness and appeal to ourlady, but but without somehow
distracting us and just theopposite of drawing us closer to
God, Father, Son, and HolySpirit.
That's the whole point of Mariandevotion.
It's the whole point of therosary, for example, as St.
John Paul II said, that therosary is more than anything a
(14:11):
Christological meditation on thelife of Jesus.
It's not just a devotionalprayer to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, but it actually, thosemysteries of the rosary, the
meditation on the words of theBible and the Hail Mary and the
Our Father, they lead us to adeeper meditation on the life of
Jesus.
(14:32):
So I know that uh those who praythe rosary in a month of May is
a great time.
If you don't have a big habit ofpraying the rosary, just to pick
it up and start praying therosary more regularly.
And you will find, as did St.
Jose Maria and all the other uhsaints who prayed the rosary
devoutly, that the rosary ledthem to Jesus.
(14:54):
It leads us to Jesus.
And so getting back to St.
Jose Maria's devotion to OurLady of Fatima, um, he went to
Fatima a number of times.
The first time was at the behestof one of the little girls, the
shepherd girls, who survived uhthe the apparitions uh and the
(15:20):
time uh afterwards, becauseperhaps as you know, that the
brother and sister Francisco andJacinta Marta, they were two of
the uh sheoung shepherds, theydied shortly after 1917.
But Sister Lucia, she she livedto 2005.
(15:41):
Amazing, huh?
So she lived uh quite a longlife.
Uh she's venerable, she is notuh declared blessed yet.
She's in a way a contemporarystill of us, making it into the
2000s.
Well, she was when she was acontemplative nun, she reached
out uh to St.
(16:02):
José Maria and asked him aboutcoming to Portugal and Fatima in
the early days of Opus Day, andto uh come and and and and visit
with her and uh bring themessage of the sanctification of
ordinary work, the formationactivities of Opus Day.
She was instrumental in helpingthose getting more started uh in
(16:26):
Portugal at the time.
So uh St.
Josemaria, he said, no, maybe ina few years.
No, he did not say that.
Okay, no, he he went right awayto go see.
I'm just joking, sorry,shouldn't joke about those kinds
of things, perhaps.
But no, he went right away anduh made a uh pilgrimage to
Fatima for the first time onFebruary 6, 1945.
(16:54):
Uh he went to visit SisterLucia, who at the time was
living in Spain, but uh thensoon moved to Portugal herself
into the Carmelite Monasterythere at Coimbra.
And St.
José Maria was then facilitatedhis uh visit, the Fanama um
(17:14):
first Fanima visit, and as wellas um helping to make
arrangements, however, those aremade, to begin and start to uh
have the activities of Opus Daystart in in Portugal.
And so that's a great thing, youknow, as our as this St.
Jose Maria liked to say that OurLady opened the doors uh of the
(17:35):
work to Portugal and uhconsidered that a very nice
intervention uh for his part ofOur Lady.
Um but that's not the onlyreason that he had such a
devotion to Our Lady Fatima.
Um of course uh that was 20, 30years later, after the uh
(17:55):
apparitions in 1917, uh and youknow, in night up until 1945,
St.
Jose Maria had suffered a lot ofviolence himself in Spain, um,
and then difficulties throughoutthat uh in the early efforts to
get the uh apostolic works ofOpus Day going, to have it
(18:19):
understood by uh ecclesiasticalauthorities at the time, to help
find people, to find vocationsfor people who would then do the
work of Opus Day in in Spain andeventually in Rome and
eventually in places likePortugal and throughout the
world.
So these were the earliest,earliest days.
(18:40):
You know, St.
José Maria received the light ofthe founding of Opiste in
October 2nd, 1928, um nine yearsafter Fatima.
And then you it began kind of aperiod of of hard work and
really of suffering and and thenuh of opposition and eventually
(19:04):
persecution of the church inSpain, and and so he knew
suffering, and he knew that OurLady of Fatima w had predicted
what you know what reallytranspired.
Um and maybe he thought, well,it would even be worse if we
weren't praying the rosary.
Those of us who are praying therosary, maybe it could even be
(19:24):
worse.
And the uh the world had wasgoing through world the ends of
World War II there in 1945, andand had gone through massive uh
destructions and violence andpersecutions and different forms
of of genetic uh uh cleansingand racism and the Holocaust and
(19:48):
and all the all the just themess and the and the the uh
horrors of of totalitarianismand and the fight against it and
all the violence, all thesethings that were a part of the
reality of those times.
So St.
Rosie Maria was very aware ofthis and and I imagine very
(20:11):
grateful to Our Lady to not onlyhave spared him physically, uh
he had almost lost his life anumber of times in those years,
during those persecutions um asa martyr, but he was spared.
And and so and so was Opus Day.
(20:31):
You know, Opus Day had survivedall of that uh difficulty and
persecution of the church andand the the the violence and the
confusion, um the vocations thathad come, some had gone, uh even
things like the destruction ofproperty, you know, at the early
(20:52):
center, the work had beendestroyed uh during the uh
Spanish Civil War.
Uh you know, it seemed likeeverything was, you know, re as
far as resources, physical andfinancial resources were you
know impossible.
And yet uh the the faith of St.
Jose Maria uh and the faith ofthe Christians who made it
(21:15):
through the had made it throughthe uh persecutions of those
communist uh wars and the sp umrevolutions and things that were
by no means over in 1945, ofcourse, but at least that wave
had sort of was coming to aclose with the with the end of
World War II and everything,that he must have been just sort
(21:38):
of amazed at the intervention ofOur Lady and how she had looked
after him and protected himpersonally through throughout
all of that, and had protectedthe the life of the work through
the and and the apostolates ofthe work and the the good
doctrine that had been uhpreserved during that time of
(21:59):
persecution.
And so I think more thananything he went to Fatima in
the first, probably in thatfirst pilgrimage out of
gratitude, out of thanksgivingto the intervention.
And protection of Our Lady overthe work.
And looking forward to thebeginnings and the continuation
of the apostolates in Portugaland throughout the rest of the
(22:22):
world.
But in humility, right, as apilgrim, as someone who realizes
that this is, I'm in charge ofsomething that God has given me
to carry out, like the apostlesor like other saints throughout
the ages who had to do this,they realized that it was not
just up to their own abilitiesor virtues, but it was going to
(22:45):
depend on divine intervention.
St.
Jose Maria would visit quite afew times Fatima.
I don't have the exact number.
I think it's somewhere aroundnine or ten times that he he
went to visit Our Lady ofFatima.
And uh but I but I don't I'm notsure about that.
(23:07):
Lord help us to to see that uhwell, any chance that we have to
be close to our lady is a is agreat chance and a great
opportunity.
Um in the earliest days they saythat uh their the road system
was not that developed, and soit was it was very hard, you
know, and uh and St.
Jose Maria was in a car and theywere getting to the sanctuary
(23:30):
area, and he was amazed at allthe people on foot who were
walking or who are walking ontheir knees, as they do
sometimes on in pilgrimage.
And so he was very moved by allof that, that simple piety and
openness of of those people.
Uh I think the the fact that OurLady of Fatima revealed the
(23:54):
messages of such magnitude anduh worldwide import, I guess you
could say, uh, to three littleshepherd children who it's not
clear if they were even able towrite or read.
I'm not I'm not sure.
Sister Lucia obviously later wasable to read and write as she as
(24:15):
she got older and went to wentinto a form of uh of uh
education and everything.
But uh maybe at the time theydidn't even know how to read and
write very well as as farmingkids, as shepherd kids.
And you think, wow, how youthink the magnitude of that
message, right?
The the basics of the message ofOur Lady of Fatima, right?
(24:37):
To to uh pray for the conversionof sinners, to pray the rosary
frequently, even every day, topray for the church, to pray for
souls who are being lost unlessthey live, unless they are
converted.
Um, and she even showed at onepoint during one of the uh
(25:00):
revelations, uh, the personalrevelations she offered was a
vision of hell that were shownto the three children.
The reality of purgatory, uhthat um Our Lady assured the uh
the kids that a friend of theirswho had died uh was not in hell,
(25:24):
but was in purgatory and wouldremain in purgatory until the
end of time, um, which isconsoling, but yet at the same
time kind of scary, right?
To think, well, a friend oftheirs was going to be in
purgatory until the end of time,according to that conversation
that Mary had with the children,the conversion of Russia, right?
(25:47):
And so like you're basicallyasking the kids to pray for the
overturning of the communistideology throughout the world,
especially in Russia, ofovercoming atheism.
I mean, these are these aremassive problems, these are
massive uh ideologies andefforts to to make.
(26:09):
You say three little kids, whatI mean, what what are they going
to be able to do, right?
As far as overcoming the uhcommunist revolutions in Russia
or in different places, how arethe wars, you know, pray the end
of war and things.
Uh well, it is mysterious.
It's a mystery.
Why, well the simple uh peopleare given these revelations of
(26:34):
such great magnitude andworldwide and universal import.
But I think I'd like to, as wekind of end this meditation, I
would like to have you thinkabout it a bit more.
You know, Jesus said thesethings are revealed to the
babes, right, the children, notto the wise, right?
Uh the things of the gospel, thethings of the of heaven are
(26:55):
revealed to those who aresimple.
And it is showed, I think, amongother things, that our lady is
to remind us, she reminds us byby giving us these really hard
tasks, like she gave thesechildren this these tasks that
were so overwhelmingly, youknow, humanly speaking,
(27:18):
impossible, to show that it isGod's, it is God's will that it
is will be done.
He can He can He can call anyoneHe wants to do His His will.
That could be you or me forwhatever we may be asked to do,
be asked to have done as well.
And that through a motherly waythat God God has confidence in
(27:39):
us, that we can do this, you cando this, you know?
And just like the kids who justyeah, they basically pulled out
their rosaries and startedpraying the rosary, right?
And they it if they began uhbefore Our Lady of Fatima, they
would sort of pray a shorterversion of the rosary and they'd
get on to other games.
But after uh the in the afterthe appearances of Our Lady, you
(28:04):
you you can bet, and it is true,that they started praying the
full rosary, you know, all theway through and everything.
So uh and encouraged others, youknow, to pray that, you know, no
shortcuts.
I mean, you pray the wholerosary, right?
You know, they were going, yes,this is for this is for great
intentions, you know.
So they started right away, youknow, that and that God would
give them the graces, whateverthey needed to do.
(28:24):
They even, you know, in one ofthe apparitions uh uh of the six
times that the Blessed VirginMary visited the children, one
of the times was not on the 13thof the month, it was in August,
but I believe it was on the 19thof the month.
It's because they were in jail.
The kids had been put in jailbecause they were trying to stop
(28:45):
them from going to the placewhere they were had been
receiving these revelations.
So they put them in a kind of aholding tank.
And uh, and our lady appeared tothem there, you know, a couple
days later.
So, you know, to remind him, no,you you can do this, even if
it's hard, even if it's, youknow, people are against you and
everything, you can you can keeppraying and you you'll carry out
(29:05):
this great mission.
Of course, Francisco and JacintaMarta were Marta were uh
beatified, and um then they werecanonized in the year uh 2000.
Um and uh and then no, I'msorry, they were beatified in
(29:26):
the year 2000, and they werecanonized in the year uh 2017,
on the 100th anniversary of thefirst appearance of Our Lady of
Fatima, May 13, 2017, by uh PopeFrancis.
So that that's great, you know,that they Our Lady really called
(29:47):
them to be saints, to do God'swill, to do what was humanly
impossible, and then help themto carry it out.
And while Sister Lucia lived tobe um quite old, she lived to be
uh to the year 2005, she's nowvenerable, and we can, I think,
be sure that she will bebeatified and then canonized
(30:11):
also a saint for her time ofcontinued prayer, reminding the
world uh as a messenger of theof the messages of Fatima, um,
especially the most obvious onesand the ones that our lady
wanted to be uh promotedthroughout the world, the the
ones we have covered in thismeditation.
(30:32):
And we pray for the continueddevotion to our lady of Fatima.
We pray for the continued uhintentions of peace, of prayer,
and of penance.
Perhaps you could look at thoseas the three P's of Fatima
peace, prayer, and penance.
(30:54):
Uh, and all of that leading to agreater joy and presence of God
in our lives.
There's your there's our fourthP, the presence of God in our
lives through the constantconcern, attention, and motherly
care of the Blessed Virgin Mary,and as well the saints who have
had devotion to her have beendrawn closer to Jesus and to the
(31:18):
mission they have been given andinspire us in that way as well.
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations youcommunicated to me in this
meditation.
I ask your help to put them intoeffect.
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my father and Lord, my
guardian angel, intercede forme.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit, Amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
I ask your pardon for my sins,grace to make this time of
prayer fruitful.
(00:30):
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my Father and Lord, my
guardian angel, intercede forme.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, forthese days of celebration in the
month of May, especially thematernity of our Lady, of your
mother and our mother,celebrating motherhood in
(00:52):
general as well, in many placesthroughout the world.
Celebrate this month as a monthin celebration of motherhood,
Mother's Day in many countriesduring the month of May, of
course, and special emphasis andattention to the maternity of
Our Lady for all of usChristians.
(01:13):
Saint Jose Maria liked to sayvery much Mother of God and my
mother, or Mother of God and ourMother.
We are very connected with thatsentiment and with that call to
have a greater awareness of Maryas our mother.
(01:34):
We are aware of during thecenturies of there being
interventions and moments in thehistory of the church in which
the Blessed Virgin Mary has evenmade it more clear that she is
our mother and that she ispraying and constantly vigilant
for the well-being of herchildren on earth, uh, and
(01:59):
guiding us to keep close toJesus or to draw us near to
Jesus.
And in a way, uh she is mothernot of only of all Christians
and Catholics in particular, butof uh all peoples, really.
Uh Mary is the mother ofhumanity, uh redeemed in Christ
(02:23):
now, as the document of VaticanII, Gaudi Metzpez, says that
Christ, through his incarnation,somehow has united himself in
his sacred humanities, to thehumanity of every person, that
we are united to Jesus throughour humanity, and to that we
(02:43):
have to be very grateful to theBlessed Virgin Mary, who gave
Jesus all of his humanity thatcame from her, and continues to
be in heaven, to uh redeem usfrom heaven.
Jesus is there in body and bloodand soul and divinity, the right
(03:05):
hand of God the Father.
Jesus' sacred humanity ispresent, really present in Holy
Communion, in the BlessedSacrament.
Jesus is truly present also inhis sacred humanity, in a way,
through his mystical body, whichis the church.
And to this we have to be extragrateful to our lady as an
(03:27):
instrument of God, as Mother ofGod, to share and to unite our
humanity with the sacredhumanity of Jesus.
We know that theologically,Lord, but we have to be reminded
of it in a motherly family way.
(03:47):
Uh just like our naturalmothers, uh human moms, we
celebrate this month, at leastin the countries of the West, uh
United States and Canada.
Uh I don't know a lot of theother countries uh and their
exact Mother's Day celebrations,but I know in this part of the
(04:09):
world Mother's Day is celebratedat some point during May.
And you say, well, I always lovemy mother.
I mean, that's uh kind of anautomatic uh reaction of who I
am as her child.
I think about my mom a lot, evenif our mothers have already gone
(04:30):
to heaven, have completed theirjourneys.
We think about our mothers alot.
We are reminded of their carefor us.
We have lots of memories storedup that uh as we grow older, we
fondly look upon, and even someof the smells of our mom's
kitchen or her voice, uh, evenif she was kind of upset with
(04:55):
us, we in a way, if if we thinkabout that as older persons, and
even if our moms are not with usanymore, we still kind of look
fondly even upon thosecorrections and those small uh
admonitions that moms lovinglygive us because they know we
need it.
(05:15):
It's not that they want to chideus or something like that, get a
joy out of uh ruling over us asour mothers or something like
that, uh, but that they reallycare for us and they know that
sometimes we get a bit off trackor in the baseball season now, a
little bit off base, and we needto keep close to uh the reality
(05:36):
of the game we are playing, weneed to keep attentive to our
next steps.
So our lady is really helpfulfor us as our mother, and she
reminds us through history ofthat, um, especially in the
those apparitions of the BlessedVirgin Mary through history.
We don't have time today to gothrough all of them.
(05:56):
But uh the feast day of May 13,and if you're listening to this
edition on May 13, this episode,well, you and I are celebrating
the feast of Our Lady of Fatima,which is a relatively recent, uh
just over a hundred-year eventin which the Blessed Virgin Mary
(06:19):
made it very clear to the churchand to the world that she was
watching over us, that she caredvery much for our spiritual,
emotional, and physical health,uh even social health, right?
Because as we'll consider Mary,our Lady of Fatima, warned a lot
(06:40):
about and asked us to pray verymuch for world peace, which is
continued intention for thechurch in these days, and to
pray for peace and to um prayfor conversion of those who wage
war, of those who are at thetime were spreading errors uh
(07:02):
throughout the world and doing alot of political violence and
these kinds of things throughthe communist revolutions at the
time in Russia and Mexico, andthen later in Spain and other
parts of the world.
Uh, and even then, of course,the uh the calamities of World
War II and everything, Our Ladywas warning us against the
(07:24):
dangers of not turning to Godand to pray for peace and to
trust our lives and our effortsto God.
And she did so in a very strongway through the apparitions of
Our Lady Fatima.
But it was it was also in a veryloving way, in a very motherly
(07:45):
way.
Um, these kinds of warnings ofthe secrets of Fatima that were
revealed to the children.
Um I'm not a particularspecialist in the apparitions of
Our Lady of Fatima.
Personally, I've I've not beenthere yet.
I hope to go one day to pray atthe shrine of Our Lady of
Fatima, but I try to put intopractice, as I'm sure you do
(08:10):
too, try to put into practicethe basics of the teachings of
Fatima, which were to pray therosary, to be devoted to Our
Lady, uh, to uh try to live somesort of devotions up to Our Lady
on set on the first Saturdays ofthe month.
Um and you can look at awebsite, uh, a couple of
(08:31):
websites about those devotions.
They're trying to promote thosedevotions on first Saturdays
more in some parishes, andthere's some very good people
promoting those devotions.
Um and and praying for peace,and uh, and above all, uh, which
seems to be the general messageof all the apparitions of Our
(08:52):
Lady to the world, is prayer andconversion, right?
To turn to God in prayer, toturn away from selfishness and
sin.
It's the basic dynamic that Maryteaches us as a mother
throughout history, uh, as ourown mothers would tell us, you
(09:13):
know, hey, you know, stop beingbad.
Start being good, try to begood, stop, stop being bad.
So, I mean, it's kind of thesame dynamic of the Blessed
Virgin Mary.
Turn away from sin, turn toJesus, turn to God, turn to the
life of faith, not the life ofyourselves and your your just
(09:37):
your own pursuits and thingslike that.
So uh in that way, theapparitions of Our Lady of
Fatima were very much in the uhconsistence consistently uh
line, lined up with withprevious uh uh appearances of
Our Lady for different reasonsthroughout history.
(09:59):
And so we we celebrate todaythat motherly care that Mary has
for us.
Perhaps we look at today beingalso uh consideration in the
month of May, the our overalldevotion to Mary, and of course,
this episode of the podcast ofthe St.
Jose Maria Institute, we canlook at a little bit the uh
(10:22):
devotion uh St.
Jose Maria had toward Our Ladyof Fatima in particular.
Um within the context of hisoverall devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary, which was immense,which was great, and as big as
his devotion to Mary was, wasgreater his love for Jesus,
(10:46):
because the more he loved ourlady, the more he loved the Lord
Jesus, which is the this is theproper order, the proper dynamic
to live there, to to know andlove Jesus more in a particular
way through the intercession ofMary, through the leadership of
Mary, through the motherly careof Mary.
(11:09):
Uh it is true we call out toyou, Jesus, directly from our in
our prayer, in our hearts and inour minds.
We do that frequently too.
So it's not like it always hasto be, you know, a sort of
Marian intervention at alltimes, uh, because we we are
free to address the threepersons of the Blessed Trinity
(11:33):
through the sacred humanity ofChrist.
We reach out to God the Father,who loves us as the greatest of
our fathers, could could everbe, uh, and the Holy Spirit who
guides us in the church dayafter day is all-knowing,
all-powerful, inspires us dayafter day.
So we have uh a contemplativeand a real relationship with all
(11:57):
the three plus persons of theBlessed Trinity.
But I bet if you peel it back alittle bit in your own personal,
you can consider this in yourown personal prayer today, that
if you peel it back a littlebit, you will see, as I do too,
that somehow our lady isinvolved in all of those
aspects.
You know, she is daughter of Godthe Father, mother of God the
(12:20):
Son, spouse of God the HolySpirit, as stands to reason
because Mary, conceived withoutoriginal sin and assumed into
heaven, is given the life inChrist as the greatest of all
saints and queen of heaven, tohave particular intercessory
(12:46):
power for all the faithful andto continue to guide us.
And so we shouldn't be surprisedat that.
But also always kind of a littlebit in the background, like
during the Easter season, wepray that uh Mary is is we we
pray to her as mother of God,mother of the church, mother of
(13:07):
the apostles, but we don't seeher in the Acts of the Apostles,
other than right at thebeginning on the day of
Pentecost where she is presentwith the apostles.
Did the Blessed Virgin Mary eversay anything else?
Of course she did.
Uh did she did she comment onaspects of the apostles how they
(13:28):
were doing?
Probably, you know, at somepoint giving them some advice or
giving them some encouragement.
We just don't have it writtendown.
Um but we know that she'spresent.
I think it's overall, that's ait's kind of a summary of Marian
devotion for us Catholics, isthat we have a constant
(13:48):
awareness and appeal to ourlady, but but without somehow
distracting us and just theopposite of drawing us closer to
God, Father, Son, and HolySpirit.
That's the whole point of Mariandevotion.
It's the whole point of therosary, for example, as St.
John Paul II said, that therosary is more than anything a
(14:11):
Christological meditation on thelife of Jesus.
It's not just a devotionalprayer to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, but it actually, thosemysteries of the rosary, the
meditation on the words of theBible and the Hail Mary and the
Our Father, they lead us to adeeper meditation on the life of
Jesus.
(14:32):
So I know that uh those who praythe rosary in a month of May is
a great time.
If you don't have a big habit ofpraying the rosary, just to pick
it up and start praying therosary more regularly.
And you will find, as did St.
Jose Maria and all the other uhsaints who prayed the rosary
devoutly, that the rosary ledthem to Jesus.
(14:54):
It leads us to Jesus.
And so getting back to St.
Jose Maria's devotion to OurLady of Fatima, um, he went to
Fatima a number of times.
The first time was at the behestof one of the little girls, the
shepherd girls, who survived uhthe the apparitions uh and the
(15:20):
time uh afterwards, becauseperhaps as you know, that the
brother and sister Francisco andJacinta Marta, they were two of
the uh sheoung shepherds, theydied shortly after 1917.
But Sister Lucia, she she livedto 2005.
(15:41):
Amazing, huh?
So she lived uh quite a longlife.
Uh she's venerable, she is notuh declared blessed yet.
She's in a way a contemporarystill of us, making it into the
2000s.
Well, she was when she was acontemplative nun, she reached
out uh to St.
(16:02):
José Maria and asked him aboutcoming to Portugal and Fatima in
the early days of Opus Day, andto uh come and and and and visit
with her and uh bring themessage of the sanctification of
ordinary work, the formationactivities of Opus Day.
She was instrumental in helpingthose getting more started uh in
(16:26):
Portugal at the time.
So uh St.
Josemaria, he said, no, maybe ina few years.
No, he did not say that.
Okay, no, he he went right awayto go see.
I'm just joking, sorry,shouldn't joke about those kinds
of things, perhaps.
But no, he went right away anduh made a uh pilgrimage to
Fatima for the first time onFebruary 6, 1945.
(16:54):
Uh he went to visit SisterLucia, who at the time was
living in Spain, but uh thensoon moved to Portugal herself
into the Carmelite Monasterythere at Coimbra.
And St.
José Maria was then facilitatedhis uh visit, the Fanama um
(17:14):
first Fanima visit, and as wellas um helping to make
arrangements, however, those aremade, to begin and start to uh
have the activities of Opus Daystart in in Portugal.
And so that's a great thing, youknow, as our as this St.
Jose Maria liked to say that OurLady opened the doors uh of the
(17:35):
work to Portugal and uhconsidered that a very nice
intervention uh for his part ofOur Lady.
Um but that's not the onlyreason that he had such a
devotion to Our Lady Fatima.
Um of course uh that was 20, 30years later, after the uh
(17:55):
apparitions in 1917, uh and youknow, in night up until 1945,
St.
Jose Maria had suffered a lot ofviolence himself in Spain, um,
and then difficulties throughoutthat uh in the early efforts to
get the uh apostolic works ofOpus Day going, to have it
(18:19):
understood by uh ecclesiasticalauthorities at the time, to help
find people, to find vocationsfor people who would then do the
work of Opus Day in in Spain andeventually in Rome and
eventually in places likePortugal and throughout the
world.
So these were the earliest,earliest days.
(18:40):
You know, St.
José Maria received the light ofthe founding of Opiste in
October 2nd, 1928, um nine yearsafter Fatima.
And then you it began kind of aperiod of of hard work and
really of suffering and and thenuh of opposition and eventually
(19:04):
persecution of the church inSpain, and and so he knew
suffering, and he knew that OurLady of Fatima w had predicted
what you know what reallytranspired.
Um and maybe he thought, well,it would even be worse if we
weren't praying the rosary.
Those of us who are praying therosary, maybe it could even be
(19:24):
worse.
And the uh the world had wasgoing through world the ends of
World War II there in 1945, andand had gone through massive uh
destructions and violence andpersecutions and different forms
of of genetic uh uh cleansingand racism and the Holocaust and
(19:48):
and all the all the just themess and the and the the uh
horrors of of totalitarianismand and the fight against it and
all the violence, all thesethings that were a part of the
reality of those times.
So St.
Rosie Maria was very aware ofthis and and I imagine very
(20:11):
grateful to Our Lady to not onlyhave spared him physically, uh
he had almost lost his life anumber of times in those years,
during those persecutions um asa martyr, but he was spared.
And and so and so was Opus Day.
(20:31):
You know, Opus Day had survivedall of that uh difficulty and
persecution of the church andand the the the violence and the
confusion, um the vocations thathad come, some had gone, uh even
things like the destruction ofproperty, you know, at the early
(20:52):
center, the work had beendestroyed uh during the uh
Spanish Civil War.
Uh you know, it seemed likeeverything was, you know, re as
far as resources, physical andfinancial resources were you
know impossible.
And yet uh the the faith of St.
Jose Maria uh and the faith ofthe Christians who made it
(21:15):
through the had made it throughthe uh persecutions of those
communist uh wars and the sp umrevolutions and things that were
by no means over in 1945, ofcourse, but at least that wave
had sort of was coming to aclose with the with the end of
World War II and everything,that he must have been just sort
(21:38):
of amazed at the intervention ofOur Lady and how she had looked
after him and protected himpersonally through throughout
all of that, and had protectedthe the life of the work through
the and and the apostolates ofthe work and the the good
doctrine that had been uhpreserved during that time of
(21:59):
persecution.
And so I think more thananything he went to Fatima in
the first, probably in thatfirst pilgrimage out of
gratitude, out of thanksgivingto the intervention.
And protection of Our Lady overthe work.
And looking forward to thebeginnings and the continuation
of the apostolates in Portugaland throughout the rest of the
(22:22):
world.
But in humility, right, as apilgrim, as someone who realizes
that this is, I'm in charge ofsomething that God has given me
to carry out, like the apostlesor like other saints throughout
the ages who had to do this,they realized that it was not
just up to their own abilitiesor virtues, but it was going to
(22:45):
depend on divine intervention.
St.
Jose Maria would visit quite afew times Fatima.
I don't have the exact number.
I think it's somewhere aroundnine or ten times that he he
went to visit Our Lady ofFatima.
And uh but I but I don't I'm notsure about that.
(23:07):
Lord help us to to see that uhwell, any chance that we have to
be close to our lady is a is agreat chance and a great
opportunity.
Um in the earliest days they saythat uh their the road system
was not that developed, and soit was it was very hard, you
know, and uh and St.
Jose Maria was in a car and theywere getting to the sanctuary
(23:30):
area, and he was amazed at allthe people on foot who were
walking or who are walking ontheir knees, as they do
sometimes on in pilgrimage.
And so he was very moved by allof that, that simple piety and
openness of of those people.
Uh I think the the fact that OurLady of Fatima revealed the
(23:54):
messages of such magnitude anduh worldwide import, I guess you
could say, uh, to three littleshepherd children who it's not
clear if they were even able towrite or read.
I'm not I'm not sure.
Sister Lucia obviously later wasable to read and write as she as
(24:15):
she got older and went to wentinto a form of uh of uh
education and everything.
But uh maybe at the time theydidn't even know how to read and
write very well as as farmingkids, as shepherd kids.
And you think, wow, how youthink the magnitude of that
message, right?
The the basics of the message ofOur Lady of Fatima, right?
(24:37):
To to uh pray for the conversionof sinners, to pray the rosary
frequently, even every day, topray for the church, to pray for
souls who are being lost unlessthey live, unless they are
converted.
Um, and she even showed at onepoint during one of the uh
(25:00):
revelations, uh, the personalrevelations she offered was a
vision of hell that were shownto the three children.
The reality of purgatory, uhthat um Our Lady assured the uh
the kids that a friend of theirswho had died uh was not in hell,
(25:24):
but was in purgatory and wouldremain in purgatory until the
end of time, um, which isconsoling, but yet at the same
time kind of scary, right?
To think, well, a friend oftheirs was going to be in
purgatory until the end of time,according to that conversation
that Mary had with the children,the conversion of Russia, right?
(25:47):
And so like you're basicallyasking the kids to pray for the
overturning of the communistideology throughout the world,
especially in Russia, ofovercoming atheism.
I mean, these are these aremassive problems, these are
massive uh ideologies andefforts to to make.
(26:09):
You say three little kids, whatI mean, what what are they going
to be able to do, right?
As far as overcoming the uhcommunist revolutions in Russia
or in different places, how arethe wars, you know, pray the end
of war and things.
Uh well, it is mysterious.
It's a mystery.
Why, well the simple uh peopleare given these revelations of
(26:34):
such great magnitude andworldwide and universal import.
But I think I'd like to, as wekind of end this meditation, I
would like to have you thinkabout it a bit more.
You know, Jesus said thesethings are revealed to the
babes, right, the children, notto the wise, right?
Uh the things of the gospel, thethings of the of heaven are
(26:55):
revealed to those who aresimple.
And it is showed, I think, amongother things, that our lady is
to remind us, she reminds us byby giving us these really hard
tasks, like she gave thesechildren this these tasks that
were so overwhelmingly, youknow, humanly speaking,
(27:18):
impossible, to show that it isGod's, it is God's will that it
is will be done.
He can He can He can call anyoneHe wants to do His His will.
That could be you or me forwhatever we may be asked to do,
be asked to have done as well.
And that through a motherly waythat God God has confidence in
(27:39):
us, that we can do this, you cando this, you know?
And just like the kids who justyeah, they basically pulled out
their rosaries and startedpraying the rosary, right?
And they it if they began uhbefore Our Lady of Fatima, they
would sort of pray a shorterversion of the rosary and they'd
get on to other games.
But after uh the in the afterthe appearances of Our Lady, you
(28:04):
you you can bet, and it is true,that they started praying the
full rosary, you know, all theway through and everything.
So uh and encouraged others, youknow, to pray that, you know, no
shortcuts.
I mean, you pray the wholerosary, right?
You know, they were going, yes,this is for this is for great
intentions, you know.
So they started right away, youknow, that and that God would
give them the graces, whateverthey needed to do.
(28:24):
They even, you know, in one ofthe apparitions uh uh of the six
times that the Blessed VirginMary visited the children, one
of the times was not on the 13thof the month, it was in August,
but I believe it was on the 19thof the month.
It's because they were in jail.
The kids had been put in jailbecause they were trying to stop
(28:45):
them from going to the placewhere they were had been
receiving these revelations.
So they put them in a kind of aholding tank.
And uh, and our lady appeared tothem there, you know, a couple
days later.
So, you know, to remind him, no,you you can do this, even if
it's hard, even if it's, youknow, people are against you and
everything, you can you can keeppraying and you you'll carry out
(29:05):
this great mission.
Of course, Francisco and JacintaMarta were Marta were uh
beatified, and um then they werecanonized in the year uh 2000.
Um and uh and then no, I'msorry, they were beatified in
(29:26):
the year 2000, and they werecanonized in the year uh 2017,
on the 100th anniversary of thefirst appearance of Our Lady of
Fatima, May 13, 2017, by uh PopeFrancis.
So that that's great, you know,that they Our Lady really called
(29:47):
them to be saints, to do God'swill, to do what was humanly
impossible, and then help themto carry it out.
And while Sister Lucia lived tobe um quite old, she lived to be
uh to the year 2005, she's nowvenerable, and we can, I think,
be sure that she will bebeatified and then canonized
(30:11):
also a saint for her time ofcontinued prayer, reminding the
world uh as a messenger of theof the messages of Fatima, um,
especially the most obvious onesand the ones that our lady
wanted to be uh promotedthroughout the world, the the
ones we have covered in thismeditation.
(30:32):
And we pray for the continueddevotion to our lady of Fatima.
We pray for the continued uhintentions of peace, of prayer,
and of penance.
Perhaps you could look at thoseas the three P's of Fatima
peace, prayer, and penance.
(30:54):
Uh, and all of that leading to agreater joy and presence of God
in our lives.
There's your there's our fourthP, the presence of God in our
lives through the constantconcern, attention, and motherly
care of the Blessed Virgin Mary,and as well the saints who have
had devotion to her have beendrawn closer to Jesus and to the
(31:18):
mission they have been given andinspire us in that way as well.
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations youcommunicated to me in this
meditation.
I ask your help to put them intoeffect.
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my father and Lord, my
guardian angel, intercede forme.
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