OUR LADY OF FATIMA DAY : POPE BENEDICT XVI IN PORTUGAL..........

On May 13, 1917, three young Portuguese shepherd children, experienced an apparition of the Blessed Mother, which has been celebrated for the past ninety three years as devotion to the Virgin Mary as, Our Lady of Fatima. As a person of Portuguese ancestry the Fatima devotion was a part of my family's spirituality. As a First Communicant I remember when a mosaic of Our Lady of Fatima was constructed on the sanctuary wall of St. Robert's Church in South Sacramento 45 years ago. I always looked upon it with pride as a reminder of my Portuguese roots. The message of Fatima for the world is a message of conversion of heart, repentance from sin, and prayer for peace, the Rosary - in particular. The liturgical celebration of Our Lady of Fatima has now been added to the Universal Calendar of the Church for May 13. Pope Benedict XVI, is completing a three day pilgrimage to the Fatima shrine in Portugal today, and in the spirit of conversion and repentance, he has made his most profound statement to date, about the sins of the sexual abuse crisis the Universal Church is having to confront and address. Our Lady of Fatima is an appropriate day for the Pope's message of healing, repentance, forgiveness, and conversion, as it was on this day in 1981, that the attempt to take the life of Pope John Paul II, took place. The example of healing and forgiveness, if not conversion and repentance, exemplified by the late Holy Father toward his attacker, is an example the Church as a whole can grow and gain from. The hegemony of Soviet Communism which was only beginning in 1917, is now history, thanks in part to the prayers for peace and conversion that Our Lady of Fatima in her apparitions to the Portuguese shepherd children, requested of Catholic-Christians. May the Peace and Conversion of our hearts and homes continue to unfold as we prayerfully intercede to our Blessed Mother..........Our Lady Of Fatima Pray For Us To Your Son The Risen Jesus The Christ, Fr. Troy