Vigils Reading – Our Lady of Fatima

A reading from

POPE ST JOHN PAUL II

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Since the time when Jesus, dying on the cross, said to John: “Behold your

Mother“, since the time when “the disciple took her into his home”, the mystery

of Mary’s spiritual motherhood had its fulfillment in history with an amplitude

without boundaries. Motherhood means concern for her son’s life. Now, if Mary

is the mother of all people, her concern for human life is universal in scope…

The spiritual motherhood of Mary is therefore participation in the power of the

Holy Spirit, the One who “gives life.” It is with the humble service of the one who

says of herself: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord“.

In the light of the mystery of Mary’s spiritual motherhood, let us

understand the extraordinary message, which began to resonate in the world by

Fatima since May 13, 1917 and lasted for five months until October 13 of the

same year. If the Church has embraced the message of Fatima it is mainly

because it contains a truth and a call, which in their essential content is the truth

and the call of the Gospel itself.

“Repent and believe in the Gospel“, these are the first words of the

Messiah addressed to humanity. The message of Fatima is in its core a call to

conversion and penance… The call to repentance is maternal and at the same

time, strong and determined. The love that “rejoices in the truth“, knows how to

be outspoken and determined… Can the Mother, who with all the power of her

love, which fosters in the Holy Spirit and desires the salvation of every person,

keep quiet about what undermines the very foundations of this salvation? No,

she cannot!

The Immaculate Heart of Mary, opened by the word: “Woman, behold

your son“, meets spiritually with the Heart of the Son opened by the soldier’s

lance. Mary’s Heart was opened by the same love for mortals and for the world,

with which Christ has loved humanity and the world, offering Himself on the

Cross for them. To consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother

means returning beneath the Cross of her Son. More it means consecrating this

world to the pierced Heart of the Savior, bringing the very source of his

redemption. Redemption is always greater than the sin of man and the “sin of

the world.”… The Heart of the Mother is aware of this, as no one else in the

whole universe, visible and invisible…

The Mother of Christ calls us and invites us to join the Church of the living

God in the consecration of the world, this reliance by which the world,

humanity, nations, all people are offered to the Eternal Father with the power of

Christ’s redemption. They are offered in the pierced Heart of the Redeemer on

the Cross…

The appeal of the Lady of Fatima is so deeply rooted in the Gospel and in

the whole of tradition that the Church feels committed by this message. Yes, we

can truly say: “Blessed are you, daughter, in front of the Most High God above

all women on earth!”… Yes, here and throughout the Church, in the heart of

every man and in the whole world you are blessed Mary, our sweet Mother!