REVERENT RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION CONSOLES OUR LORD

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1 World Apostolate of Fatima St. Paul and Minneapolis Arhdioesan Division A Canonially Approved Apostolate of the Catholi Churh REVERENT RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION CONSOLES OUR LORD By Father John Gallas One of the most fasinating events that took plae at Fatima was the visit of the Angel of Peae to the hildren when he brought them Holy Communion. There were two key elements to this enounter. First, he taught them to adore Jesus in the Euharist. He held in his hands the host over the halie, and then he left them suspended in the air and showed the hildren how to bow down and adore Jesus. St. Augustine said famously, No one may eat that flesh [the Euharisti body of the Lord], if he has not first adored. Seondly, the Angel gave Holy Communion to the hildren. He said to them, Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Repair their rimes and onsole your God. He taught them to adore, and then to reeive. Jainta and Franiso have this to teah us: After just one time reeiving Jesus in Holy Communion, they did not take it for granted. They embraed fully the presene of Jesus in the Euharist, and prepared the rest of their lives for that moment when they would be with the Hidden Jesus in Heaven, praying onstantly, My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You; I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You. In our time the Lord in the Blessed Sarament reeives muh love and muh neglet on earth. Those who love must make up for those who neglet Him, and orret these faults. One way to reeive Him reverently is by reeiving Holy Communion on the tongue. The beauty of this pratie an be seen in a partiular way in the Extraordinary Form mass, where Communion is always reeived kneeling and on the tongue. About this Mass, Pope Benedit observed that young persons too have disovered this liturgial form, felt its attration and found in it a form of enounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Euharist, partiularly suited to them. It was his pratie always to distribute Holy Communion on the tongue. (Pope Franis has not negated this but rather refrains from distributing Communion at all, possibly to avoid the sandal of aidentally giving Holy Communion to a publi sinner and reating an unfortunate photo-op.) From the time of the early Churh Fathers the pratie of Communion on the tongue appeared, whih was motivated on the one hand by the desire to avoid as muh as possible losing any fragments of the Euharist, and on the other hand by the desire to favor growth of the devotion of the faithful toward the real presene of Christ in the sarament. For these reasons the Churh still today favors Communion on the tongue, insists upon the laity s absolute right to it, and whenever there is risk of profanation she even forbids Communion on the hand (f. Red Sa 92). Be attentive to what is happening in your soul. How many times have we looked around the hurh while in the Communion line? To reeive Holy Communion we enter this twofold mystery: We know and believe the Euharist is Jesus Christ, yet we do not omprehend this mystery. We know and believe Jesus gives partiular graes in this Communion but we do not know what they are. As Pope Franis said reently, the gift is always greater than the request, and so I ask God that I may ooperate Continued on page 2

2 Father John Gallas/Continued from Page 1 fully in making this Communion fruitful. When you leave Mass, do not lose the graes you have reeived. In Baptism and Confirmation your body was anointed with a fragrant oil, symbolizing the saramental harater whih deputes you to reeive the Euharist and to spread the faith through holiness of life. The symbolism here is that like a fragrane, grae goes out from you to others in a notieable and pleasing manner. Holy Communion makes you more fragrant with holiness, whih is to say that in a mysterious way it makes the presene of the Holy Spirit within you more notieable and pleasing to others. It makes you ever more the light of the world and the salt of the earth. It aids your exerise of the universal priesthood of the laity by joining your sufferings to His. It makes you a prophet by literally filling you with the Word of God inarnate. Bring the graes of eah Mass with you. As St. Paul wrote to Timothy, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-ontrol. (2 Tim 1:6-7) FATIMA AND DIVINE MERCY DEVOTIONS SAVE SOULS By Barb Ernster In reading the Diary of Saint Faustina, I stumbled aross this entry: Deember 16 [1936]. I have offered this day for Russia. I have offered all my sufferings and prayers for that poor ountry. After Holy Communion, Jesus said to me, I annot suffer that ountry any longer. Do not tie My hands, My daughter. (209) I understood that if it had not been for the prayers of souls that are pleasing to God, that whole nation would have already been redued to nothingness. Oh, how I suffer for that nation whih has banished God from its borders! (Notebook II #818) I was struk by the date Russia ould already have been annihilated exept for the prayers of souls that are pleasing to God. I thought immediately of the followers of Our Lady of Fatima. From 1929 when Our Lady asked for the onseration of Russia to her Immaulate Heart, Sr. Luia had been requesting it in letters to her spiritual diretor. Throughout the 1930s during the pontifiate of Pius XI, Sister Luia wrote about the frequent requests from Our Lord and Our Lady for the onseration, and their disappointment that it had not been done. On May 18, 1936, she wrote: About the other question whether it would be good to insist in order to obtain the onseration of Russia, I answer in almost the same way as I answered at other times. I am sorry that it has not already been done. However, it is the same God who requested it, who has permitted this. This same God was at the same time revealing the depths of His Divine Mery to Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska in Craow, Poland. How beautiful that these two devotions to the Immaulate Heart of Mary and The Divine Mery overlap during one of the most ritial times in world history, World War II and the horrible evils of Communist Russia and Nazi Germany. Divine Mery reigns. A nation is NOT redued to nothingness. The prayers of faithful souls stay the hand of God. Our Marian Congress held on Marh 1 foused on the theme You Can Change the World! Your prayers, your sarifies, your devotion to the Immaulate Heart of Mary and Sared Heart of Jesus bring down God s Mery upon the world, and very speifially on whole nations, and are the ause of the salvation of souls. Do not ever doubt that Our Lord and Our Lady are very ative in the world and in our lives. Resolve today to live more faithfully the Fatima message and the Divine Mery, in your heart, in your ations and in your daily witness. God bless you during this Blessed Easter season! Dave Carollo, Exeutive Diretor of the World Apostolate of Fatima Our Lady s Blue Army is pitured with the new Pilgrim Virgin Statue of the Immaulate Heart of Mary at our 2014 Marian Congress. His talk as well as the talks by Bishop Pihe (see page 4) and Fr. Gallas, are available for download on our website: or you an order CDs (suggested donation: $5) by ing info@fatimaonline.org or alling

3 THE SPIRITUALITY OF BLESSED FRANCISCO MARTO By Barb Ernster Blessed Franiso Marto might be onsidered a wimp by today s standard, perhaps even a loser. The Fatima seer, who would not reah his 10th birthday, would easily shrug off losing at his favorite games and likely let others deide what to do with his day. His ompliant nature and never mind attitude toward slights and injusties against him might have kept him in the shadow of his peers, an easy target for teasing or simply ignored. Instead, Blessed Franiso, who died on the morning of April 4, 1919, is elebrated the world over for his spirit of detahment and humility, and his unfathomable depth of spiritualty that few will ever ahieve. Franiso s doile disposition was the empty vessel by whih God ould ultivate a rih and profound holiness. He was not a simple-minded boy, but a single-minded disiple of Christ, foused solely on doing His will. Indeed, Franiso personified Mary s words at Cana, Do whatever He tells you. He eagerly and lovingly submitted to Our Lady s remark that he must say many rosaries before she would take him to Heaven. This was not a negative delaration of his sinfulness, as some would believe, but was seen as a great privilege by Franiso who embraed this small request for so great a reward. His ability to forsake the world was the foundation for his lose alignment with the Savior, Whom he onstantly sought to onsole, espeially in the Blessed Sarament. Author Leo Madigan writes in The Children of Fatima, It was this passivity of total ommitment that brings Franiso to life for us and, at the same time, hides him. He is like a firefly among the trees, a glowworm in a ave. He doesn t ask us to seek him out. We want to. His very elusiveness intrigues and draws us. When we ath the oasional glimpse of him, it is not beause he wishes to show himself, but beause he knows the way deeper into the forest of prayer, further along the unlit path into the ave of ontemplation. If we promise to ignore him, he will be our guide. Franiso s role as the onsoler of Christ Franiso s inability to hear the angel and Our Lady during the apparitions is telling of his partiular spiritual harisms. Franiso heard God with his heart, experiening onstantly the great sorrow of Our Lord. And like a hild toward a parent, he desired only to make it better through his obediene to Our Lady s requests for daily prayers and penanes. It also helped him readily understand Luia s entral role in the supernatural events unfolding, whih he wholeheartedly enouraged. When she was plagued by doubts and internal onflit, he exlaimed, Never mind! Didn t Our Lady say that we would have muh to suffer? If we an onsole them with these sufferings, how happy we shall be. It was she that Our Lady spoke to, not him. Yes Franiso was able to disern in his heart that if Luia did not ome to the Cova again and arry out her mission, Jesus and Mary would be sadder still. The vision of hell that nearly frightened Jainta to death during the July apparition made little impression on Franiso, so foused was he on the great light of God issuing from Our Lady s hands that did not burn them. It aused him to wonder aloud, What is God? Still, he pereived God s sadness from sin even in the wondrous light. Continued on page 5

4 FATIMA DEVOTION CALLS US TO BE GOSPEL WITNESSES [This artile is an exerpt of the talk that Bishop Pihé gave at our Marian Congress] The fore that an hange the world is the Gospel. Faith omes through the Word. Every one of us has been alled by God to live as disiples of Jesus, and to be a disiple of Jesus is also to be a witness. Gospel is a word that means good news. It is good news that Jesus Christ has onquered sin and death. At the Last Supper Jesus told His disiples, You will grieve and mourn while the world rejoies, but do not be afraid, do not lose heart, I have overome the world. This gets to the heart of what the Good News is; it s not the good news of prosperity or health, but the salvation of our souls and ultimately the defeat of death. The forgiveness of our sins, the healing of our souls and the raising up of our bodies this is Good News. The Fatima devotion truly engages us in this Good News. One of the entral parts of the devotion is prayer for onversions, for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters. The powerful prayer of the Rosary, whih has been the ause of so many onversions, is right at the heart of the Fatima devotions. This is not our doing; God will do this, whih is why prayer is the ativity of the Fatima devotions. It s not so muh what we do, but how we are bringing God s grae to bear on the human situation. What is the Rosary? The rosary is a meditation on the Gospel, the mysteries of Christ, the story of His life, death and resurretion. In his beautiful letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Evangelium, John Paul II says the Rosary is Christo-entri, beause Christ is at the heart of the mysteries that we reflet on. He also points out the word whih is at the enter of the Hail Mary Jesus. Jesus is at the enter even of that prayer. Everything about Mary points us to Christ. When we pray this prayer, we strive to pray it well with a serene mind to allow the mysteries to go deeper into us. We don t have to be onstantly thinking about the fats of the situation in the mysteries, but just briefly reall them and with that sene in mind, to meditate prayerfully saying the Hail Mary. Preahing with our ations Mother Teresa borrowed a prayer from another blessed, John Cardinal Newman, alled Radiating Christ, whih her sisters and priests say after Communion. One line of that prayer jumps out for me when I think about gospel witness. Let me preah You without preahing; not by words but by my example. By the athing fore of the sympatheti influene of what I do, by the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. It s a beautiful thought, and one whih if we were to enat would have the power to hange people s lives that I would preah the Lord by my ations, my words, my presene. And what is the nature of that presene? It s sympatheti. I m thinking about the other. I m not just thinking about myself. That has a beauty whih attrats hearts. When people are in love, they don t go around moping and sad; they go around with a sense of joy. Joy is the net with whih we ath souls. One of the signs of authenti devotion to Mary and the Fatima devotion is that there is inreasingly in those who pratie this devotion more and more evident (seeable) love. That love beomes the entral harateristi of those engaged in this devotion. Love for God whih is expressed primarily in our love for our neighbor a genuine onern and are. It is the athing fore of the sympatheti influene of what we do... the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. One of the signs of authenti devotion to Mary and the Fatima devotion is that there is inreasingly in those who pratie this devotion more and more evident (seeable) love. We who are sent out when we prolaim the Gospel need to be onsious of our attitude beause without any evidene of joy, there will be very little or no attration. The Gospel by its very nature is attrative beause it s beautiful. We need to inspire one another and the world by the way we live, the deisions that we make, by our presene, engagement, love. This is the essene of the witness we give.

5 Fatima devotion should transform us What do we do in the Fatima devotion? We pray the Rosary, we do penane, we go to Mass on First Saturdays. That may seem like an austere routine or blah devotion, but the essene of it must be our desire to help others through our prayer and our outstrethed hands. Grant we beseeh Thee that by meditating on these mysteries, we may imitate what they ontain Regular devout reitation of the Rosary should have a transforming effet on our minds, on our hearts, on our ations. We beome more like Christ, more like His mother, more patient, more eager to please the Father, more onerned about others, about their true wellbeing, not so muh anxious and worried, and so our onern is expressed in our prayer for them. We re more hopeful, more detahed from things, espeially from our own will, more ompletely surrendered to the Lord. All of these beautiful life lessons that an make their way into our hearts ause our hearts to be joyful in the end. Beause when we live to please God, it pleases God to let us live really live, and to fill our hearts with even greater life and joy. When that s the enter of our lives even when the storm is raging, we an be at peae and we an experiene joy. We strive to give glory to God through what we an do, eah of us in our own little way and in a very powerful way, for the salvation of souls. Save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, espeially those who are most in need of Your mery. If our hearts are in the right plae, then our faithful devotion to Blessed Mary through the Fatima devotion, leads surely and relatively quikly to our beoming true Gospel witnesses. Let us imitate the mysteries so that more and more people will be drawn into her maternal embrae and into the full embrae of her divine Son, Jesus. Blessed Franiso Marto/Continued from Page 3 Franiso - fearless and humble winner Franiso s humility and kindness invited many earthly sufferings, espeially at the shoolhouse where he was subjeted repeatedly to harges of being a fraud by an exasperated teaher who was wont to believe in apparitions of a Lady from heaven. These humiliations followed him onto the playground where his peers heaped more ill treatment. Like Jainta and Luia, he was onstantly sought by people seeking answers to their questions, wanting to know more about the messages. Franiso truthfully ould not answer questions regarding what Our Lady said, but he ould show what she wanted. One, when a woman knelt before him seeking his prayers and interession, Franiso also knelt, bringing himself down to her level a sinner took out his Rosary beads and invited her to pray. The grae she sought was given. Other times he would slip away from the people, seek solitude with the Hidden Jesus and pray for their intentions. On many oasions, he was able to tell them that a grae would be granted whih indeed would our just days later. In one ase he promised to ask Our Lady for a grae when he got to Heaven. The father and son were reoniled on the day the young seer died. During his five-month illness, visitors to his bedside would often report how omforting it was to be near him. I don t know what it is about Franiso, they would say, but it feels so good to be here....he would slip away from the people, seek solitude with the Hidden Jesus and pray for their intentions... When his sufferings inreased, he onfided to Luia that what was most diffiult for him to endure was his inability to visit the Hidden Jesus, and asked her to go instead. Near his death, he smiled with happiness: It won t be long now til I go to Heaven, he told her. When I m there, I m going to onsole Our Lord and Our Lady very muh. Jainta is going to pray a lot for sinners, for the Holy Father and for you. You will stay here beause Our Lady wants it that way. Listen, you must do everything that she tells you. Franiso, the little shepherd who ould not hear a word Our Lady said, shows us how to live the Message of Fatima in the heart. He is learly a winner.

6 First Friday - First Saturday Vigils of Reparation to the Sared Heart of Jesus and Immaulate Heart of Mary Board of Trustees Spiritual Diretor Fr. John Gallas Ss. Peter & Paul, Loretto St. Thomas, Cororan (763) President Barb Ernster St. Charles Borromeo, St. Anthony (612) Vie President Todd Ziesmer Holy Family, St. Louis Park (952) Seretary Sue Ryan Churh of St. Mary, St. Paul (651) Treasurer Janie Hugo St. Augustine, St. Paul (952) Board Members Mary Fier St. Agnes, St. Paul (651) Mark Hugo St. Augustine, St. Paul (952) Kathleen O Hern St. Pius X, White Bear Lake (651) Graphi Designer Kristi Elsen Ss. Peter & Paul, Loretto 2014 Shedule MAY 2 (FRIDAY NIGHT ONLY) St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Churh th Street W, Hastings, MN 7:00 PM 10:00 PM; MASS AT 9 P.M. Contat: Mary, Please remember First Saturday devotion. OCTOBER 3-4 JUNE 6-7 No vigil sheduled. Help us fill this month. To shedule your parish, all JULY 4-5 St. Joseph Catholi Churh 1154 Seminole Ave., West St. Paul Contat: Ellie, AUGUST 1-2 St. Pius X Catholi Churh 3878 Highland Ave., White Bear Lake Contat: Kathleen, SEPTEMBER 5-6 Churh of St. Paul 740 S. Main Street, Zumbrota, MN Contat: Kathleen No vigil due to the Candlelight Rosary Proession, Friday at 6:30 p.m. from the State Capitol to the Cathedral of Saint Paul Please remember First Saturday devotion. NOVEMBER 1 No vigil. All Saints Day. Please remember First Saturday devotion. Nov. 7 is open for a First Friday Vigil. To shedule your parish, all DECEMBER 5-6 Churh of St. Mary 261 E. 8th Street, St. Paul Contat: Mike, Suggested Vigil Shedule: 7 p.m. Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary Confession available. 7:30 p.m. Mass in honor of the Sared Heart of Jesus 8:30-11:45 Exposition of the Blessed Sarament Publi and private prayers. 11:45 p.m. Benedition Midnight Mass in honor of the Immaulate Heart of Mary Followed by the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. Chek our website for shedule hanges:

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8 WORLD APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA Arhdioesan Division St. Paul/Minneapolis 302 Fifth Avenue North South St. Paul, MN Address Servie Requested NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID POS Newsletter Renewal Coupon We greatly appreiate all who mail in renewal oupons and make donations to support the World Apostolate of Fatima. The $5 annual fee overs only the ost of a single subsription. Extra ontributions make it possible for us to ontinue sending newsletters free-of-harge to the lergy and those who are unable to ontribute finanially. Please renew your subsription eah year. Questions? Contat Mark Hugo at or rosstown7@hotmail.om. Name: Mail to: World Apostolate of Fatima Hialeah Path, Apple Valley, MN Make your hek payable to World Apostolate of Fatima Please renew my subsription for 1 $5 / subsription I would like to make an additional tax-dedutable ontribution of $. I am unable to ontribute, but would like to reeive the newsletter by mail. I would like to reeive the newsletter by my address is below. Please remove me from your list. City / State / Zip: Telephone No.: Address: