{"id":1614,"date":"2017-09-04T07:51:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T07:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/?p=1614"},"modified":"2017-09-04T07:51:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T07:51:43","slug":"fatima-queen-of-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/2017\/09\/04\/fatima-queen-of-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatima, Queen of Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last September, after a successful pilgrimage to Rome for\u00a0the Year of Mercy and \"\"the canonisation of Mother Teresa of\u00a0Calcutta, a little mustard seed was sown and our \u00a0parish\u00a0pilgrimage committee was set up. After months of planning\u00a0and background work, finally on the morning of 11 August,\u00a0a group of parishioners from a number of local churches,\u00a0led by Fr Louis Odudu of St Saviour\u2019s, Lewisham, set off\u00a0to Fatima in Portugal, where celebrations had begun in May\u00a0led by Pope Francis for the 100th anniversary of the\u00a0apparitions to the three shepherd children Jacinta,\u00a0Francisco and Lucia.<\/p>\n

From the start, Fr Louis encouraged us to look within ourselves\u00a0by explaining that going on Pilgrimage is responding\u00a0to an inner call to search for the face of God What we\u00a0found was the face of God which was in our brothers, our\u00a0sisters, on our coach, pilgrims on their knees crawling to\u00a0the chapel of apparitions, in the sanctuary, in the Basilica,\u00a0in different nationalities, cultures, all coming to honour Our\u00a0Lord Jesus-Christ through the mysteries of the Holy Rosary\u00a0and the response to the call of our Blessed Lady to pray the\u00a0rosary daily.<\/p>\n

The international rosary ceremony said in many languages\u00a0gave a special meaning to the universality of our Church.\u00a0One has the sense that all were bound together by the\u00a0shining beads of the rosary. Furthermore the rosary,\u00a0followed by the torch lit procession of our Lady of Fatima to\u00a0the Altar for the Eucharist felt more than ever that Heaven\u00a0joined us in our exhortations and prayers. The sky dome\u00a0was pitch black with no stars but the candlelit procession of\u00a0bishops, priests and pilgrims gave the sense that all the\u00a0stars of heaven had rained down on earth and \u2018we were the\u00a0Stars\u2019 Heaven was definitely on earth!<\/p>\n

Each night the statue of Our Lady was taken on procession\u00a0around the church, but on the 13th, the evening procession\u00a0commemorated the fulfilment of the prophecy of Our Lady\u00a0of Fatima and also the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin\u00a0Wall in 1989. The statue of our Blessed Mother was taken\u00a0to the piece of the wall of Berlin which had a special place\u00a0in Fatima. This procession highlighted the message of\u00a0peace she gave to the three shepherd children. This\u00a0message is as current today as it was 100 years ago: the\u00a0human race is still engaging in war and she, The Lady of\u00a0the Rosary, Queen of Peace is still calling for peace and\u00a0praying the Rosary.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue\u00a0always to pray the rosary every day, don\u2019t lose\u00a0<\/span>heart. I will never forsake you. My immaculate Heart will\u00a0be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>Our Lady of Fatima.<\/p>\n

During our pilgrimage we had a brief moment to set aside\u00a0the storms of our lives and give focus to God. Every\u00a0morning began with mass, followed by private devotions.\u00a0The prayer intentions which travelled and unravelled in\u00a0Fatima were each morning at our private altar or if it was an\u00a0international mass Fr Louis carried the envelope of intentions\u00a0with him. On our final day Fr Louis burnt all the intentions\u00a0and offered them in a final prayer. It was a very moving\u00a0ceremony which gave closure and comfort and the reassurance\u00a0that our prayers had been heard and reached\u00a0the divine realm.<\/p>\n

Hence now that we are back from Fatima, our pilgrims\u2019\u00a0hearts keep singing and exhorting:
\n“There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is\u00a0<\/span>that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>Sister Lucia of Fatima.<\/p>\n

Fatima Pilgrims<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last September, after a successful pilgrimage to Rome for\u00a0the Year of Mercy and the canonisation of Mother Teresa of\u00a0Calcutta, a little mustard seed was sown and our \u00a0parish\u00a0pilgrimage committee was set up. After months of planning\u00a0and background work, finally on the morning of 11 August,\u00a0a group of parishioners from a number of local churches,\u00a0led by Fr Louis Odudu of St Saviour\u2019s, Lewisham, set off\u00a0to Fatima in Portugal, where celebrations had begun in May\u00a0led by Pope Francis for the 100th anniversary of the\u00a0apparitions to the three shepherd children Jacinta,\u00a0Francisco and Lucia. From the start, Fr Louis encouraged us to look within ourselves\u00a0by explaining that going on Pilgrimage is responding\u00a0to an inner call to search for the face of God What we\u00a0found was the face of God which was in our brothers, our\u00a0sisters, on our coach, pilgrims on their knees crawling to\u00a0the chapel of apparitions, in the sanctuary, in the Basilica,\u00a0in different nationalities, cultures, all coming to honour Our\u00a0Lord Jesus-Christ through the mysteries of the Holy Rosary\u00a0and the response to the call of our Blessed Lady to pray the\u00a0rosary daily. The international rosary ceremony said in many languages\u00a0gave a special meaning to the universality of our Church.\u00a0One has the sense that all were bound together by the\u00a0shining beads of the rosary. Furthermore the rosary,\u00a0followed by the torch lit procession of our Lady of Fatima to\u00a0the Altar for the Eucharist felt more than ever that Heaven\u00a0joined us in our exhortations and prayers. The sky dome\u00a0was pitch black with no stars but the candlelit procession of\u00a0bishops, priests and pilgrims gave the sense that all the\u00a0stars of heaven had rained down on earth and \u2018we were the\u00a0Stars\u2019 Heaven was definitely on earth! Each night the statue of Our Lady was taken on procession\u00a0around the church, but on the 13th, the evening procession\u00a0commemorated the fulfilment of the prophecy of Our Lady\u00a0of Fatima and also the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin\u00a0Wall in 1989. The statue of our Blessed Mother was taken\u00a0to the piece of the wall of Berlin which had a special place\u00a0in Fatima. This procession highlighted the message of\u00a0peace she gave to the three shepherd children. This\u00a0message is as current today as it was 100 years ago: the\u00a0human race is still engaging in war and she, The Lady of\u00a0the Rosary, Queen of Peace is still calling for peace and\u00a0praying the Rosary. \u2018I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue\u00a0always to pray the rosary every day, don\u2019t lose\u00a0heart. I will never forsake you. My immaculate Heart will\u00a0be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God\u2019.\u00a0Our Lady of Fatima. During our pilgrimage we had a brief moment to set aside\u00a0the storms of our lives and give focus to God. Every\u00a0morning began with mass, followed by private devotions.\u00a0The prayer intentions which travelled and unravelled in\u00a0Fatima were each morning at our private altar or if it was an\u00a0international mass Fr Louis carried the envelope of intentions\u00a0with him. On our final day Fr Louis burnt all the intentions\u00a0and offered them in a final prayer. It was a very moving\u00a0ceremony which gave closure and comfort and the reassurance\u00a0that our prayers had been heard and reached\u00a0the divine realm. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1618,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions\/1618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saintedmunds.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}