The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 15, 2023
-
October 12, 2023Dear Parishioners and Friends,
On the hundredth anniversary, I spoke to a group of schoolchildren about the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, which took place on the 13th of each month from May 1917 to October 1917. One child was particularly fascinated with this beautiful story and in a nonchalant manner asked me how I felt living back then. I smiled at such innocence, and said it is very hard for a person over a hundred years old to remember so far back.
In our church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary we have a beautiful stained-glass window in the choir loft that covers the front of the church. It shows three children on their knees praying the rosary before Our Lady with a brilliant sun above. On October 13, 1917, the sun danced in the sky to offer proof for the messages Mary had given the children. In the morning, often a brilliant sunlight comes into our church to remind us of that long ago miracle. The sunlight also reminds us that at every Mass the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and His glorious Resurrection are made present to us under the appearances of bread and wine. At a certain time of day, it enlightens the high altar.
What is the message of Fatima? It is the message of Jesus who preached that we must repent and belief in the Gospel. This is the key truth of the Gospel: we must die and rise in Christ. However, many are drifting away and setting up false gods. There is a massive loss of innocence. There is a corruption of souls, and the corruption of the best is the worst. Now there is more and more a concerted and deliberate plan to put in law what clearly contradicts and reviles God’s sacred commandments. There is more and more atheism and a numbing apathy. That is why Our Lady at Fatima appeared in beauty and innocence to three innocent children to call us back to innocence of soul. So much is said in the teaching of Jesus that we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven.
The antidote to the poison is to take up the rosary and pray and pray, and pray, to heed the call to follow Jesus like Mary. It is not too late. Mary, Our Loving Mother, will never let us down.
Yours in the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Fr. Mark G. Mazza, Pastor
