SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2020 - The Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October16,2020
Dear Parishioners and Friends,
A few years ago, I spoke to a group of schoolchildren about the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima 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 in Belmont, California we have a beautiful stained-glass window in the choir loft that covers the entire 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 sun light comes into our church during Mass to remind us of that long-ago miracle. 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 believe 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 apathy and atheism. 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. There is a new movie on Fatima. Many of us remember the 1950’s movie the Miracle of the Sun. Both are available from Ignatius Press.
Yours in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Fr. Mark G. Mazza, Pastor