This weekend is Mother’s Day in the United States and we celebrate the 107th Anniversary of Our Blessed Mother’s first apparition at Fatima. It seems fitting to honor this event by promoting Our Lady’s message in the nation which is home to the most baptized Catholics (well over 100 million) and the largest Portuguese speaking nation.
Our founder, Father Nicholas Gruner, also took the Message of Fatima to this “sister” nation of Portugal. In August 2007, The Fatima Center hosted a week-long Bishops Conference — “Fatima: Only Way to World Peace” – in Botucatu, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, which included a procession and an excursion to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida. Nearly 200 bishops and priests from throughout Latin America attended. Archbishop Aloysio Jose Leal Penna, the Archbishop of Botucatu, welcomed the conference and arranged for the diocesan retreat center to house the event. Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata, then ordinary of Estelí, Nicaragua, also provided imprimaturs on the Portuguese translations of some of our publications.
View one of Fr. Gruner’s conferences from Brazil: God is About to Punish the World: The Father Fuentes Interview.
Or listen to the audio podcast version.
The International Forum, Stop the Destruction of the World, will hold its 33rd gathering online. This year the theme is MARIAN MESSAGES. The event is sponsored by a non-denominational secular university in Brazil, the Keppe and Pacheco Trilogical Colleges.
I have been invited to be the keynote speaker in this online forum. My talk will focus on Our Lady of Fatima and God’s will to have devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary be promoted worldwide. The two privileged means of fostering this devotion are the First Saturday devotion and the Consecration of Russia by the Pope in union with all the world’s Catholic bishops.
Registration for this event is free. Once registered, you’ll receive notifications about the forum. You will also be given access to their recordings If you cannot view the talks live.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
I will speak on Sunday, May 12th at 2 p.m. (US Eastern Daylight Time). The title of my talk is The ‘Summa’ of Our Lady’s Message to Mankind. I will also participate in the Opening Session on Friday, May 10th at 5 p.m. (EDT) and the Closing Session on Monday, May 13th at 5 p.m. (EDT).
Other English-speaking presenters known to many supporters of The Fatima Center are Dr. John Rao and Suzanne Pearson. Other speakers will present in Spanish and in Portuguese.
Although this is not an event sponsored by The Fatima Center, and we do not know all the other speakers or will necessarily agree with all the information they may present, we thought it important to accept the invitation and be part of this discussion.
The invitation to participate in this event, sponsored by a university in Brazil which is not Catholic in its confession, is proof of growing trends across the world. More and more people are recognizing the terrible and grave crises in the world. What’s more, there is also a growing awareness that we need a supernatural solution. (Perhaps this is one of the reasons God permits our situation to worsen, because He knows this is the only way to soften the hardened hearts of prideful men entrenched in their sins.)
What a unique opportunity (grace!) that non-Catholics, and even people who do not profess belief in Jesus Christ, are willing to engage the possibility that the Mother of God has appeared on earth and brought us the only solution for our time.
Our Lady’s Message at Fatima is, after all, a universal message directed to all of humanity. Let us recall just a few words of Our Blessed Mother at Fatima:
People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more for He is already too much offended.
To save [the souls of poor sinners], God wills to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.
[Jesus] wills to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion I promise salvation; these souls shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne.
Do you suffer a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.
Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
I want you … to continue praying the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace in the world and the end of the war, because only She can help you.
In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
These are words addressed to every single one of us. As faithful Catholics and devotees of Our Lady, we must be “apostles” of Fatima, spreading this Message to everyone we know.
This weekend we will be delivering this world-saving Message to the international community via the online “Stop the Destruction of the World” Forum. Please support our efforts with your prayers and donations. May God reward you!
DONATE
Immaculate Heart of Mary, be our salvation!