Learn More about the Fatima Pilgrimage
Transcript
The Eucharist is glorious, life giving, wonderful, patient, personal.
We are people of the Eucharist.
Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and I hope you are enjoying the spiritual pilgrimage. The response to 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory has been amazing. As a result, we've decided to host a very special retreat in Fatima this October to consecrate America and the world to the Eucharist. I will personally host this retreat, and I'm looking forward to taking some of my children to Fatima for the very first time to participate in this retreat also. We'll also be joined by a host of other speakers, bishops, and priests. Our goal is to have someone to represent every country in the world present for this world consecration.
We host almost a dozen pilgrimages each year, but this will be the first time in seven years I have personally attended a pilgrimage. I would like to personally invite you to join us in Fatima this October for this extraordinary event. Visit fatima2024.com to learn more. The year was 1917. The world was at war. World War I was raging. 20 million killed and 21 million wounded. And Mary came to warn people that even worse atrocities were coming if humanity didn't change course. Three Portuguese children were the recipients of visions and messages from Mary. Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta. Ages 10, 9, and 7. Fatima became the center of the world for many believers in 1917.
And they flocked from far and wide, hoping to experience one of the miracles or speak with one of the children. What was the message? It was an urgent call to conversion and penance. This is the simplest way to state it. There were, of course, many aspects to the messages between May and October of 1917. Mary spoke about heaven, hell, death, and judgment. The four last things. The messages included insights about sin and sacrifice and a call to pray the rosary for peace in our families and peace in the world. And of particular significance here on our journey toward Eucharistic consecration, Mary spoke to the children and the world about respect for the Eucharist.
In the apparitions at Fatima, Mary presented two paths to the children, one of salvation and the other of destruction. The world didn't listen and everything Our Lady of Fatima predicted came to be, including the decimation of the Catholic Church from within. The world didn't listen. The world still isn't listening. Only 30% of Catholics in the United States believe Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. The other 70% think it is just a symbol. Will you listen? The first apparition in Fatima took place on the 13th of May, 1917. This was the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament 64 years later on that day, Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square. He prayed in that moment to Our Lady of Fatima. And after recovering from his life-threatening injuries, he traveled to Fatima and placed the bullet the surgeon removed from his chest in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. There are those who say we should not give too much attention to Mary as we should place our full attention on Jesus. Saint Maximilian Colby's insight was, "Never be afraid of loving Mary too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did." The one question I would like us to focus on in our reflection on the events and messages of Fatima is how well do you receive the Eucharist? It can be done well and it can be done poorly. The question is, how well, not how. But the two are related. How do you receive communion? Some believe it doesn't matter what you wear or whether you kneel or stand or whether you receive on the tongue or in your hands or if you whisper the amen or say it loudly, what matters is the disposition of your heart. If you have love and respect in your heart, then who cares what the mechanics of receiving are these people will say. Others believe there is only one way to show proper respect for the Eucharist and to do anything else is irreverent. The truth is they're both right. How you receive outwardly matters and how you receive outwardly should be an expression of your interior disposition. It's remarkable that the maker of heaven and earth becomes present in the form of bread and wine and that you and I get to receive him. It's the miracle of miracles. If we keep this in mind, how we receive Jesus will help us to receive the Eucharist well, internally and externally. The holiest external form loses significance if internally our hearts are turned away from God. One year before Mary appeared to the children of Fatima, God prepared the children with visits from an angel, the angel of peace. During one visit, the angel held a chalice with a host suspended in the air over it. Leaving the chalice and host suspended in the air, the angel knelt and had the children repeat three times, "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I adore you profoundly. And I offer you the most precious body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences by which he himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most sacred heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg you the conversion of poor sinners." Then the angel gave the host to Lucia and the precious blood to Jacinta and Francisco and said, "Eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ, terribly outraged by the ingratitude of man. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God." I first visited Fatima in my early twenties. I felt a pull, a call to go there. Over the years since, I have visited many other sacred sites around the world, but I never felt that pulled toward anywhere other than Fatima. In the 10 years that followed my first pilgrimage to Fatima, I returned there more than 25 times, bringing thousands of pilgrims to experience the mysteries of the place where Mary stood upon the earth to encourage and warn humanity. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to attend Mass with Sister Lucia. She was an old woman by then, living as a Carmelite in a cloistered community in Coimbra, just north of Fatima. I looked at her and wondered what she knew that the rest of us didn't. There was a peace and a joy in her face, but also at moments the anguish of someone who was carrying a tremendously heavy burden.
During my 25 visits to Fatima throughout my 20s, I spent countless hours in the adoration chapel asking for light and direction. Those were some of the best spent hours of my life. Mary will always lead us to her son. Pope Benedict XVI observed there is an indissoluble link between the mother and the son generated in her womb by the work of the Holy Spirit and this link we perceive in a mysterious way in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Mary will teach you to dedicate yourself to Jesus. She will lead you to consecrate your life to the Eucharist. There is nobody better to teach you how to dedicate yourself completely to Jesus in the Eucharist. She will lead you to Eucharistic glory.
Let us strive to love Jesus and the Eucharist the way these simple children in Fatima did over a hundred years ago. Trust, surrender, believe, and receive. Join the International Society of the Eucharist today and you will receive a $300 discount voucher for the Fatima World Consecration Retreat and Pilgrimage. If you have already joined, you will also receive this voucher. Click the button below and join today. Have a great day, an amazing day, and remember, be bold, be Catholic. We are people of the Eucharist.
Jesus, I believe that you are truly present
In the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.
Every day, I long for more of you.
I love you above all things.
And I desire to receive you into my soul.
Since I cannot receive you
Sacramentally at this moment
I invite you to come and dwell in my heart.
May the spiritual communion
Increase my desire for the Eucharist.
You are the healer of my soul.
Take the blindness from my eyes
The deafness from my ears
The darkness from my mind
And the hardness from my heart.
Fill me with the grace, wisdom, and courage
To do your will
In all things
My Lord and my God.
Draw me close to you
Nearer than ever before.
Amen. Consecrate America to the Eucharist.
Bye-bye.
Have a great day.
Have a great day.
Have a great day. Come on.
Have a great day.
Hey, Isabel. One simple way to be mindful of God's presence in the world is to know where the nearest tabernacle is. So while we've got a couple of minutes, I thought we might work on your geography a little.
Sounds good, dad. You're always coming up with something.
What about if I was at latitude 42.11 and a longitude of negative 87.78, where would the nearest tabernacle be?
St. Peter the Apostle, Northfield, Illinois.