May Pastor Column

My dear Kirkland Catholics,

May is the principal month of Mary in the Catholic Church (though October is a Marian month as well, especially as connected to the Rosary), and within this month falls the memorial of Our Lady of Fatima.  This apparition is dear to me for the simple fact that it’s my home parish; but the message of Fatima remains highly relevant to us and connects well to the initiative the Archbishop is asking us to take on over this next year with a renewal to the Devotion of the Sacred Heart and the recitation of “The Morning Offering.”

Mary appeared to three Shepherd children on May 13, 1917, and then once a month for six months after. The primary message was the importance of our prayer and sacrifices
offered to God for the conversion of sinners and world peace.  Hence the “Fatima” prayer added to the end of each decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.”  The veracity of the apparition was grounded in the miracle of the sun which 70,000 people observed on October 13, 1917; and in Mary’s prophetic warnings about Russia in which the Red Revolution was predicted and occurred a month after the final apparition; as well as warnings about World War II.

My own sense is that our own intercessory prayer needs to be broad if revival is to happen in our parish family, and if our prayers are to be directed for fullest effect for the world – and that as many people possible in our parish become “prayer warriors.”  We can get so locked into intercessory prayer for our families or acquaintances; we can maybe miss the mark of what we are being called to.  Mary at Fatima, after all, asked for prayers and sacrifices to be broadly offered for the conversation of sinners and world peace. 

She knows how to maximally apply the graces of our prayers or sacrifices to the hearts that are open to conversion at the moment we offer a prayer or sacrifice.  Sometimes our loved
ones’ freedom is in the way of the goodness we and God desires for them and have us feeling like our prayer is not working.  Offering prayers and sacrifices to God through the intercession of Mary, however, for “where it needs to go now” doesn’t mean we don’t have our “prayer list” of loved ones we pray for; but significant periods spent in other types
of prayer that greatly benefit us – meditating on the principal events in Christ’s life in the Rosary, spending time in Adoration and in Scripture as just a few examples; deepens our union with God, but these prayer practices or periods of time can additionally be offered as a sacrifice for the Blessed Mother’s intentions for both revival in our parish and for the salvation of
sinners.

Finally, this whole train of thought connects to the composition and intention of The Morning Offering: “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of
sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month.  Amen.”

With love in Christ,

Fr. Brad