A PILGRIM’S NOTES: MY FATIMA EXPERIENCE

 

 

 

            On the day of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13, I wish to recall

my visit to Fatima, Portugal last year, and reflect on

the devotion to Our Lady, the Mother

of Jesus and our Mother.

 

. As a human being, I am a pilgrim to a thousand destinations. As a Christian – a believer -, I am a pilgrim to a thousand destinations plus one – the hope in God here and hereafter. As a pilgrim – not just a tourist -, I have visited many sacred places, including the Holy Land, Rome, Santiago de Compostela, etc. I have also visited a good number of shines dedicated to Our Lady and Mother Mary. For some time, I had hoped to be able to visit Fatima, Portugal, but for one reason or another, I was not able to travel to Portugal.

            I WILL GO TO FATIMA – TOMORROW!

I believe it was in the 1980s when I watched the movie “The Oscar.” Since then, from time to time, when I find myself procrastinating things and trips, the main story of this film comes to my mind. The main character was awarded the coveted Oscar for Best Actor. From then on, the actor was busier: with commitments here and there, press conferences, many new offerings to act in different movies, etc. As a result, he did not have much time to spend with the family, with his wife. One day his wife told him: “We have to talk, darling.” Yes, the actor replied, we have to talk; may be tomorrow.” But tomorrow never came, it never does! The same question and the same answer day after day. So one day, the wife told him: “We are running out of tomorrows.”

            How often have I answered the same way to my desire to make a pilgrimage to Fatima! Last summer of 2012, I promised myself: “It has to be this year for I am really running out of tomorrows!  And, thanks God, it was. On August 31, 2012, I visited Fatima – finally!

            While a friend drove me to Fatima from Lisbon, he said: “I hope you will not be disappointed.” I answered him: “I do not think so, I have faith from God.” With this comment I meant: I believe in Jesus as the Son of God and the only Savior, and I believe in and have a special devotion to Mary as the Mother of Jesus and my Mother, and as the disciple of disciples of the Lord. During our lunch, we made a toast: “For our work for the Kingdom in Macau.” I added: “And for our continuing conversion.”

            After reserving a room at the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, near the Shrine of Fatima, I walked to the International Convent of Dominican Nuns. In one of the arches of their chapel I read: “Ad Jesum per Mariam” (To Jesus through Mary). Yes, through her or with her to Jesus.

            FINALLY I VISITED FATIMA

Before supper I visited the Shine of Our Lady of Fatima. At the entrance of the esplanade for the processions, there is a text on the wall in different languages: “Fatima is a place for adoration. Enter as a pilgrim.” To enter as a pilgrim meant for me to walk towards a deeper conversion to Jesus and also to Mary, His Mother.

            After supper I went back to the Sanctuary of Fatima, to the Chapel of the Apparitions (the site where Our Lady appeared to Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia on May 13, 1917 for the first time). Here I participated in the Eucharist in Spanish. The presiding bishop explained the third word of Jesus from the Cross: “Behold your mother (to John the Evangelist), behold your son (to Mary).” He commented: We are pilgrims of faith,   and with this faith we truly see Jesus and Mary, for, as Jesus said: “Blessed are those who do not see and believe.” The three little shepherds of Fatima saw the Virgin in a vision; we see Jesus and her Mother with the eyes of faith. (As the preacher expressed those thoughts, a story of Blessed John Paul II crossed my mind. As we know, the Pope was convinced that Our Lady of Fatima saved him from death on May 13, 1981, the day of the attempted assassination. Once Pope John Paul II was asked if he had seen the Madonna; he answered: “No, I have never seen the Madonna, but I sense her.”)

            In the evening I attended with hundreds of people the recitation of the Rosary and the Procession around the esplanade. It was a Friday so we prayed the sorrowful mysteries which were led by different groups of pilgrims: First mystery was in Portuguese (there were many Portuguese and Brazilian); the second mystery was in Spanish (many Spaniards from Toledo and Cadiz were present); the third mystery was recited partly in Italian and partly in French (there were some pilgrims from both countries); the fourth mystery was in English and Tagalog (for the Irish and Filipino groups) and the fifth mystery was in Hungarian and Polish (citizen from these two countries were also present). Each mystery was properly introduced theologically and closed with a Marian song. After the Mysteries, the Litany of Mary was prayed by all.

            For the Procession we all had candles in hand. The priest, who introduced the Procession with the image of Our Lady of Fatima, asked us to light the candles and said: “The light represents the light of our Baptism, which continues calling us to a luminous and good life.”  The Procession was devout and beautiful – partly in darkness: it appeared that the lighted candles were walking! More enchanting songs to Mary followed and some talking silences. The moving ceremonies closed with the singing of the Salve Regina and of the song “Totus Tuus,” which alludes to the motto of Pope John Paul II, who directed it to Mary: “I am all yours, Mary!”

            TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY

After the Procession, we all were asked to practice “meditative silence.” Many pilgrims stayed in the Chapel of the Apparitions silently and prayerfully. I faced my devotion to Mary – and to the Rosary. Fatima, Benedict XVI has said (Fatima, May 12, 2010), is “an altar of the world,”  “an upper room of faith.” Indeed, from this altar, from this upper room the Fatima message is as relevant today as ninety five years ago: prayer, penance, conversion, living faith, love of God and neighbor.

            We are children of God, and also, in a spiritual sense, children of Mary. To be a good child, I need to have, as Vatican II says, “filial love for Mary.” This filial love moves me to trying hard to imitate Mary’s life, her virtuous life: her humility (“I am the handmaid of the Lord”), her obedience (“Let it be”), her love (she visited Elizabeth with the child Jesus in her womb), her prayer life (she kept everything that happened around Jesus in her heart). What is essential is that our devotion to Mary takes us to Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, our only Mediator. Benedict XVI said when visiting Fatima: “Mary is fully immersed in the one universal mediation of Christ.” He added on another occasion: “The central picture is Jesus, however, the Mother of God, the Mother of the Lord is an essential part of this picture” (Conversations with Peter Seewald, in Light of the World, 2010)

            The next morning (September 1, 2012), I went back to the Chapel of the Apparitions. I wanted to pray the Rosary alone – and very slowly and meditatively. Our devotion to Mary is good if it leads us to Christ. Our devotion to the Rosary – to Mary – is good if it help us – as Blessed Pope John Paul II tells us – to “learn” and “read” Jesus from Mary, and to discover his secrets and understand his message. Pope Paul VI tells us that the Rosary is like a ladder, and we climb it to meet Jesus and Mary. Through the beads of the Rosary we go to the prayers (the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be), and through the prayers to the Mysteries of the Rosary, and through the Twenty Mysteries to the encounter with Christ and Mary.

I stayed on for the Mass in Italian. In this Eucharistic celebration, the Italian priest pronounced a moving homily. You could feel he believed passionately in what he was telling us. He asked us the same question God asked the three little shepherds, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta “Do you wish to offer your life – your daily life – to God?” He continued: Our Lord told the children and tells us of the need of prayer, penance and love – the need of continuing conversion. Is this hard? He asked. Do not worry! Our Lady accompanies us with her spiritual presence, maternal love and care. In this time of crisis, we have to be open to others in love; we have to help the needy by sharing something of what we have with them. This – he concluded – constitutes the true devotion to Jesus and to Mary.

Our Lady is not only the first disciple of Jesus whom we have to imitate, but also our Mother whom we have to love with filial love; she is also our best intercessor before Jesus – before God. When we ask her help, she approaches Jesus in heaven – as she did at the Wedding at Cana – to tell him: “They have no wine, or no peace, or no unity in the family, or they lack patience, or courage, or compassion, or a prayer life…”  Mary turns to us to say: “Do whatever He tells you.” And Jesus continues telling you and me: “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” “Love one another as I have loved you,” “What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do it to me,” “Do not worry; I am with you until the end of time.”

            HAPPY TO HAVE VISITED FATIMA!

For a long time I have wanted to journey to Fatima as a pilgrim. I had two main reasons. Reason number one: I believe Fatima is a privileged place of Marian presence: Through 96 years (1917-2013), millions of people have appealed to Mary, and she has heard – and continues hearing – the cry of the people, especially of the little ones, the little shepherds of the world. My second reason to visit Fatima: I believed I could “see” simple people – the poor in spirit – expressing their faith with testimonial sincerity. These people would hopefully move me silently to be more determined in following Christ with the help of Mary. I did find simple people: devout, prayerful, kind. I “saw” a little child in the Italian priest who preached the homily. I strengthened my faith seeing a young mother and her teenaged son walking silently on their knees around the Chapel of Apparitions. I watched an old lady seated in one of the benches around the altar of the Chapel going through her beads of the Rosary silently; her face was so serene, so joyful!

            My friend told me: “I hope you will not be disappointed.” I was not! Not at all It reminded me of the sincere devotion I had to Mary when I was a child: through the month of May, we the children of my town went to the fields in the afternoon to pick up some flowers and offer them during the daily Marian celebration to Mary {Las Flores de Mayo – “The Flowers of May”}. Jesus keeps telling us today: “If you do not become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” I saw in Fatima people who were like children and I keep trying to become a true child of God – and of Mary!   In this challenging and hopeful endeavor, the daily recitation of the Rosary of Mary, or any other true devotion to Mary, can help us much. May it be so!

  FAUSTO GOMEZ, OP