Our Lady of Fatima makes a declaration that speaks to the heart of our vocation as mothers today! Her proclamation declares, “My Immaculate Heart will triumph.” You and I may feel as if our influence is small in the scope of a pandemic. We may feel as simple as shepherd children, or that we are simply shepherding young flocks of children stuck in the midst of a battle of the heart—a fight of fear, uncertainty, and unending laundry piles.
Yet, since biblical times God inserts himself into human history – directly into culture. Our God is a caring, attentive Father and he sends Our Lady of Fatima at the turn of the century to bring a message of maternal urgency – to trust in the Gospel promises. The poignant timing and unmistakable miracle of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima was no mistake, and now exactly 103 years later, the God of the eternal speaks to us today.
Receptivity, coupled with intentional focus on God, is a spiritual superpower that rivals earthly vaccines. Offering your passionate, daily fiat in your domestic church in the midst of a pandemic, dear Catholic mother, changes history for generations into eternity. Disease, destruction, and sin are rampant in the world, yet we know they will not prevail.
What does Our Lady show us? What beautiful hope does Our Lady of Fatima declare to us? Because of Mary, God became flesh in our savior, Jesus. We too, are called to give our fiat and open our lives to the power of Jesus. Our Lady of Fatima urges us to turn (repent) to our Father, who longs for us to be with him in prayer. She urges us to continually make sacrificial penance as a way of calling goodness into the lost human condition and bringing conversion. She calls us to recommit our hearts to Jesus through her Immaculate Heart in the holy Rosary.
Fatima invites us to a fierce purity of trust. Today, this feast is a vital reminder for each of us to live out the truth of receptivity which in turn brings hope and salvation. This call starts in our home, in our sphere of loving influence. We are beckoned to this abiding and constant truth. Make no mistake—motherhood and children (you and yours) can change the world as God ordains!