By Sr. Melissa Moxely, M.S.
Marian Sisters
I had the privilege of going on a Marian pilgrimage to Fatima, Lourdes, and Medjugorje in May 2023, with the help of many generous benefactors and the support of my community, the Marian Sisters of the Diocese of Lincoln. I experienced Mary calling me to her heart as my spiritual mother to these holy apparition sites.
One of the graces I received from her Immaculate Heart, through Mass and Eucharistic Adoration, was to live more radically my religious consecration for my beloved Spouse, Jesus Christ, and to hold nothing back from His Most Sacred Heart. Jesus says to each of us in John 15: 12-14: “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” What a friend we have in Jesus, that He lays down His life for us! We are so loved by Him, we are worth dying for!
Jesus chose you, and me, and called us to be His friends. At every Mass, Jesus says to your heart and mine: “Take this, all of you and eat of it, for this is My Body, which is given up for you… Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of My Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” Lk.22: 19-20
I am struck by the great humility of Jesus; He humbles Himself by choosing to become man and then chooses to dwell in our hearts in Holy Communion as He dwelt in Mary’s womb. I am overwhelmed by His infinite love and desire to dwell in our hearts because He made us to be temples for Him. This is a profound reality. God is so good to us! Let us not be afraid to be generous with God because He is so generous to us.
This grace I received on my pilgrimage was exemplified in the lives of the children of Fatima, to whom Our Lady appeared six times in 1917: St. Jacinta, St. Francisco, and Servant of God Lucia. They experienced great suffering and persecution for the sake of Christ, but they were not afraid to give everything for love of Him in radical ways through the hands of Mary.
In 1916 the Angel of Portugal, also called the Angel of Peace, appeared to Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia, the children of Fatima, to prepare their hearts for Our Lady’s visits to them. The angel brought them Holy Communion and taught them the Prayer of Reparation to the Blessed Sacrament. The prayer he taught them was:
“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not hope, and do not love You.”
With the Blessed Sacrament suspended in the air, the Angel of Peace prostrated himself and recited this prayer during his third apparition to the children in 1916:
“O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly. 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 indifference by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”
As you receive Jesus in Holy Communion and pray before Him in Eucharistic Adoration, I encourage you to make the angel’s prayer your own prayer, in reparation for the sins committed against Jesus’ most Sacred Heart and Mary’s Immaculate Heart. And I challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit in prayer, “Is there anything that is holding me back from loving Jesus more completely? Holy Spirit, give me the grace yo give you my whole heart.”
May we, like the children of Fatima, be willing to lay our lives down for Jesus, and hold nothing back from His Most Sacred Heart because He laid down His life for us.
