Any formula may be used to consecrate oneself to the Mother of God, as long as it involves a total oblation of oneself. As a suggestion, one of the following consecrations could be renewed each first Saturday with the shorter formula renewed daily.

0 Virgin Mary, most powerful Mother of Mercy, Queen of Heaven and earth, in accordance with your wish made known at Fatima, I consecrate myself today to your Immaculate Heart. To you I entrust all that I have, all that I am. Reign over me, dearest Mother, that I may be yours in prosperity, in adversity, in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, in life and in death.Most compassionate Heart of Mary, Queen of Virgins, watch over my mind and heart and preserve me from the deluge of impurity which you lamented so sorrowfully at Fatima. I want to be pure like you. I want to atone for the many crimes committed against Jesus and you. I want to call down upon this country and the whole world the peace of God in justice and charity.Mindful of this consecration, I now promise to strive to imitate you by the practice of the Christian virtues without regard for human respect. I resolve to receive Holy Communion on the first Saturday of every month when possible, and to offer daily five decades of the Rosary, with all my sacrifices in the spirit of penance and reparation. Amen.I, . . ., a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy Heart, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, in the presence of all the heavenly court, I choose thee this day for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, and to thy Immaculate Heart, as thy child and slave of love, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen.Short daily renewal of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, I renew my consecration to you and to your Immaculate Heart. Please accept me, my dear Mother, and use me as you wish to accomplish your designs upon the world. I am all yours, my Mother, my Queen, and all that I have is yours.TO JESUS THROUGH MARYLest there should be any misconception about the place of devotion to Mary in Catholic piety, we honor in a special way the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of Jesus, i.e., the person of Mary in her eminent sanctity and glorification by God, because it is the wish of her Son – as Our Lady revealed in her second apparition at Fatima. Jesus knows well that true devotion to His Mother leads souls to Him. As Pope Paul VI wrote in his encyclical celebrating the centenary of the apparitions at Lourdes:”Everything in Mary leads us toward her Son, our only Savior, by whose foreseen merits she was preserved immaculate and full of grace; everything in Mary lifts up our hearts to the praise of the Holy Trinity.”And as Our Lady assured Lucy, June 13, 1917:”I will never abandon you, my child. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.”The Church sees Mary, then, not as the goal, but as the guide, who always leads souls who honor her with true devotion – to her Son, especially to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. When we pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for help in time of need, she in turn points to the Tabernacle, to Him who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and has a way of conveying to us what she said to the steward at Cana: “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn.2:5)

Father Fox doing Spiritual Reading at his house in Hanceville, AL. in 2008.  Father always did spiritual reading and said that we all must do at least 20 minutes a day for it to be effective.

Fr. Robert J. Fox has a mission to young people, and a message to proclaim: there is another way to live, God’s way. In order to say this, however, he must demonstrate that way in his own life.

Fr. Fox has a truly international public that includes Cardinals and members of the Roman Curia. Yet they have not drawn him out of his simplicity of life and its roots in the fields and farms of South Dakota.

On the contrary he has drawn them into his simple vision, a vision of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Christ who has known hard work, suffering, and great love.

In 1971, Cardinal John Wright, the Prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy asked him to write six books as part of the General Catechetical Directory kept at the Vatican. Fox did so and started a prolific career with well over 50 books to his credit as at 2005 and that say year, of 2005, he published an autobiography A Priest is a Priest Forever – 50 years in Christ’s holy priesthood.

As author and journalist, as television personality, and has been a leader in the World Apostolate of Fatima. In all, however, he is a priest, and he touches the lives of his people — particularly young people — by living the life of Jesus, human in its tenderness and intimacy, divine in the fact that it knows no limit.

His is the Editor of a a Most Colorful Catholic Magazine indeed, the Immaculate Messenger Magazine began publication in 1994 and quickly established itself as the definitive magazine of Catholic teachings and family life.

The Immaculate Heart Messenger is the quarterly magazine which goes to thousands of Catholic families across the world and brings readers teachings of sound Catholic faith and morals in harmony with the teachings of the Universal Church.

A recent book Masculinity: The Gentle Man ~ A comment from: Johnnette Benkovic, EWTN Sharing His Life Abundantly, Founder & President of – Women of Grace: “A book like Masculinity: the Gentle Man underscores, highlights, and defines again those traits, characteristics, gifts, and graces that belong to the male person rightly understood, And, in so doing, perhaps women, too, will find their way back to what God intended from all eternity, even as man rediscovers the vision of himself that God intentioned. … Thank you, Father Robert J. Fox, for reminding us of the truth.”

With the death of Sr. Lucia on February 13, 2005, and the resulting increased explosive interest in Fatima throughout the world, followed soon by the death of Pope John Paul II, the special Fatima Pope, need was seen for still another book on Fatima by the priest who was first called “the Fatima priest.” Fatima is Forever shares the special spiritual bond between Sr. Lucia and Pope John Paul II

Fr. Fox has regularly appeared on “Mother Angelica Live” and has produced series for Mother Angelica since she got started 26 years ago. In his golden years had offers the Mass at Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Hanceville, which is part of Our Lady of the Angeles Monastery where Foundress of EWTN Mother Angelica lives.

Professional artist, Mark Sanislo, painted the portrait “The Nun of the Media” which you see on the cover of this issue of the Immaculate Heart Messenger. He had the permission of Mother Angelica’s Poor Clare Nuns to paint their founder of Our Lady of Angeles Monastery and Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

The portrait also manifests the EWTN power of prayer which comes from the Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration who have backed up Mother’s global media work. Mother herself is seen at the switchboard of Eternal Word Television Network <EWTN> with her Rosary in hand.

The Fatima Family Apostolate was started at the encouragement of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and is endorsed by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family.

It is now an international Apostolate, having members all over the world. The Fatima Family Apostolate’s website: www.fatimafamily.org

There was a special spiritual bond between Sr.  Lucia and Pope John Paul II. With many Fatima developments and fulfillments of  prophecies in recent years many need this latest book on Fatima. This time the  book on Fatima is titled, Fatima Is Forever.

Fatima Is Forever will cover Fatima from the beginning, its developments through the years, its effects  on the world today and for the future; the consecration by bishops requested by  Our Lady, the release of the Third Part of the Fatima Secret and the  beatifications of Blessed Jacinta and blessed Francisco; the spiritual bonding  between Sr. Lucia and Pope John Paul II.

Also included in this book are  world reactions to the deaths of Sr. Lucia and Pope John Paul II. Sr. Lucia’s  permanent resting place near Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco after the  transferral of her body, February 19, 2006, from Coimbra Carmel to Fatima  Basilica is included. The book summarizes the biography by Sr. Lucia’s own  Carmelites as required by their Carmelite Constitution for a deceased Sister.

Traveled with Fr. Fox to Fatima in…1990?  Remember the trip vividly and I  remember him to have been a very strong man of faith, but he also took time out  to speak to each of us, going table to table sharing that very subtle smile, as  pictured above, as he listened to the ramblings of a hundred+ girls.  We  had morning meetings…at which he shared both seroius and some lighthearted  stories with us that put us at ease, but remdinded us that faith was more than  just something you recognized once a week at church.  Father lived his and  I believe that’s what I took away from the trip.  Like our journey to  Fatima, so is our journey in life.  He impacted mine and the trip broadened  my understanding of the Catholic faith, but also Catholics in general.  It  was interesting to meet people from all walks of life from across the US and  into Canada.  Am thankful to have met him.

    Father Fox’s first assignment in 1955 was at St. Lawrence Parish as an assistant priest in Millbank, South Dakota. Thus began his lifelong work of writing. All through his priesthood he has been an expert catechist and Mariologist, having written books and recorded numerous lessons on catechetical teachings geared toward Catholic youth and family and Our Lady’s role as well as editing the quarterly Fatima Family Messenger and the Immaculate Heart Messenger for the past twelve years.

    In January 1959 Father Fox was transferred to Hoven, South Dakota and St. Anthony’s Parish where he barely had time for a cup of coffee, being moved again that August as an associate pastor at Sacred Heart in Yankton for two years. Bishop Lambert A. Hoch, the succeeding Bishop of Sioux Falls, moved Father Fox to Bristol, South Dakota in 1961, where he became a pastor for the first time at St. Anthony’s Parish. In 1965 he was assigned as pastor to St. Joseph’s Parish in Mobridge, South Dakota until 1969 when the Bishop returned him as pastor to his first parish – St. Lawrence in Millbank. Here he remained for two years until moving over to St. Bernard’s Parish in Redfield, due south of Aberdeen, where he remained pastor for twelve years.

    It was at St. Bernard’s where he began to reevaluate his life. Like so many priests, laity as well, we reach a point in life where we ask God if we are on the right track. Father Fox was no different. In 1971 he prayed if his work as a priest was pleasing to Our Lady. He prayed for a sign that he was using the right methods to do God’s work. Just before Christmas that year he received a letter from Cardinal John Wright, the former Pittsburgh bishop who had become the Prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome. Cardinal Wright’s words were full of kudos for Father Fox’s work and he requested six books which he incorporated into the General Catechetical Directory a year later. Father Fox was so relieved and appreciative he could contribute and it had to give him a special thrill to recognize his work in some of the teachings published in the Vatican Directory. In thanksgiving he built the first of three Marian shrines. His association with Cardinal Wright would continue through the years. This head of the universal clergy is quoted as stating “Many youth today are not losing their Catholic Faith. They were just never taught it.” Who did the cardinal turn to? Father Fox, encouraging the South Dakota priest to develop a concrete apostolate for the youth. When Father Fox assured him it would take a couple more years for that, the Cardinal’s reply spoke volumes: “Don’t delay. Act now.”

    Prayer has always been first and foremost in his life and often he faithfully fulfilled the 81-day novena which is composed of nine nine-day novenas, in which one prays the Rosary Novena three times (27 days) in request, three times (another 27 days) in adoration, and three more times (final 27 days) in thanksgiving. It was a novena from ancient Catholic traditions he learned while a teenager. Through prayer and inspiration, Father Fox traveled with a pilgrimage group to Fatima in 1974 for the first time and there, before the beautiful statue of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima near the Cova, he repeated what the visionary Lucia asked of Our Lady in 1917, “What do you want of me?” During that same pilgrimage which took him to Rome and Venice, he recalls visiting the great St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice and praying at the Evangelist’s tomb where he remembers as clear as day a voice within clearly telling him to conduct pilgrimages. He felt an overwhelming conviction to teach the fullness of Catholic Faith to young people which tied in so intricately with the message of Fatima for Fatima was merely a reaffirmation of the Gospel.

    He returned home that summer of 74 to build a shrine to Our Lady of Fatima and begin his famous youth apostolate in which each summer he would spend six weeks in Portugal conducting spirit-filled and prayer-oriented pilgrimages for youth. Out of those pilgrimages great fruits have blossomed under Father Fox’s nurturing care. Today, after twenty-five years of pilgrimages, over 200 young men have either become priests or are presently in the seminary! He has no idea how many young women have become nuns but he proudly points to Sister Mary Agnes of the Immaculate Heart, one of the young ladies on one of his pilgrimages, who went on to become a contemplative Carmelite and be one of the founders of the first contemplative Carmelite monastery in South Dakota.

    The grind of being a pastor and conducting pilgrimages took its toll in 1984 when he asked and received permission from Bishop Paul Dudley, who had succeeded Bishop Hoch in 1978, to recuperate at a smaller parish while he regained his strength from this temporary illness. After a year at Immaculate Conception in Waubay, South Dakota where the population was slightly over six hundred and where he built his second shrine to Our Lady, he recovered and was reassigned to St. Mary of Mercy in Alexandria, South Dakota which would become his permanent home for the past fourteen years as pastor and Director of the Fatima Family Apostolate.

    Three years after his arrival at St. Mary’s, Alexandria was on the map. He had received a donation of land to build a shrine which covered a block in square footage. Enlisting the local townspeople who were hearty and giving souls, together they built the Fatima Family Shrine which features areas dedicated to, besides Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts plus angels adoring the Holy Eucharist as well as Saint Joseph, and the Christ Child blessing the world plus a Divine Mercy Shrine.

    In 1987 Father Fox hosted the first National Marian Congress which is, in essence, the mother of spiritual Marian and Eucharistic conferences that blossomed in the late eighties and throughout the nineties with the interest in Our Lady’s apparitions and devotion to Divine Mercy. He has attracted nationally and internationally known-speakers to the plains of South Dakota where the nearest accommodations to Alexandria is sixteen miles to the west in Mitchell. Yet they have traditionally drawn thousands every June, averaging 8,000 to this remote outpost off I-90 between Sioux Falls and Rapid City. Tents are constructed and the townsfolk go into action, providing the manpower and hospitality that leaves all with a sense of accomplishment in fulfilling God’s Holy Will. Having just completed the 13th Annual one this past June on the Feast of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, he is busy preparing for the 14th Annual one which will be a special Jubilee 2000 celebration next June with Bishop Robert J. Carlson, Karl Keating from Catholic Answers, Father Harold Cohen and Jeff Cavins from EWTN, Mother Assumpta, the Dominican nun who assisted Cardinal John O’Connor in founding the Sisters of Life, and Father Louis Kondor, S.V.D. the Vatican’s International Postulator for the cause of beatification for deceased Fatima visionaries Francisco and Jacinta. Quite a line-up.

    While we are “name-dropping,” he has met with the Pope and the Princes of the Church. In fact, the Administrating Bishop of Fatima Bishop Alberto Amaral, now retired, traveled to Alexandria in 1987 on September 27 in the Marian Year of 1987 to dedicate the Fatima Family Shrine. Since then his successor Bishop Serafim S. Ferreira e Silva has also visited as have many bishops and cardinals. Conversely Father Fox has visited them many, many times as well, including the Archbishop of Moscow, the Byzantine Patriarch Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz where Father Fox presented the Archbishop and all of Russia a statue of Our Lady of Fatima with Our Lady’s assurance that Russia will be converted and “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

    The entire Fatima Family Apostolate is geared on Pope John Paul II‘s Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio – “on the role of the Christian Family in the modern world” – released on November 22, 1981 in conjunction with the World Synod of Bishops. Father Fox calls it, the “apostolate’s bible” with prayer groups, contact couples (older couples helping younger ones), youth groups, married Marian couples and Mary’s White League (set up for children) established in many communities and parishes around the country. The Apostolate’s charter has been approved by Rome and Cardinal Edouard Gagnon, P.S.S. President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Family visited the site and blessed a new addition – Our Lady of Guadalupe – as a pro-life shrine. Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, current Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy has also given his hearty endorsement and stays in constant contact with Father Fox.

    With all this going on, one would think Father’s plate is full, but not Father Fox. At 72 he is still going strong, having published over 50 books and tapes on Catholic Doctrine, morality, family, Our Lady, and saints and heroes. A hero is what he has become to many through his heroic virtue and dedication to Our Lady who he will honor with yet another book due out in December 1999 entitled Mary through the Ages which will treat Our Lady’s influence in the Church over the centuries. In addition, he has been tabbed by Mother Angelica to preach the retreat at Casa Maria in Birmingham, Alabama in early November with the theme “Millennium Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” The following week he will join Mother in Detroit for the Annual Call to Holiness Conference.

    Father Fox has been around the world, but his heart will always be in South Dakota for you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy. He takes great delight in asserting that he has always been a farm boy at heart and this has endeared him to the people of this agricultural region. But more importantly, his fiat to the Blessed Mother has truly endeared him to her Immaculate Heart and closer to fulfillment of her promise at Fatima.

Author of more than 40 books, founder of the Fatima Family Apostolate and creator of the quarterly magazine Immaculate Heart Messenger, Father Robert Fox has taken thousands of people on pilgrimage retreats to Fatima and is an expert on the apparition.

Where are you from originally?

I grew up as the youngest of eight children on a farm near Watertown, S.D. We had everything . . . pigs, sheep, milk cows and horses, but we raised primarily potatoes. My father died shortly after I was born, leaving my mother with the children. Not long after, the Depression years came. We grew up under very poor circumstances, but we were happy because we didn’t know any better.

My mother said to me, when she was dying, that there were many times when she did not know what food she would put on the table for the next meal, but she always managed.

What led you to discern your priestly vocation?

I do not remember ever not wanting to be a priest.

I can recall wanting to be a priest even before I started first grade. My mother put the thought in my mind. She mentioned it only two times in my life, but it stuck.

I remember when my mother would go into town to get groceries, and she would let me be alone for an hour in town. Every time, without exception, I would go the Catholic Church and genuflect and spend time before Jesus. Even then I could feel the Real Presence of Jesus in the tabernacle. That drew me to the priesthood. While every vocation comes from God, I believe that a sincere priestly vocation comes to us through Mary. Her “yes” gave us the High Priest, so she is the mother of vocations.

Archbishop William O’Brady ordained me in 1955, at the Cathedral of Sioux Falls.

How did the Fatima Family Apostolate come about?

In 1974, I made a pilgrimage to Fatima and I asked Our Lady, “What do you want of me?” Those were always the first words spoken by Lucia when Our Lady appeared to her. I had the overwhelming conviction that Our Lady wanted me to teach the fullness of the Catholic faith to young people wherever I could using the Fatima message as the vehicle in my instruction.

It wasn’t long after that that I developed a Fatima youth apostolate that spread widely and quickly.

In 1976, I felt that I was being called to conduct youth retreats to Fatima for teen-agers and young adults. Over the past 33 years I have brought more than 2,000 young people to Fatima on pilgrimages. I estimate that, of those young people, about 200 are becoming, or are already, priests. More than 20 have become contemplative Carmelites, one of whom co-founded the first Carmelite monastery in South Dakota. Many others joined other religious communities.

Cardinal John Wright, who was the Prefect of the Pontifical Congregation for the Clergy, heard about my work and was reading articles I was writing in the National Catholic Register, and he began phoning and writing me.

He encouraged me to continue writing on catechetics and asked me to write a catechism for young people. That catechism is still in print under the title Jesus, Light of the World, and has been revised to incorporate features of the new universal Catechism.

In 1985, the Pontifical Council for the Laity wrote, encouraging me to form a Fatima apostolate independent of what I had been doing. This new apostolate became the Fatima Family Apostolate (FFA), dedicated to the sanctification of the family. Within two years its charter was endorsed by the Pontifical Council for the Family. After I spoke at the first International Fatima Pastoral Symposium at the request of the Bishop of Fatima, the FFA became known internationally.

Why is a Fatima Family Apostolate necessary?

The Fatima Family Apostolate exists to prevent family problems from arising. Fatima family prayer and study groups meet monthly and sometimes more often.

We provide all of the tools and the structure for what families can do during those meetings. Our “bible” on family life is Pope John Paul II’s document Familiaris Consortio [the 1981 apostolic exhortation on the family], in which the Pope calls for families-to-families apostolates.

Good Catholic families, because of our secular society, often feel very alone. Getting Catholic families to meet at least monthly in support groups of five to six couples allows them to study, pray and share their problems with one another.

What are the particular problems that families are facing?

One of the problems today is that the faith is not being lived and shared within the family. Families have gone down in size, and therefore families do not have the deep faith and generosity which produces vocations. The answer is families-to-families apostolates. That is the future of the Church.