* A Visit to Fatima Family Center
* Suffering Souls
* Fire Up Your Faith
* A Great Priest of the 20th Century
* Alliance of the Two Hearts
* Saint Damien of Malokai
* Our Lady of Fatima in Historical Context
* How Will God Judge us On The Ten Commandments
* Fatima and the Sheepfold of Christ
* Part Two from the Lie of Contraception to 19 Children
* Losing Our Children to the World
* Quotes from the Book - Sermons of the Cure of Ars
Mary Taught the Faith - at Fatima
The Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima and the three little shepherd children shown on the cover of this issue is the latest addition to the Fatima Family Center in Hanceville, Alabama. It serves as the international headquarters for the Fatima Family Apotolate. This Apostolate was founded about 24 years ago at the encouragement of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
Our recent book, EUCHARIST: HEAVEN AND EARTH UNITE, continues to be in great demand. You will notice the effect it is having on people by reading letters in the forum. Mother Angelica writes the preface. I'm pleased that this book is a help to greater and deeper appreciation of the infinite reality which is the Sacrifice of the Mass.
This book on the Eucharist is ideal for this "Year of the Priest." St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, now declared by Pope Benedict XVI as the Patron for all priests, the world over, would emphasize how the Eucharist and the Priesthood go together. He would add that if one fully understood the greatness of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, vested in men, what it is, and that of the reality of what the Eucharist is, one would die.
Seminarians and young men discerning a possible call to Christ's holy Priesthood often spend some days here at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament near Hanceville, Alabama. Frequently they spend some of their time visiting with me, discussing a vocation to the priesthood. I tell them, "It is a great time to be going into the priesthood, to answer the call. With all the sin and crisis at every level in society today, the potential you have with the grace from Jesus Christ to touch and change thousands of lives, directing them to the path of truth and eternal life, is profound today. If your bishop finally calls you to ordination, as just one priest, during your lifetime, you will have touched and influenced tens of thousands of souls.
FFA's latest book for all ages
Years ago in Fatima I obtained from the Postulation Center of the Little Shepherds paintings of the events that happened during the supernatural appearances of the Angel of the Eucharist and of our Blessed Mother and the Child Jesus. A nun at Fatima's Carmel painted the portrayals. She showed them to Sister Lucia who then approved of them as correct in their message. For years I thought: "Someday I must write a small book on the teachings of Fatima, illustrating the message with these paintings approved by Sr. Lucia. She was one of the three little shepherds, who saw the Angel and Our Lady, and deemed the paintings to convey correctly what happened." I obtained permission from the Postulation Center to use the pictures. Finally the book is accomplished.
Just released, is this 120-page book, "MARY TEACHES THE FAITH - AT FATIMA". The cover adds: "For Children 9 to 99". For decades I realized that Mary was a Catechist at Fatima. In this new book with many illustrations approved by Sr. Lucia, I believe that children, teenagers, adults of all ages, will find a simple but profound way of discovering how and what our Blessed Mother presented to teach the faith of Catholicism. See the ad for it on page 5. Please consider it as a gift to children and grandchildren, even for adult friends.
Read in this issue what the parents of 19 have to say and also from the parents whose child has left the Church after years of education and formation. The lure of the secular world is so strong today, even anti-Christian with its spirit of atheism, that our children can easily be drawn to the world. If they choose a life of sin they can easily lose the gift of supernatural faith no matter how well they were formed and educated in it. By living habitually in serious sin they may lose the divine enlightenment of the truths God has infused into them. For the nearly 50 years I taught grades 1 to 12, I'd tell the upper grades and high school: "Each one of you is responsible before God for your own soul. Each one must answer to God. Your parents will not be present at your judgment by God. They will be judged on the efforts and work they did to evangelize, to share the true faith with you. But you alone will be judged on how you responded and lived the true faith."
The virtue of Faith is an infused theological virtue whereby a person is enabled to "believe that what God has revealed is true - not because its intrinsic truth is seen with the rational light of reason - but because of the authority of God who reveals it, of God who can neither deceive nor be deceived" (First Vatican Council, Denzinger3008). It is important to teach children the divinely revealed truths. They had the gift of faith to believe these truths infused into their souls at baptism.
Mary, our heavenly Mother, taught the faith at Fatima. Now she will teach all ages with art illustrations of what the three little shepherds experienced the book: MARY TAUGHT THE FAITH - AT FATIMA. For children 9 to 99. RJF
