Pope Francis will consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Sunday, 13 October 2013 which has been dedicated the Marian Day of the Year of Faith. 13 October is significant because it was on that day in 1917 that Our Lady’s promised "Miracle of the Sun" took place witnessed by over 70,000 pilgrims at Fatima. Portugal. Pope Francis requested to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal that the original iconic statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima be brought to the Vatican for the celebration. Cardinal Rino Fisichella wrote that in his letter, "The Holy Father strongly desires that the Marian Day may have present, as a special sign, one of the most significant Marian icons for Christians throughout the world, and, for that reason, we thought of the beloved original statue of Our Lady of Fatima.” Our Lady of Fatima appeared to three shepherd children in the village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917 and in her second secret message warned of violent trials in the 20th century if the world did not make reparation for sins. She urged prayer and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima will leave for Rome on 12 October 2013 from the shrine’s Little Chapel of Apparitions in which it is venerated. This will the 11th time the statue of Our Lady of Fatima has been removed from the Portuguese Marian shrine.since it was made in 1920. On 12 October 2013, Pope Francis and the pilgrims will welcome the statue to St Peter’s Square during an evening prayer service. After which it will be taken to the Rome Shrine of Divine Love, where the Diocese of Rome plans an all-night vigil. The statue and the pilgrims will return to St Peter’s Square on 13 October 2013 for the recitation of the rosary and Mass with Pope Francis.
Cardinal Jose Polycarp, the patriarch of Lisbon, consecrated the Pope’s pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima on 13 May, her feast day by the Holy Father Pope Francis. By making this act of dedication to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Pope Francis is signalling his continuity with Venerable Pius XII and Blessed John Paul II. Pope Pius XII dedicated the people of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1952 and Blessed John Paul II dedicated the Modern World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1982, renewed in 1983, and dedicated all individuals and peoples of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1984.
Blessed John Paul II said the following during the consecration in 1982:
‘This world of individuals and nations I too have before my eyes today, as I renew the entrusting and consecration carried out by my Predecessor in the See of Peter: the world of the second millennium that is drawing to a close, the modern world, our world today!
‘This world of individuals and nations I too have before my eyes today, as I renew the entrusting and consecration carried out by my Predecessor in the See of Peter: the world of the second millennium that is drawing to a close, the modern world, our world today!
The Church, mindful of the Lord’s words: “Go… and make disciples of all nations… and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:19-20), renewed, at the Second Vatican Council, her awareness of her mission in this world.
And therefore, O Mother of individuals and peoples, you who “know all their sufferings-and their hopes”, you who have a mother’s awareness of all the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, which afflict the modern world, accept the cry which we, as though moved by the Holy Spirit, address directly to your Heart. Embrace, with the love of the Mother and Handmaid, this human world of ours, which we entrust and consecrate to you, for we are full of disquiet for the earthly and eternal destiny of individuals and peoples.
In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations which particularly need to be entrusted and consecrated.
“We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God: reject not the prayers we send up to you in our necessities.
Reject them not!
Accept our humble trust-and our act of entrusting!’
Our Lady of Fatima (Second Secret Message)
“I have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”
Catholic churches throughout the world would be joining the Pope Francis in consecrating their parish, state and country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Sunday, 13 October 2013.
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