"Call" to the daily Rosary

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Perhaps you have read that in Mary’s first apparition to the three children at Fatima, Lucia asked if she would go to heaven. Mary answered “Yes, you will”. Then Lucia asked, “and Jacinta”; Mary answered “She will go too” - but when Lucia asked, “and Francisco?”, Mary answered, “He will go too but he must say many Rosaries.” Sister Lucia adds in her book, “Calls” From the Message of Fatima, Chap. 12 - “The Call to the Daily Recitaion of the Rosary”, these words:

I think that this special injunction to Francisco is for all of us. It is not that saying many Rosaries, as such, is an indispensible condition for going to heaven, but that we need to pray much. Naturally, to say the Rosary every day was the most accessible form of prayer for those children as it is today for the great majority of people, and there is no doubt that it will be difficult for someone to be saved if they never pray.

We know how weak we are, that we slip back and fall. Without the help of grace, we shall not be able to pick ourselves up or overcome temptations. We can only acquire the strength we need, the strength that comes to us from grace when our soul meets with God in prayer. It was Jesus Christ Himself who told us this and urged it on His Apostles shortly before He gave Himself up to death for us: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt 26: 41) --All underlining is mine; not Sister’s.

In this 100th Anniversary Year of the Apparitions of Mary at Fatima, may we grow in prayer. May we grow in our union with Jesus as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. May we pray as He taught us, “Our Father…” May we remember this short prayer at the end of each decade of our Rosaries: “O my Jesus, pardon us and save us from the Fires of Hell. Draw all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of your Mercy.”