"Jesus wants...to establish in the world..."

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Sister Lucia (the eldest and longest living of the three shepherd children of Fatima) wrote in her final book, these words of Mary:

Jesus wants… to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.

Sister then continues to explain more:

To establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means to bring people to a full consecration through conversion, self-dedication, intimate esteem, veneration and love. Thus it is in this spirit of consecration and conversion that God wishes to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The above quote from Our Lady and Sister Lucia’s words of explanation are taken from Chapter 13, p. 135 of her book: “Calls” From the Message of Fatima. When I first read this chapter, I was surprised that no mention was made of the practice of First Saturday Devotion which Our Lady had revealed to Sister Lucia, but the more I pondered this chapter and Sisters’s continual quotes from Scripture to explain, the more I understood. Much had already been written and preached about First Saturday devotion. In her final book, Sister wanted to go deeper into the unique and closest union between Jesus and Mary. She wrote:

God began the work of our redemption in the Heart of Mary, given that it was through her “fiat” that the redemption began to come about…Christ began with Mary the work of our salvation. The Christ’s heart-beats are those of the heart of Mary, the prayer of Christ is the prayer of Mary, the joys of Christ are the joys of Mary; it was from Mary that Christ received the Body and Blood that are to be poured out and and offered up for the salvation of the world…she climbed the hill of Calvary, She suffered and agonized with Him, receiving into her Immaculate Heart the last sufferings of Christ, His last words, His last agony and the last drops of His blood, in order to offer them to the Father.

And Mary remained on earth in order to help her children to complete the redeeming work of Christ, preserving it in her heart as a wellspring of grace – Ave gratia plena – in order to pass on to us the fruits of the life, passion and death of Jesus Christ, her Son. ( p 137)

Come Holy Spirit, kindle in us the Fire of Your Love that we may truly answer this call : to a full consecration through conversion, self-dedication, intimate esteem, veneration and love. By God’s Grace, may we truly “consecrate” ourselves to Jesus through Mary by deeper and ongoing conversion of heart. May we turn from our selfishness to dedicate “self” to Him as Mary our Mother did, may we esteem her as Jesus did and continues to do now, venerate and love her as He desires in this world.