Our Lady

I seemed to have overstretched my blogging hiatus a little, seeing it was a little under a month since my last entry....

Anyway, for all of us Catholics in Singapore, as well as other Catholics in the world, the special celebration of the consecration of the world to our Blessed Mother Mary was the profoundest moment for the Church as an act of solidarity with the Holy Father in Rome where he did the same celebration.

Back in May 1917, then Pope Benedict XV in the trying times of WW I made a direct plea to our Lady for peace in the world. A little under a 100 years later, now Pope Francis called upon the Church to remember the message of Fatima. Pope Francis made a direct appeal to Mary for the Church and the world. The Church has divine and apostolic foundations. However, that didn't stopped her from being afflicted with some spiritual 'leprosy'.

There have been bad news and scandal that have rocked the Church and we have also been bewildered and disappointed with the clergy as well as with the people serving in Church ministry. Hence, this event yesterday was an important and needed consecration for healing, repentance and to be in line with the ongoing call of the New Evangelization. Notice how Pope Francis in the video here, spontaneously bolted down to receive the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima, refusing to take up his designated place until she had reached hers.

Back with Pope XV and Fatima, it was the three poor shepherd children who carried the weight of the Lady's message and led to the miracle of the 'dancing sun'.

In the present time, on 7th September, about a month back, and which was the eve of our Lady’s birthday, Pope Francis called on the Church to offer a day of prayer and fasting for the volatile situation in the Middle East, and particularly for Syria. About 100,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square (and many more others around the world) joined the Pope in prayer and fasting.

There was no apparition, no dancing or spinning sun. But a quiet miracle did happen. Soon after the worldwide vigil of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, more opportunities for nonviolent solutions were considered and taken up. Threats of intervention of war were put aside.

For those who grasp this, no words or explanation are necessary, for those who can't, nothing will ever suffice.