I know these three look kind of bummed, but I'm thinking they'd had a hard day when this photo was taken. No matter, these are the Fatima children - from left, Jacinta, Lucia, and Francesco. They are all in Heaven now, and guess who is making them laugh? Yes! Marcel! You can just imagine what a good time they're all having now that Marcel has joined their ranks . . .
Meanwhile, we are left in exile, serving our time, doing a pretty pathetic job of imitating their sacrifices for love of Jesus, reparation to Mary's Immaculate Heart, for the conversion of sinners and for the Holy Father. But oh my goodness, let's not be glum about that too! I have a quick solution for you, and it will help you (yes, you!) start saving the world right this moment . . . The most wonderful light shone on the darkness of my ignorance this morning, and I think you will agree that my new insight is lovely enough to make the angels sing, with the Angel of Fatima leading their choir. Remember how I told you in the last post about Marcel's prayer for the unbaptized babies? If you don't remember, welcome to Marcel's universe: Good job for being just like him (and me) - namely, forgetful! If you haven't read that post yet, no worries, you can check it out soon, because this post you're reading now is going to be short and sweet, and take care of our difficulty in remembering that previously posted prayer. This is where the Fatima children come in. Are you ready? Don't be worried if you're not a huge Fatima fan - that will come in time, IF the Holy Spirit wants it to. I just read a great line from a friend of mine who writes (and prays and loves), and who wrote today at Catholic Exchange (click HERE for the whole fabulous article) that, "There are times and seasons in life for different devotions, and God will call me to do the ones that will bring me closest to Him in each moment." Isn't that straight from the Holy Spirit? So no more worrying, even about Fatima, ever! Meanwhile, I bring up Fatima because it totally pertains to the question at hand. Oops, did I forget to tell you the question? Okay, here it is: How are we, little Marcel-ites, to remember that gorgeous (but long) prayer that he wrote out for the unbaptized babies? We want to help Jesus save the world, but by golly that prayer was kind of long. And the answer is . . . No, not the daily double, but rather: we only have to remember the prayer that the angel taught the Fatima children. And it is so easy! Repeat after me three times (and help save the world) - Oh my God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love Thee. And I beg pardon for all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust, and do not love Thee. Oh my God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love Thee. And I beg pardon for all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust, and do not love Thee. Oh my God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love Thee. And I beg pardon for all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust, and do not love Thee. There, we did it! We just encapsulated Marcel's longer prayer into this one which is so much shorter - and straight from Heaven by way of an angel, no less! Now I could talk about how deep this prayer is, how much consolation it gave the Fatima children (and I bet Jesus too), how much I've grown to love it, and so on, but instead I'm going to offer you a link to an article I wrote on Fatima a while back, in case you want to hear my thoughts on learning to love it and Our Lady there, which for me started with falling head over heels in love with Jacinta, the really frowny one in the photos -darling Jacinta who loved to dance, who loved the Holy Father once she found out what the words even meant and who he was, and who was personally thanked by St. John Paul II when he beatified her in 2000...But there, I said I wasn't going to talk about all that here, since I've already talked about it HERE. Click if you want to be transported to Fatima, but for those who stay to read the rest of this post: There's not much more to say, actually. Now you've learned that God is leaving nothing to chance (least of all us and the salvation of souls), and so He, our dear True Father, has given us the niftiest little prayer to say anytime, anywhere, to put our wills into the unformed wills of the unbaptized babies. And even more delightfully, we can say it for anyone else who needs it too! With that, I think I've solved the problem of saving the world. It never really was much of a problem anyhow, seeing that God sent His only Son who did all the heavy lifting. It is truly awesome, though, that He lets us help, and I think I'm going to do it again just to see if I've got it down pat. Oh my God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love Thee, and I beg pardon for all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust, and do not love Thee. Yup, we're all set. I don't know if anyone else has compared heaven-sent prayers to fun toys, but I can't help closing by saying "Have fun with your new toy!" We spend so much time acquiring material things that it's a nice change to acquire something spiritual. Leave it to an angel to give us something worth saying to God! I feel a little luckier than Marcel today. He never said anything (that I know of) about Fatima, so he had to keep reciting that very long prayer for the babies, whereas we can say our shorter one. Oh, but three times, the angel advised. Still, I like that because it helps me remember the prayer, and maybe once in those three times I also remember to pay attention to what I'm saying! I don't mean to raise the bar unnecessarily high, though. With Marcel, I'm learning from Jesus that it's all about His love doing everything in us. More than anything, Our Lord seems to be sorry we're always so tired. So with Him, I urge you, go and take a nap... You've already done your part to save the world today, so you have every right to get some rest! Comments are closed.
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Miss MarcelI've written books and articles and even a novel. Now it's time to try a blog! For more about me personally, go to the home page and you'll get the whole scoop! If you want to send me an email, feel free to click "Contact Me" below. To receive new posts, enter your email and click "Subscribe" below. More MarcelArchives
December 2024
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