With Open Doors

The morning we left Fatima, I lit a candle so that my prayers – and your prayers – would continue in that holy place.

Every night in Fatima there is a public recitation of the rosary, with each decade being prayed in one of the five different languages used. After the rosary, there is a procession through the square. Go to my YouTube channel – http://www.milfordandrewpastor.wordpress.com – to watch the video of the candlelight procession on the second night that we were in Fatima.

This is how the last of the Glorious Mysteries of the rosary is depicted in the Basilica of Fatima: Mary is crowned as Queen of heaven and earth.

One of the promises of Our Lady in Fatima was that, if people prayed, there would be an end to Communism. This remnant of the Berlin Wall is on display near the entrance to the sanctuary of Fatima. Maybe we pray-ers could ask Our Lady to join our prayer that the wall of suspicion, fear and sadness that stands between the Israelis and Palestinians would one day fall. Maybe someday a piece of that Wall in the Holy Land could be on display in Fatima, too, as evidence of the non-violent force of prayer for forgiveness, reconciliation and freedom for the people who live on both sides of that ugly structure.

Lucia had a sister named Carolina. They were cousins of Francisco and Jacinta. This is the room that Lucia and Carolina shared. As I stood at the doorway of this room, it struck me that we have a Lucia and a Carolina, not extremely common names, in our tiny town of Milford. No, they are not sisters. They do know each other, though. And they are not Portuguese, but Italian and Polish.

Eleven people lived in this tiny house. Francisco and Jacinta were the youngest of the nine children, five boys and four girls. In our St. Andrew parish there is a family with nine children, although theirs number five girls and four boys. Maybe our family of eleven could imagine living in the home of that family of eleven in the tiny village of Aljustrel. In our Milford family the last two would be Molly and Henry.

During one of her appearances to the Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima asked the children to pray everyday and make sacrifices for sinners, because many people go to hell because they do not have anyone to pray and make sacrifice for them.

This is one of my favorites: looking back through the entrance to the Church of the Holy Trinity, seeing the Basilica in the background.

Imagine my surprise when our guide, after first pointing out John the Baptist and then Mother Teresa directly above him and slightly hidden, asked us to look three persons to the right and take note of … Queen Saint Isabelle. The guide went on to say how proud they were of their former queen of Portugal. I got distracted, thinking about how I referred to my mother as Queen Isabelle. Hmmm, Queen Saint Isabelle.

In the sanctuary of Fatima, there is a modern built Church of the Holy Trinity, which seats 9,000 people. Behind the altar is this crucifix. Notice the lamb. Jesus is the lamb of God whose blood was poured out for you and for many so that sins might be forgiven, as the lamb was slaughtered and the blood was smeared on the doorposts of God’s people so that they might make their exodus to freedom. Below this cross and lamb and bloodied arch is the altar. You make the connection.