Devotions from May 10 to 16
“Do not be discouraged,” the Virgin says to Lucia of Fatima. “Do not be discouraged,” the Virgin also says to each of us. In this week so rich in the light that emanates from the face of the Virgin of Fatima and from the glorious ascension of Jesus into heaven, we are invited not to lose heart in the face of difficulties, remembering the words Jesus addressed to the apostles before ascending to Heaven: “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).
THURSDAY, MAY 13
Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima
It was May 13, 1917, when the Virgin first appeared to three shepherd children in a remote village on the highlands of Extremadura: Lucia Dos Santos, Francisco, and Jacinta Marto. “Do not be afraid. I will not harm you,” were her first words, and when Lucia asked where she was from, she replied: “I am from Heaven.”
It was the first apparition of the 20th century, following three important Marian apparitions that had occurred in the 19th century (La Salette, 1846; Lourdes, 1858; Castelpetroso, 1888). Mary addresses three children, like a tender Mother, to call humanity to conversion, prayer, and penance; to them she entrusts her messages to humanity.
Eight days earlier, Pope Benedict XV, seeing the bloody First World War continue, had invited Catholics throughout the world to join in a crusade of prayer to obtain peace through the intercession of Our Lady.
As the Virgin promised, the apparitions continued in the following months, in the presence of an ever-growing number of people.
Pope Francis was in Fatima in 2017, on the occasion of the centenary of the apparitions. In the homily at the Holy Mass on May 13, during which he canonized Francisco and Jacinta, he said that the Virgin, “foreseeing and warning us about the risk of hell to which a life - often proposed and imposed - without God leads, and which profanes God in His creatures, came to remind us of the Light of God that dwells in us and covers us, because […] the ‘child was caught up to God’ (Rev 12:5). And, according to Lucia’s words, the three privileged children were within the Light of God that radiated from Our Lady. She enveloped them in the mantle of Light that God had given Her.” Pope Francis spoke of light, and light and hope are precisely what emanate from the words spoken by the Virgin to Lucia during the second apparition: “Do not be discouraged. I will never abandon you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the path that will lead you to God.”
We confidently invoke the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary.
For further study:
• The apparitions of Fatima
• The apparitions of Fatima between history and wonder
• Our Lady appears in Fatima
THURSDAY, MAY 13
Beginning of the novena to Saint Rita
“She could have been a mediocre or even a very poor Christian, embittered by suffering and driven to rebellion. Instead, she was a Saint” (Agostino Trapé).
This is how a great scholar of Rita of Cascia’s life described her. She is invoked in desperate cases and is one of the most popular saints in Italy and throughout the world; she made her life a masterpiece, beginning with a fundamental insight: uniting her own suffering with that of Jesus in order to draw extraordinary fruits from it. Acceptance of the cross and the ability to forgive, despite everything and everyone: Rita still has much to say to today’s world.
During the novena, we invoke the intercession of the “Saint of impossible causes” and learn more about her life.
For further study:
• Prayers to Saint Rita of Cascia
FRIDAY, MAY 14
Saint Matthias the Apostle
Matthias took Judas’s place in the days immediately following the Lord’s Ascension. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that Peter, who was in the Upper Room with the apostles, Mary, and other believers - about 120 people in all - proposed restoring the number of apostles to twelve, as Jesus had intended, by choosing someone from among those present who had been with the Master from the beginning. Peter said that it was necessary to choose “one of those who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus lived among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us into heaven.” The community put forward two candidates: Joseph, surnamed Justus, and Matthias. They cast lots after praying: “Lord, you know everyone’s heart; show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned away to go to his appointed place”; the lot fell to Matthias. He is therefore the only one of the twelve apostles not to have received his call directly from Jesus. Nevertheless, he was with him from the beginning until the end of his public life; he then became a witness to his death and resurrection.
For further study:
• On Your Word
FRIDAY, MAY 14
Beginning of the novena to the Holy Spirit
During these nine days in which we invoke the Holy Spirit, let us make our own the beautiful prayer with which Pope Francis concluded his homily on Pentecost Day last year: “Holy Spirit, memory of God, revive in us the memory of the gift we have received. Free us from the paralysis of selfishness and kindle in us the desire to serve and to do good. For worse than this crisis, there is only the tragedy of wasting it by closing in on ourselves. Come, Holy Spirit: You who are harmony, make us builders of unity; You who always give yourself, give us the courage to step outside ourselves, to love and help one another, so that we may become one family. Amen.”
For further study:
• Novenas in honor of the Holy Spirit
• Prayers to the Holy Spirit
SATURDAY, MAY 15
Beginning of the novena to Our Lady of Laus
“Go to Laus; there you will find a small chapel from which fragrances waft; you will be able to speak with me very often in that place, and very often you will see me,” the Virgin says to a humble shepherdess, Benoîte Rencurel. She presents herself to her as a mother and educator full of tenderness and gentleness: she teaches her to pray and guides her along an unprecedented spiritual journey.
The novena offers us the opportunity to learn more about the apparitions at Laus and to pray with faith, asking for the prompt intercession of Mary Most Holy.
For further study:
• Novena to Our Lady of Laus
• Our Lady of Laus. Hope in the Heart of the Alps
SUNDAY, MAY 16
Ascension of the Lord
On this solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, let us seek help in meditation from a giant of the faith, Saint Augustine: “Today our Lord Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven. May our hearts ascend with him. Just as he ascended and did not distance himself from us, so we are already up there with him, although what has been promised to us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies. Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but here on earth he suffers all the tribulations that we endure as his members. Why, then, do we not also labor on this earth so as to rest already with Christ in heaven, we who are united to our Savior through faith, hope, and charity? For Christ, although he is up there, still remains with us. And we, likewise, although dwelling here below, are already with him.”
For further study:
• With Living Water May-June 2021
• On Your Word – (May-June 2021)
“May the Virgin Mary, who inspired the faith of the first community of disciples, also help us to ‘lift up our hearts’. At the same time, may she help us to keep ‘our feet on the ground’ and to sow the Gospel courageously in the concrete situations of life and history” (cf. Pope Francis). Let us continue confidently on life’s journey, allowing her maternal invitation to resound in our hearts: “Do not be discouraged.”
Have a good journey!
