Dear Paul Sison,
I am sending a message to all Commissions in Portugal and abroad, which I request you to transmit to the members of the Commission.
I am very sorry not to have made visits so as join with you in moments of joy and meditate on the Message which Our Lady came to bring us in Fatima.
However my health does not permit me to travel.
I take this opportunity to mediate with you.
In this Year of Faith we must begin a new era, take up a new road, open new lands and new hearts to the Devotion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We should also bear witness, become living signs of the presence of God in the world.
We must be Christian symbols through receiving the Sacraments, Confession, at Holy Mass, in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in the Rosary and Charity to our brothers.
Meditating on the Word of God recharges our Faith. We imitate Our Lady as she meditated on it.
Faith is believing that Jesus is on the altar at the moment of Consecration, it is not a symbol.
He himself is present, just as His heart is beating in the Tabernacle for us, awaiting our visit and company.
We imitate Blessed Francisco, the Little Fatima Shepherd, who spent his time in the company of Jesus in the Tabernacle.
Faith is being certain that God is with us in adversity and difficult moments.
We must give firm witness of Faith, be simple and discreet in our dress and resist the course of fashions, many of which are hardly ever dignified. How many souls are led to hell by these fashions.
Our body is a temple to the Holy Spirit, we cannot profane it.
This Year of Faith is a time for perfection.
Our Lady expects our collaboration and more and more dedication, for the world is running away and turning its’ back on God.
The world is going through difficult times, from natural catastrophes to the recent world crisis, caused by egoism, affluence and the craving of some, which all seems to be watchful preparation for man to come round, become aware of the limits of human nature and look for He who just awaits a simple act of repentance to pour down showers of graces and blessings, on each one of us.
In the prayer that the Angel taught the Little Shepherds we pray by steps: ” ...in reparation for insults, sacrileges and indifferences which offend Him”.
These indifferences offend Jesus.
In this uncontrolled rush into which our daily life has been transformed, how often do we pass a Church without even sparing a thought for the Tabernacle where, hidden in His humility, is He who suffered to death, and death on the cross, to save us, to bring us back to intimate union with the Father, to re-establish harmony among all creatures (poor as we are) with our Creator.
And how many times do we pass in front of a Tabernacle in total indifference, as if nothing or No one were there, when in fact the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ is really present there.
It is the “hidden Jesus”, of Whom Blessed Francisco spoke so much and whom he so adored. Let us imitate him.
However this “hidden Jesus” came to Fatima to tell us, through the intermediary of His Most Holy Mother, how to combat this indifference, fruit of vanity, pride and man’s affluence.
It is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady even said to the Little Shepherds: “God wishes to establish Devotion to My Immaculate Heart in the World” or, as little Jacinta said, “The Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at His side”.
Furthermore, Mary’s humility, simplicity and obedience burst from His Heart. That is why Our Lady said to Sister Lucia: “My Heart shall be your refuge and the way that leads you to God.”
The Monuments constructed by the Grupo da Imaculada, promoted all over the world, and also in our blessed land, are marks of an act of enormous spiritual dimension: the Consecration of lands, homes, families and every one of them to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
At the act of Consecration we begin by placing the lands, homes, families and our very selves under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: “My Heart shall be your refuge...”
Aware of our limits, of our misery, we place ourselves under the protection of She who is the Mediator of all graces, the omnipotent supplicant. Our Lady is thus Queen of this land: in humility, simplicity and obedience we walk in truth to sanctity, fulfilling the will of our Lord. Then, in the act of Consecration, we manifest our sincere and firm desire, that our heart be moulded by the Heart of Mary. Aware of our weaknesses, we offer ourselves to be, among men, a reflection of the humble, simple obedient Heart of Mary.
Finally in the act of Consecration, we choose the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the sure, safe way to lead us to God, as Our Lady promised Sister Lucia.
The image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, present in Her Monument, both night and day, reminds us each moment of the act of Consecration. In the middle of the land, in the middle of men, it is a permanent antenna reaching up to the Sky. How many souls in the light of day or the silence of night, have not already had recourse to this image and found in the Immaculate Heart of Mary consolation from their sufferings, a power to face anguish, a response to doubts! How many souls have been converted!
The Monument in our land is a treasure which should be revered and cared for with love and kindness.
I pray that God, in His infinite bounty, may shower upon us a rain of graces and send His Holy Spirit to illuminate, strengthen and encourage all those who work in the Grupo da Imaculada, which does not belong to us but to the Mother of Jesus, the Most Pure Holy Virgin Mary.
This time of Advent is an occasion to reflect seriously and profoundly on the mystery of the Redemption operated by the love of God. Each year we are invited to live Advent as a time of conversion, hope, more careful prayer of liberating expectation. We must liberate ourselves from the darkness to receive the Light which is the coming of the Messiah as Light of the world, Light of nations. Advent is a preparation for what is to come.
The great solution, the only solution for all problems, is love. The only way to unite families is love. The only way to grow in holiness is love. The only way to be happy is to love. “He who loves goes from death to Life” (Jo. 3, 14). He who loves is immersing himself in God, lives in continuous Easter, finds inner freedom, and is no longer a slave to sin. Only love frees, only love gives peace, only love generates happiness.
For love of us and to teach us to love, the Father sent His Son to earth and he was born in a Manger.
If God became Man, if the Word took on human form, if the eternal Son of the Father was born in a Manger, it was to teach us to love, to make us brothers, to live fraternal love.
To prepare ourselves for Christmas should mean to live the dimensions of love, open the hearts of others, to allow others to have a greater place in our lives, to seek those who need us and that which God gave us.
Christmas is the feast of love, Love will be born. The Word of the Father became man to bring the love of God to men. Christmas is precisely the birth of love made Child.
We need to rediscover the most profound meaning of Christmas as a feast of love.
During Advent, we should convert ourselves to love. Only thus will there be in every heart and in each family, true peace, joy and happiness. Only thus God is born in us and around us, and the love of God will fill us all with true and lasting happiness.
Christmas is the sharing of love, the way of the word and the friendly presence.
We ask the Mother of Jesus our Mother to help us to prepare our heart, and to purify it with every humility, charity and love, so that the Child may have a worthy place to be born and feel well in the royal palace which we prepare for Him.
With a friendly embrace in the united hearts of Jesus and Mary, I wish you all a Holy Christmas with the greatest of Blessings from the Child Jesus.
President of the Grupo da Imaculada
Angelina Pinto Leite
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