GRUPO DA IMACULADA: Why this Marian monument?

VISIT BY GRUPO DA IMACULADA. Pedro and Leonor Sottomayor of Fatima, Portugal when they visited the Marian Consecration Grounds in Marikina Heights, Marikina City, Philippines last December 3, 2009. With Paul Edward P. Sison of Grupo Da Imaculada Pilipinas and children from the surrounding community.

In the Universal Message given in Fatima, Our Lady ask for penitence, prayer and conversion.

In order to make it easier to feel the peace and joy that follow from ascesis, Our Lady reveals an unfailing way, which is a part of the Message of Fatima.

THE DEVOTION TO HER IMMACULATE HEART

The Lemma for the action of this group of prayer is the Holy Writ and the Message of Fatima.  In order to make The Immaculate Heart of Mary known, loved and venerated by everybody, and to set the example of its action, the group spreads the Monuments from the north to the south of Portugal and also abroad.  These small Monuments have a simple architecture, as simple and humble as the House of the Holy Family in Nazareth.

Everybody can be near the image of Our Lady and pray to Her at any time of the day or night, because at night the Monument is illuminated.  And so Our Lady also hears and takes care of Her children at any time of the day or night.

The Monuments, that are also spread abroad, are made only to venerate Our Lady and beg her Help.  That's why their structure is so simple, to avoid any distractions.

The Rosary round the Monument protects it and calls the attention to the Rosary saying, which is so necessary and that Our Lady recommended in all Her Apparitions in Fatima.

In the places where there is the Monument it increased both people's devoutness and the attending to the First Five Saturdays devotion.

Many people began to say the Rosary prayer and to attend The Sacraments.

There are some places where people pray near the Monument twice a day and some others where people go on pilgrimage to the Monument of the 13th every month.

There have been several pilgrimages in Portugal and abroad to the places where there are Monuments.  Our Lady has already granted many Graces and conversions.

We want to make the Message of Fatima known everywhere and also help everybody live it better and better.

Our Commitment is Needed Now!

In a special letter to the Bishop of Fatima, issued on October 1, 1997, Pope John Paul II said: "On the threshold of the third millennium, as we observe the signs of the times of this 20th century, Fatima is certainly one of the greatest."

The Holy Father then points out that in this great sign we are presented with an alternative: WAR or PEACE.

He says one of the main reasons Fatima is one of the greatest signs of these times is "because its message announces many of the latter events and conditions them on the response to its appeals."

We will not have the promise without the response. And Our Lady seems to be traveling the world to evoke our response.

Indeed, the visit of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue to you brings a special RESPONSIBILITY. As the Holy Father has said, the triumph depends on OUR response. And if we have had Our Lady's visit do we not have a special obligation to respond?

After some 25 million persons around the world responded by making the basic pledge -- Daily Rosary & Five First Saturdays ... we had the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Also, in that October 1997 letter, the Pope said that she is anxious "to save mankind from self-destruction." 

And, he also said that, "in Our Lady of Fatima, God is now giving a refuge to the world: the refuge of her Immaculate Heart."

(SOURCE: Our Lady of Fatima: Our Mother Comes to Us)