PORTUGAL, via AICA •
On Sunday, November 27, the Shrine of Fatima, in Portugal, opened the Jubilee Year of 100 years of the Virgin’s apparitions to the three shepherds with a Mass in the basilica of the Most Holy Trinity celebrated by Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, António Marto. Pope Francis has granted a plenary indulgence throughout the Jubilee Year, which will end on 26 November 2017. The motto of the Jubilee is “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the road that leads to God.”
During the Opening of the Jubilee, Bishop of Lamego, Antonio Couto, explained the meaning of the theme. He pointed out that “the light of Fatima that emerged in 1917 comes to tell us today that the closed road of humanity, of humanity without God, provokes wars without end, common graves without end, like never before in the history of humanity.”
On the other hand, Bishop Couto pointed out that the celebration of a Jubilee Year is an occasion to “give birth to communities” and to transform the ‘me’ in ‘us’ and ‘you’.” Moreover, he added the “essential of this Jubilee is to give birth to people gathered around Mary and around this Bread, who is Jesus, blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.”
The Jubilee Portico
During this Jubilee, the Marian Shrine displays a “portico”, which was created with the intention of bestowing a “visual element” to the Shrine to celebrate 100 years of the apparitions, to a time that evokes “the memory of the arch from 1917 that marked the site of the apparitions and beneath which Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia were photographed.”
A press release from the Shrine indicates that the new portico symbolizes the idea of a ‘holy door’, since “its structure is designed around the concept of the framework that indicates a holy place, and its configuration is that of a door with a cross on it.”
Jubilee Prayer of Consecration
Hail, Mother of the Lord,
Virgin Mary, Queen of the Rosary of Fatima!
Blessed among all women,
you are the image of the Church dressed in the Paschal light,
you are the honor of our people,
you are the triumph over the mark of evil.
Prophecy of the merciful Love of the Father,
Teacher of the Annunciation of the Good News of the Son,
Sign of the burning Fire of the Holy Spirit,
teach us, in this valley of joys and sorrows,
the eternal truths that the Father reveals to the little ones.
Show us the strength of your mantle of protection.
In your Immaculate Heart,
be the refuge of sinners
and the way that leads to God.
In unity with my brethren,
In Faith, Love and Hope,
I surrender myself to you.
In unity with my brethren, through you, I consecrate myself to God,
O Virgin of the Rosary of Fatima.
And thus surrounded by the Light that comes from your hands,
I will give Glory to the Lord forever and ever.
Amen
Source AICA
Foto arriba de Aracuano – Obra propia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Original: Spanish. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA. Edited: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USA
