by Larry Maginot –
In February, Our Lady completed her fifth tour on the Island of Guam. Though the level of enthusiasm of her recent visit may not quite match the first visit of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue to the island back in November – December 2006, the devotion of the people there who love her greatly can hardly be matched anywhere else.
No sooner after she leaves the island do they want to plan a return trip. The people there love Our Lady of Fatima tremendously, and those with devotion try hard to live out her message of prayer for peace and sacrifice for the salvation of souls. They are a people who have lived through the prophetic part of the message intimately. From shortly after the decimation of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 until a battle of liberation on the island shores in July of 1944, the entire island was occupied by Japanese forces and the people were forced into slave labor.
Some of the older ones, who were young at the time, lived through this horror and everyone seems to know someone who did. The island remains strategically important to the United States and has the important status of being a U.S. territory. The people of Guam are very patriotic and serve in the U.S. military in greater percentages to their population than anywhere else in the United States. Guam is home to a Naval base, an Air Force Base, and a Marines Base.
Though the island is well protected, it is also a target and has been subject to threats from North Korea and China. Such acute awareness of the dangers of nuclear threats and war seem to awaken the people to a great love for Our Lady of Fatima. And it is a great consolation to know that at such a place there are a great number of people praying and sacrificing themselves for peace in the world and the salvation of souls.
Fr. Michael Crisostomo, who has been instrumental in setting up every tour of Our Lady to Guam, has said that every time Our Lady has come, there seemed to be an increased level of threat of war that Our Lady then seemed to gently negate with the power of her intercession. May Our Lady continue to cover the Island of Guam with the protection of her blue mantel.
Lawrence Maginot is one of the statue custodians for the World Apostolate of Fatima USA Pilgrim Virgin Statue Program. He is also the author of The Marian Manifesto, published by Blue Army Press (www.ShopFatima.com).
