There are many devotions that have promises connected with them. One popular example is the recitation of the prayer of St. Gertrude for the deceased, especially during the month of November.  It is said that 1,000 souls are released from purgatory each time it is prayed. Likewise, whenever we pass a cemetery, we offer this prayer for the holy souls: “Eternal Father, I offer thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son Jesus in union with all the Masses said throughout the world today for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church for those in my home and within my family, Amen”. While we cannot guarantee the release of these suffering souls or the conversion of sinners, we nevertheless continue to pray and to hope.

During this Holy Jubilee Year, a plenary indulgence can be obtained each day if a person visits a designated place of pilgrimage and offers the proper prayers. The National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in New Jersey has been designated as one such location in the Diocese of Metuchen. Throughout the year we have seen people in great numbers visit and pray at our Shrine with the intention of receiving this special grace.

As we approach the centennial anniversary of the Pontevedra apparitions where Our Lady presented the First Saturday devotion – the key to reparation to her Immaculate Heart – we recall the promises made to those who fulfill the requests to go to confession within a reasonable time, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep her company for 15 minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary: to those who fulfill this request is granted the grace of salvation at the hour of death.    

The promise attached to this devotion is not a guarantee of salvation, rather it is a formula to grow in that holiness which guarantees our everlasting well-being. No one should ever assume that once the outward requirements for attaining these promises have been fulfilled, we need do nothing further. The goal of our spiritual life is to work every day to become holier and to move towards perfection. Just as Purgatory exists to bring us to that final place of holiness, devotional prayers exist to aid us along our temporal journey and to help us avoid or minimize our time in Purgatory. Do I believe that the greater promises of world peace and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart connected with this devotion can be achieved? Absolutely. I do however understand that only a change of heart can bring this about.

Devotions and apostolic work are given to us to fulfill our duty to bring about the work of salvation in this life. The children of Fatima were given the mission to bring Our Lady’s message of hope through reparation to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts.

Centennial of the First Saturday Devotion

Next week, we will begin the centennial celebrations of the First Saturdays Devotion. We are continually working to promote the fulfillment of Our Lady’s request made at Pontevedra, Spain in 1925, and to make reparation to her Immaculate Heart for the blasphemies committed against her; thus, achieving the promises attached to it.

We invite your participation in our First Saturday Virtual Pilgrimage designed to help you visit (virtually) 12 sacred sites in Portugal and Spain related to Fatima, learn more about this devotion and grow in holiness. Please go to our webpage: bluearmy.com/first-saturday-pilgrimage to learn about the program, order a Passport, watch the videos and sign up to receive email updates. Join our members across the country as we fulfill our part in hastening the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.

I also wish to announce that the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in New Jersey (the headquarters of our apostolate) has again been designated by the Bishop of Metuchen and the Apostolic Penitentiary as a place of pilgrimage during the centennial year of the First Saturday Devotion, as a sister site to the Sanctuary of the Apparitions of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Pontevedra, Spain. The Pontevedra Shrine has been administered by the World Apostolate of Fatima for many years. Visitors to either Shrine can receive a plenary indulgence during this special year. We hope that many in our area and from afar will avail themselves of this special grace.

And finally, I would like to share two very special events Dorothy and I attended this past week. On November 18th we attended the installation Mass for Archbishop James Checchio in New Orleans. As Bishop of Metuchen in New Jersey he became a longtime friend and great supporter of the work of the World Apostolate of Fatima USA and the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima; we were greatly honored to attend his installation. On Monday we were in Cincinnati for the Clothing Ceremony into the Carmelite Order for a young friend who discerned her vocation and found beauty in this community focused on contemplative life. May God bless Sr. Anastasia of the Trinity. Bothceremonies were beautiful, but the spiritual significance of these events is even more profound. Although a superficial comparison of their duties may make them seem very different, the foundation of each is the same: a desire to serve God in the unique ways that He calls them.

We in the secular world who participate in apostolic activities must understand that we are also called to share that desire. God calls us to different charisms, it is true. Fulfilling our individual call is giving back to Him. Likewise, the Church gives us devotions and charisms to bring us to holiness. If we wish to fully benefit from these gifts, we must open our hearts to the same call for holiness as that the Blessed Virgin Mary received and make our hearts like her heart.

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a fruitful Advent.

God bless you and Mary keep you in her Immaculate Heart.

David M. Carollo
Executive Director  

Enjoy this article? Please take a moment to watch this special Thanksgiving Message from our Executive Director:

If you wish to contact me, please do so at [email protected].

David M. Carollo is the Executive Director of the World Apostolate of Fatima USA/National Blue Army Shrine. He wrote this for his Voice of Fatima column.

If you would like to comment on this post, please contact him at [email protected].