Pope Francis has proclaimed year 2024 to be a year dedicated to prayer in preparation for the Jubilee of 2025, whose holy door will be open in the coming month of December. Dioceses, parishes and ecclesial movements are invited to promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer and to pray for peace in the world.
The World Apostolate of Fatima will do as much as possible to focus on prayer during this year and always, as this is also an essential element in the Message of Fatima. The recitation of Rosary, the Prayer cells, the Communal First Saturdays Devotion, the Eucharistic adoration, just to name a few, are excellent spiritual practices that can help us growing in holiness. The year of prayer is therefore an excellent opportunity for all Christians to rediscover the power of prayer in our lives and to prepare to celebrate the great jubilee of 2025, whose theme is “Pilgrims of Hope”. We are all pilgrims on this earth. Let us learn from Our Lady to live every day, every moment and every duty with our eyes turned to Jesus.
The Shrine of Fatima, in Portugal, has also decided to formulate its pastoral theme for year 2024 having in the horizon the Jubilee year. The Rector of the Shrine explains that the Shrine’s theme “Called to meet” is “an invitation to immerse the whole human life in the awareness of God’s presence, making every circumstance of daily life a reason for prayer, that is, for an encounter with God and, in Him, for communion with everyone and all the Creation. We shall interpret this year’s theme in the light of the Angel of Peace’s exhortation in the spring of 1916: «Pray with me».
The Angel’s invitation to the little seers is an invitation to let themselves be led into an intimate, contemplative and profound encounter with God, in whom they profess their faith and place their hope, whom they love and adore. Prayer, as a space for an intimate meeting with God, becomes part of the three children’s daily lives and, little by little, transforms that daily life, turning it into a familiar space for a relationship with God and the manifestation of His action. In Fatima, the “teacher” of the prayerful attitude is Our Lady, in whom we find the perfect example of prayer”.
We invite all our brothers and sisters of the World Apostolate of Fatima to seize this year 2024 as an opportunity to prepare our hearts to celebrate with joy and faith the 2025 Jubilee. For the Fatima devotees, year 2025 will also mark the Centenary of the Apparition of Our Lady with the child Jesus in Pontevedra, Spain, by which She requested and expanded the First Saturdays devotion. It is our Apostolate’s duty to live and propagate this devotion, for peace in the world and for salvation.
