Posted by The WORD in other words by Brother Eugene Orog SVD – Christ the King Seminary, Quezon City
Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima – May 13
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. One of its messages is to pray the rosary regularly. When I was a kid, we used to recite the block rosary in our neighborhood. I used to carry the enstandarte (picture banner) of our Blessed Mother from the church to various houses. Thanks to my aunt who was instrumental in bringing me. Those experiences awakened in me an interest to serve the Church.
During my secondary school, I prayed to Our Lady of Lourdes that I might be able to finish my high school studies despite the hardships. She granted it. Thus, when I was in Rome attending a seminar, I made a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Lourdes in Masabielle, France.
As a Brother, I took my perpetual vows on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Indeed the marker of my religious missionary calling is Marian. I could not be what I am now without our Blessed Mother.
St. Teresa of Calcutta gave up a secure teaching position in an exclusive girls’ school. She later embarked into another way of service, that of serving the poorest among the poor. In her heart, she believed that the poor must not die on streets unwanted and unloved. They should die with dignity and peace. She was highly devoted to Jesus and Mary. She founded the congregation of the Missionary of Charity, whose qualifications are the heart to love and hands to serve.
St. Arnold Janssen had a secure job too as a mathematics and science teacher in a school in Bocholt, Germany. He was characterized as a man of action and prayer. He gave up a stable profession and founded a religious missionary congregation in Steyl, Holland on September 8, 1875, the birthday of our Blessed Mother. He was also a Marian devotee; many times he made a pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of the Consoler of the Afflicted in Goch, Germany. The Marian prayers are now well integrated into our Arnoldus prayer book.
Common to these dynamic figures is their love for Jesus through Mary. They had a fulfilling and meaningful life in Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. May we too have that meaningful and joyful life through Mary.
