OS SANTOS QUISERAM… E NÓS, QUEREMOS?

THE SAINTS WANTED...
DO WE WANT TO?

Verónica Benedito, asm
Alliance of Santa Maria

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima. With joy, we remember the Virgin Mother's first apparition to the three little shepherds in the Cova da Iria.

How can we not remember this day as foundation of the spiritual life that the Little Shepherds built on the rock that is Christ Jesus? How can we not remember that on this day, to the Lady's question, "Do you want to offer yourselves to God?", they answered "Yes, we do"?

Precisely for this reason, we will let Francisco and Jacinta speak to us, pointing out three images that illustrate their journey of discipleship!

THEY WERE LAND FROM THE SAME SOWER

Francisco and Jacinta were canonized at the same time, in a single process. They both saw Our Lady; as siblings, they received the same upbringing and values. However, we know them differently, with unique spiritual experiences, with their own way of praying, of relating to others and to creation.

They were chosen lands of the same Sower. Called to holiness on the day of their Baptism, they received the seeds of new life in Christ. They welcomed them into their characters and personalities, into their ways of seeing and acting, into their histories already marked by expectations, joys and sorrows.

They allowed themselves to be planted and generated in their sensitivity, becoming living and original memories of Christ: Francisco in his contemplative dimension, Jacinta in her apostolic ardor. And what was born from this became a gift for the Church, for people, for us.

THEY WERE POWDERED

If it's true that the seeds grew in their lives, it's no less true that both of them went down the noble path of conversion. We don't say conversion to indicate a dark, heavy and painful process, but to say the indispensable process of PODA!

But why prune? So that trees become dry stumps with no beauty whatsoever? A farmer, without embarrassment, would say that pruning serves to make them robust!

Conversion is a prerequisite for being a disciple. The Little Shepherds also ardently desired it! "But even if I didn't die, I would never do it again. Now I am sorry"[1]Francisco said. Repentant and in the light of God, who came to them from the Blessed Mother's hands and made them realize how much they were loved, they learned to abandon their old branches, their bad tendencies, their sulks and laziness, so that they could remain stronger in faith, hope and charity.

THEY GIVEN GOOD FRUIT

They were like planted land, they wanted conversion - that pruning that cuts away what is not good for the Kingdom, in order to bring the tree to its maximum vigor - and they bore fruit! Lots of fruit! Because they were united to the Lord.

His faith became incarnate, living the extraordinary in the ordinary and banal of everyday life.

Above all, they learned to give freely what they had received freely! It is said of Francis that when he entered his room, he felt the same as when he entered a church. Francisco, who spent hours near the tabernacle, gave what he received from Jesus: his intimate presence. The same could be said of Jacinta, who contemplated, in a holyJesus, the Good Shepherd, offered himself tirelessly so that all people would be gathered in the same sheepfold: "I am going [to heaven], but I would like all those people to go there too!". [2]

May today, with the Little Shepherds, we grow in the desire to found our lives on Jesus: as land who receive his Word and as branches who are eager to prune in order to give fruitwe want to join our voice to his, saying: Yes, we too want to offer ourselves to God.

[1] LÚCIA DE JESUS, Memoirs of Sister Lucia I, 163.

[2] LÚCIA DE JESUS, Memoirs of Sister Lucia I, 124.

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