Ao ritmo do tempo de Fátima | Aliança de Santa Maria

TO THE RHYTHM OF TIME
OF FATIMA

Gratitude for 25 years of God's faithfulness to me

Before entering the community that would welcome me, Farol do Anjo in Fátima, I went with my family to the Chapel of the Apparitions.

Involved as I was in a mixture of feelings of anguish and joy, of longing and expectation, I didn't listen. It was my brother who showed me how to listen.

“Listen!” he said. I paid attention. The shrine bells were ringing. It was midday.

Twenty-five years later, I remember that moment and see it as a metaphor for the deepest desire that the Holy Spirit sowed in my heart: to live my life to the rhythm of the Fatima era. To follow Jesus accompanied by the Immaculate Heart of Mary, spreading the message that radiates from Fatima to the world. This desire is totally shaped by the charism of my religious family, the Covenant of St. Mary.

Over the years I have learned to know the face of God to the rhythm of the Hail Marys of my rosary, I have learned to know the Heart of Jesus through his Word, “tying the cords” of my life to the Word contemplated each day. I learned to give myself to the sisters, nourishing myself with the Eucharist, celebrated and adored in so many hours of silence.

The missions that the Lord entrusted to me, through my superiors, were a source of joy, even though they were full of challenges. With what emotion I remember the privilege of participating in the human and spiritual growth of the novices entrusted to me. What joy and what a luminous day the canonization of Saints Francisco and Jacinta was. What enthusiasm for the cause of Sister Lucia, who is in the process of being canonized.

I knew and felt my frailties, but I experienced, in all its beauty, the faithfulness of the God of the Covenant, the Good Shepherd who never let go of my hand.

July 16th, 2020

When this year began, I decided not to ask the Lord for anything. I just wanted to welcome everything as a gift from him for our silver jubilee.

He gave me a special time of solitude and silence. With the pandemic, “he led me into the desert and spoke to my heart” (cf. Hos 2:16).

He entrusted me with a time of profound experience of the Paschal mystery. With the death of our sister Martha, I learned in a new way the humble lesson of poverty and abandonment into God's hands. And I relearned the peace that comes from praying, slowly, “God will provide” (Gen 22:8).

25 years later, at the pace of Fatima, I just want to say yes, I do. What you want, Lord, how you want it, when you want it!

Gratitude remains. To the Lord of my life for giving me his Mother; to my family, where I am loved and from whom I have learned to love; to the women who made me fall in love with Jesus and the “Lady brighter than the sun”: Áurea and Clara; to the friends who are my friends at all times; to my sisters in Covenant, who are an expression of God's love and care for me and help me to grow. Everyone has made the silver beauty of this jubilee possible.

Ângela de Fátima Coelho, July 2020.
Sr. Ângela de Fátima