Faithful urged: Honor Mother Mary

Hundreds of devotees touch the image of Our Lady of Fatima carried by Fr. Erik Orio after the Centennial Mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, which was followed by a penitential procession. Yesterday’s activity celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Our Lady of Fatima apparitions.

Catholic Church marks 100 years of Our Lady of Fatima apparition

As the Catholic Church celebrates 100 years of the apparition of Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria, in Fátima, Portugal, on the eve of the Mother’s Day celebration, the faithful are encouraged to honor not only their biological mothers but also Mother Mary.

Msgr. Ruben Labajo of the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral who celebrated Mass to mark the Our Lady of Fatima apparitions said that people should not only honor their biological mothers but also Mary, the mother of Jesus and of humanity.

“At the foot of the cross, Jesus entrusted us to Mary (through the apostle John). And so let us obey whatever the Blessed Mother asks us to do,” he said.

In her apparitions in Fatima, Labajo said the Blessed Virgin Mary had a concrete appeal to mankind: prayer, penance, conversion, consecration to her Immaculate Heart, as well as adoration and Eucharistic reparation.

“All these are also what the Lord Jesus in the Gospel convey,” he said.

Labajo also encouraged the faithful to pray, repent and offer sacrifice which is basically his message to celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s apparition to three shepherd children a hundred years ago.

Speaking to people who attended the 4 p.m. Mass at the Archdiocese of Cebu’s mother church, the monsignor appealed to the faithful to carry out the message of the Our Lady of Fatima.

“If we want to please Our Lady, then listen to her and do what she tells us in the hope of renewing ourselves and living our faith,” he said in Cebuano.

Aside from praying, Labajo encouraged the people to offer sacrifices, not for themselves, but for God and other people.

“Are you willing to offer yourselves to God? Then be willing to sacrifice,” he said.

“Yes we pray, but when we are asked to offer sacrifices we have second thoughts and apprehensions of doing it. But we should understand that real devotion entails both prayer and sacrifice,” he added.

In Portugal, Pope Francis celebrated the Mass to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima.

He also canonized siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the two Fatima shepherd children who reported visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917.

Francisco and Jacinta, aged seven and nine respectively, died two years after the 1917 apparitions in the Spanish flu pandemic.

Relics of the Catholic Church’s newest saints were venerated at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral yesterday alongside an image of the Our Lady of Fatima decked with white orchids, roses and liliums.

The Marian image and portraits of Saints Francisco and Jacinta were brought out in a procession after the Mass along the streets in downtown Cebu City.

Jacinta was seven years old and Francisco nine when they first witnessed the Marian apparitions on May 13, 1917 along with their 10-year-old cousin, Lucia dos Santos.

While the Marto siblings died two years later,, Lucia became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005. Efforts to beatify her are also underway.

Based on Dos Santos’ written accounts, the Blessed Mother appeared to them six times in 1917 in a field near Fatima where they grazed their sheep.

In her apparitions, Mary identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary, and asked the three children visionaries to spread her call for conversion, reparation and renewal of Christians all over the world.

She also asked that the mysteries of the Rosary be meditated and prayed daily for world peace.

The visits ended in October with the “Miracle of the Sun,” when others in Fatima at the time reported seeing the sun spinning in the sky which served as proof that the apparitions were authentic.