REFLECTION FOR 5th SUNDAY OF EASTER (YEAR C), Week beginning 15 MAY 2022
As we arrive at mid- May, our thoughts and prayers are surely with students facing GCSEs, ALs and higher exams.
Mary, Mother of God, should definitely be approached for her intercession on this issue. She was tutor to Jesus in the first half of his 30 or so years on earth, when their subject-matter was the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament).
May is her special month. Her capacity for such intercession, and the grace that she is empowered by God to dispense, may be at their very greatest in this month – allied, of course, to October (the month of the Holy Rosary). May to October, each year, is the Our Lady of Fatima season. The 2 primary days of that 6-month period are the 12th and 13th of each month. This actual weekend is immediately preceded by Friday 13th May, the day when we celebrate Our Lady of Fatima. In this six-month period in Portugal in 1917, (during World War One), Mary appeared to three children: Jacinta and Francisco Marto, and their cousin Lucia dos Santos. Mary’s request was for conversion from sin, and she requested further the daily praying of the Holy Rosary. Additionally, the Pope was to make the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. (Any failure to fulfil these requests would cause a 2nd World War, and Russia would continue to spread its errors across the whole world). Both Francisco and Jacinta contracted the flu virus that had spread across Europe in 1918. Both died before their 12th birthdays. (Their cousin Lucia would live to well nigh 100, having spent many years as a nun). In
2017, Francisco and Jacinta were canonised, at the centenary of Fatima’s apparitions.
So, at mid-May, let us commit to the daily praying of the Holy Rosary. Locally, we pray for our examination candidates. Nationally, we pray for England, the dowry of Mary. Internationally, we pray for world peace.
Good Shepherd Catholic Church 