One Minute Reflection – 20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent and The First Memorial of Saints Francisco (1908-1919) and Jacinta (1910-1920)
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit..” …John 12:24
REFLECTION – “In Lucia’s account, the three chosen children found themselves surrounded by God’s light as it radiated from Our Lady. She enveloped them in the mantle of Light that God had given her. According to the belief and experience of many pilgrims, if not of all, Fatima is more than anything this mantle of Light that protects us, here, as in almost no other place on earth. We need but take refuge under the protection of the Virgin Mary and to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches: “show unto us… Jesus”.
“The Lord, who always goes before us, said this and did this (Jn 12:24). Whenever we experience the cross, He has already experienced it before us. We do not mount the cross to find Jesus. Instead it was He who, in His self-abasement, descended even to the cross, in order to find us, to dispel the darkness of evil within us and to bring us back to the light.”…Pope Francis at the Canonisation of Saints Francisco and Jacinta on 14 May 2017
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, just as the little children, Francisco and Jacinta, were chosen to be bearers of Your message, grant we pray, that by their prayers on our behalf, we too may Your bearers of light. Be with us, holy Mother, during our Lenten journey to the Resurrection of your Son, help us to become like little children and in that new purity, shine with His Light. Through Jesus our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.
AnaStpaul 