I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions. Not that there's anything wrong with them, it's just that I tend to follow the liturgical calendar and make Advent and Lenten resolutions. Rather than treating them like 4 week or 40 day commitments, I try to make them opportunities to form good habits that will carry through beyond Christmas and Easter. Like the traditional New Year's promises, these resolutions don't always hold, but I have found that they tend to have a positive residual effect. I try to make a daily Holy Hour during Lent, for instance. While I haven't been consistent with it during the rest of the year, I do find that my prayer life in general is more consistent, and I have greater fidelity to the regular rhythm of prayer I'm called to since I began this practice several years ago. So make a resolution today, by all means, but try to take the long view on it.
For 2017 I've made a very lose plan, but I'm not going to go into that right now. I will say that I do have hopes for this blog. I generally don't make long term plans, or work out what I'm going to write when. The posts on the O Antiphons I did last month was the first time I started a series and actually followed through, which is a minor source of pride right now. I have no big project for 2017, except to focus more on the Blessed Mother. I feel that I've neglected her to a certain extent, and Don Bosco wouldn't like that.
It's not just because I fear the disapproval of Don Bosco that I've made this resolution. 2017 is the centenary of the Marian apparitions at Fatima, in Portugal. It may be typically American, but I've always been attracted to this particular apparition of Our Lady because I saw the 1952 dramatic movie, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, on TV when I was a kid. It ran regularly on local television, especially on Saturday afternoons. I'm sure if I'd seen The Song of Bernadette first I'd have been attracted to that appearance, but there it is.
As an adult I've tended to distance myself from Fatima, though. Of the three major apparitions approved by the Church: Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima, this last one is the most apocalyptic in tenor. I've got nothing against apocalyptic - I happen to think meditations on the End Times are under appreciated nowadays. Still, what I think of as fringe Catholic movements have glommed on to these apparitions. They obsess over whether the universal Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which Our Lady called for, was done properly, or over what the proper interpretation of the Secrets entrusted to the three children is, or if all the Secrets have actually been revealed. These things, in and of themselves, aren't a big problem. It's that some of these Fatima groups - and I have to stress some - are extensions of certain traditionalist movements that call into question the reforms of Vatican II, deny the validity of the "new" Mass and claim that the popes since at least John XXIII have been antipopes. These false and reckless claims I totally reject. My mistake was allowing these false prophets to distract me from really taking in the Fatima message, an error I hope to further rectify during this year.
I don't plan on this being "All Fatima, All the Time" in 2017. I want to highlight various aspects of the Blessed Mother's role in the mystery of Salvation. There is at lest one feast or memorial of Mary celebrated each month, so writing about these as they come up is the way I'm going to approach the task. That said, I will place a special emphasis on the apparitions of Fatima. They have global implications, but the Blessed Mother makes an urgent appeal for personal conversion and repentance to all of us.
I'll be writing more over the course of the year, but for now here is a link to a special site sponsored by EWTN that gives a solid foundation on the apparitions.
May God bless all of you in this New Year. Through the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God, may you enjoy peace, prosperity and protection from all evil throughout this year.
Here is a video from the Apostleship of Prayer for January 1, that talks of Mary, and the World Day of Prayer for Peace.
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