Introduction - Get Your Heart Ready to Leave on a Pilgrimage by the Heart.
Prayer of the Angel of Peace: My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You.
- The impossibility to walk to Fatima and participate, among a multitude of pilgrims, in the celebrations that your heart is missing and asking for, does not mean that you can’t be a pilgrim. Fatima challenges you to go on a more essential pilgrimage: an inner path that may take you far away within yourself, towards the shrine in your innermost self where God is present for you. Making yourself a pilgrim by the heart is trying to live inwardly what the pilgrimage experience causes and fulfils. Fatima is calling you. Despite not being able to come to the Shrine, come go on this inner pilgrimage, day by day, lighting a candle as a sign that in your home lives a pilgrim of Fatima by the heart.
- The light of the heart of God that shines in the immaculate heart of Mary is offered in Fatima as a place of encounter between God and His children. Go deep into your heart and let yourself be led, just like the little shepherds - Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta have let themselves be led by the Angel during that Spring afternoon in 1916. He invited them to go on a pilgrimage by the heart, to discover a new way to relate with God. He led them to the intimacy of God, just like Lucia tells in her memoirs.
“Do not be afraid. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me. Kneeling on the ground, he bowed down until his forehead touched the earth. Led by a supernatural impulse, we did the same, and repeated the words which we heard him say: My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You. Having repeated these words three times, he rose and said, Pray thus -the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.”
Then he disappeared. The supernatural atmosphere which enveloped us was so intense that we were for a long time scarcely aware of our own existence, remaining in the same posture in which he had left us, and continually repeating the same prayer. The presence of God made itself felt so intimately and so intensely that we did not even venture to speak to one another.
- Being a pilgrim by the heart is the way for you to answer this invitation from the Angel to the three children. Join them in prayer. Let yourself be inwardly taken by the light and the transparency of the Angel. He shall surround your heart in the supernatural atmosphere of God’s presence, intense and intimate, such as Lucia describes. Keep repeating the same prayer slowly: My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You. Relish every word well, so that your heart goes on pilgrimage toward an intimate encounter with God. Abandon yourself in Him, like a child on her mother’s lap.
- In the most significant moments of His pilgrimage on Earth, Jesus went on a quest for solitude and stood before the Father in prayer. This step you have listened to is the preparation for your departure as a pilgrim by the heart. Making yourself a pilgrim by the heart is trying to live inwardly what the pilgrimage experience causes and fulfils. Despite not being able to come to the Shrine at Fatima, go on this inner pilgrimage, day by day. Today, try praying with the heart as the little shepherds have prayed led by the Angel.
My God, you inhabit the innermost of my being and You call me to become a pilgrim by the heart and to meet You there. In my heart you are the source of grace from where I drink by faith, adoration, hope and love. I want to be a pilgrim by the heart until I touch You, I wish to touch you and I need to be touched by You In the deepest silence of my innermost which You inhabit, I want to tell You: I believe in You, O light of light I worship You, my Lord and my God I hope in You with all my confidence I love You with all my being. And I embrace in my heart all those who deny themselves to Your heart. I ask You for mercy for them, salvation for all. I want to go on a pilgrimage by the heart into Your mother’s heart, mother of mine, Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima. In Her heart, You will be waiting for my heart. And today, away from the Little Chapel in Fatima, I make myself a pilgrim by the heart: I shall follow my heart and in Mother’s heart I shall listen to the merciful beating of Your heart. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Mother of Heaven, be attentive to the supplications of a world facing tribulation. Answer the cry of the poor and the sick, give comfort and hope to all those who suffer, give strength and compassion to all those who work and care for those who are suffering. Bring peace to the world. In your immaculate heart, be for all your children a refuge and a way to God. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, pray for us.
- Light a candle each day of this journey. Let it be a sign that in your home lives a pilgrim of Fatima by the heart. Our Lady watches over your way.