The following article, though it was written in May, appeared in the June 2020 issue of Faith: West Tennessee Magazine. If you are interested in subscribing to FWT, click here.

May is the month dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Our Lord. I would like to propose that one of the most important ways that we can grow in devotion to Our Lady during this month (even though it’s almost over), and aid our modern world, is to take up a devotion to her message at Fatima, which she gave to us over a century ago.

On May 13, 1917, in rural Portugal, Our Blessed Mother appeared to three shepherd children and asked them to return to that spot on the thirteenth day of each month for six consecutive months. During those six visits, Mary revealed “secrets” about the modern world and Church. She also asked the children to pray and suffer for the conversion of the world and sinners. Finally, during one of the visits, she shared a beautiful light that filled the children’s souls and inspired them to take up these works of holiness.

More than a hundred years later, Our Lady is asking each of us to engage in these same works, and she is offering to fill our souls with the same beautiful light if we will take up devotion to the message of Fatima. One particular part of the revelations can help cement this reality in our lives. During the July apparitions, Mary asked for a growing devotion to her Immaculate Heart, and she told the children, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Learning this devotion and spreading it to others will help her Heart, and ultimately the Heart of Jesus, triumph over the evils of the modern world.

One of the reasons that Our Lady gave for increasing devotion to the Immaculate Heart was the spread of the errors of communism throughout the world. Historically, we know that the evil of communism spread around the globe into the 1980s. We also know that there are many aspects of modern culture that are influenced by the communist philosophy and ideology. In order to aid Our Lady’s triumph, each pope from Pius XII to Francis has consecrated the world and Russia to her Immaculate Heart. In union with this movement, our country’s bishops recently made an act of re-consecration to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Moving forward, we can personally participate in this movement by growing in this devotion. This is one of the chief ways that we can overcome the grave errors and evils of our own era of history.

One great way to grow in devotion to Fatima and the Immaculate Heart of Mary is to pray the Rosary daily, adding the particular prayers that Mary gave the children in 1917 and following. Another great way to grow in this devotion is to pray a daily prayer of consecration to the Immaculate Heart, such as one of those written by St. John Paul the Great (easily found on the Internet). If we desire to bring more truth, goodness, and beauty into the world (and I think all of you reading this do, indeed, want that), we need a devotion to Fatima and the Immaculate Heart in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, at least as much as it was needed in the early twentieth century. Perhaps we need it even more. In this month of May dedicated to Mary (and beyond), if we take up this devotion and spread it to others, this will ultimately allow the light of Jesus Christ to shine into our lives and into the world. So, let’s consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother, even on a daily basis, and ask her to point us to Jesus so that others may see Him through us.