My mom, aunt, sister and I joined several hundreds of fellow Catholics in spending the day with our Lady of Fatima at the Blue Army Shrine in Washington, New Jersey.
What a glorious day it was! New Jersey has been having chilly, windy and rainy weather. But on May 13th, it was a beautiful day for Our Lady's Feast Day.
Upon arrival and a quick lunch, we headed off to Confession. There were many stations for Confessions in English, Spanish, French and Italian. Those who were ready joined in the procession of Our Lady of Fatima while we prayed the 5 Glorious Mysteries.
In the second picture below you can see the huge statue of Our Lady of Fatima atop the main chapel.
The Mass began after a few speakers. It was beautifully and reverently celebrated by Fr. Clement J. Machado, who has appeared on EWTN and concelebrated by many other priests. One priest was from Fr. Benedict Groeschel's order, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. That is Father Lawrence below during Holy Communion. He was celebrating a year anniversary from the first time he celebrated Mass.
Benediction followed the celebration of the Holy Mass. The picture below is of Fr. Paul Ruge, the chaplain of the Blue Army Shrine holding the Monstrance during the Benediction.
The sad part of the day was when our Lady's statue left the Chapel. We sang her a lovely hymn Farewell Fatima and waved our white hankies as we bid our Lady adieu.
O Virgin of the RosaryVs 1: Jeremiah Cummings 1814-1866 alt. Vss. 2-3 Anon.
of Fatima dear Lady,
O dearest Queen of Heaven
to save you are most ready.
O Virgin of the Rosary of Fatima dear Lady,
As now we leave your shrine
once more we kneel before thee.
Refrain:
Just one more final prayer
as we leave, O Mother dear!
May our hearts eer ring
with the words that we sing:
Oh Fatima! Farewell!
Dear Mother, Farewell!
Before we leave O Mother
oh, hear our prayer of sorrow,
And save us from all danger
today, tonight, tomorrow.
Before we leave, O Mother
have mercy on our sorrow,
And ever be our guardian,
today, tonight, tomorrow.
O Mother as we leave you
the tears to our eyes springing,
But still our hearts with joy,
your love, your praise are singing.
O Mother as we leave you
our eyes with tears are dimming,
But though we weep at parting
our souls with love are brimming.
It was as stated in verse three, a teary time for us. As you can see my mom and the majority of the people there worn blue in honor of our Lady.
There will be many more posting on the message of Fatima through the World Apostolate of Fatima. If any of you are interested in joining the WAF, please visit their website. Those in Hawaii interested in joining, please contact me directly by email, comment or phone.
It WAS a gorgeous day, wasn't it? The next day was so rainy. It's clear Our Lady gave us a little blessing.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had known you were there! I would have love to meet you. I very much enjoy your blog.
Oh, I wish I could have been there...absolutely nothing like this here in the Baptist Bible Belt, home of Pat Robertson and CBN. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteDiana, thank you for leaving a comment. I wish I had had the nerve to introduce myself to you.
ReplyDeleteAlexandra, you would have fallen in love with the place.
Esther,
ReplyDeleteYou crack me up. Did I seem scary? LOL
Next time we're in the same place at the same time, please do come and say hi.
And I'd love to hear about some of the Catholic places you know about in Hawaii. I am very excited about the Father Damien stuff. I've always loved him.
LOL Diana, no not at all. In fact, you seemed very personable and approachable. I could kick myself now for not speaking to you.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about places to share with you in Hawaii. I have been posting about pilgrimages, the relic traveling to Hawaii and the mainland, etc.
Our Lady of Fatima statue traveled to TX few weeks ago, sadly I missed it while out of town for a cousin's wedding. It was stated in our bulletin that over 2500k attended the rosary/procesion
ReplyDeleteMM, that is terrific. My sister tells me they estimated about the same number at the Blue Army Shrine that day.
ReplyDeleteEsther ~ I just sent you a comment on your other post, showing the Pilgrim Statue close-up...I have been in the Blue Army for nearly 30 years, I had no idea you were a member! :)
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have been @ the Shrine with you; maybe someday??
Jenn, when I am in NJ, we try to go at least once to the BA Shrine. I just love that place. Have you been there before?
ReplyDeleteEsther ~ No, sadly I've never been...I did come close once tho', back in '94. I took our daughter Mary on a trip to Delaware for a Wizard of Oz convention, lol (she's a fanatic for LF Baum) & we went through Pennsylvania as well, to see my sister. (We live in Michigan.)
ReplyDeleteI was "this close" to the New Jersey border, but Mary had to get back home for school. :(
I still hope to get there someday!
Jenn, I hope you can make it out one day. You will want to move nearby.
ReplyDeleteEsther ~ I always imagined it to be like being so close to where Our Lady would have visited...kinda like the Int'l. Shrine HQ in Portugal.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful it would be to go there, eh? :)