Know that the LORD does wonders for his faithful one; the LORD will hear me when I call upon him. // Psalm 4:4
The dense fog slowly cleared around the packed crowd of pilgrims, and my heart soared with gratitude as I stood in the place I had longed to be. For the entirety of the previous year my prayer had been, “Lord, I want to go on pilgrimage to Fatima. Make it happen . . . . Please.”
Throughout the centenary year of Our Lady’s apparitions to the three shepherd children, opportunity after opportunity passed me by as other Sisters went to My Lady’s shrine. By the end of the summer, I was in the chapel, crying tears of bitterness and resentment, and my prayer became, “Lord, take this desire from my heart, give me the grace of surrender.”
The next day found me providentially at my grandfather’s deathbed, the person who had led me to devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.
As I prayed the Litany of Loretto and sang the Salve Regina, he passed into eternity while receiving the last rites of the Church. It was my first time being present for a death, and it was beautiful. My heart was full.
My prayer over the following days was flooded with peaceful recognition that the centenary year gift that Our Lady wanted to give me was not a pilgrimage to her shrine, but the gift of being at my grandfather’s deathbed. A gift I never thought possible. The cry of my heart became, “Lord, You can bring me to Fatima whenever you want, but this was once in a lifetime. I surrender.”
Within a week of my grandfather’s death, I got a phone call with an offer to go on pilgrimage to Fatima which would put me there on the actual 100th anniversary of the miracle of the sun. I was floored and, of course, accepted.
Sister, Our Lord provides. Not in our time, not in our ways, not by our will. He is faithful to His promises and “shows off” His love for us in ways we often do not expect. Trust Him today. Trust, without fear of the unknown, the One Who promises to faithfully provide whatever we lack.
He hears us when we call upon Him (Responsorial Psalm).
Our Lord provides. // Sister Maria FatimaClick to tweet
Sister Maria Fatima grew up in Rhode Island and entered the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in 2005. She holds a MA in Theology from the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity. Sister is in her eleventh year of enlightening middle school minds and drawing hearts to Jesus while teaching religion and history. She currently resides at the motherhouse in Ann Arbor, MI, having previously taught in Texas, Florida, and Ohio. She is a contributing author to our Lent devotional All She Had.
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