Nine Year Novena for 100th Anniversary of Fatima – Poland Leading the Way to Triumph of Immaculate Heart
IN 2017 WE ARE GOING TO CELEBRATE the centennial of the Apparitions of Fatima. The Secretariat of Fatima – one of the important centres of research and spread of the message of the Virgin Mary of Cova da Iria, with its office at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Zakopane/Poland – has, therefore, invited the clergy and faithful of the Catholic Church of Poland to prepare together for this important event by means of a Great Novena of 9 years, which began on May 13, 2009, and will conclude on May 13, 2017.
The idea of the Novena got the blessing of His Eminence Stanislaw Cardinal Dziwisz, Metropolitan Archbishop of Krakow, and the approval of the Shrine of Fatima (Portugal) and of the Marian Institute of Regensburg/Germany. Practically all the dioceses of Poland accepted the idea and are extending to their parishes the invitation to take part in the Great Fatima Novena. The priests and faithful of Canada, United States, Norway and Hungary have also joined in.
Each year will be consecrated to one of the fundamental contents of the message of Fatima. During the Novena the idea is to reflect on the most urgent appeals of God addressed to all of us through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The Great Fatima Novena – full of prayer, reflection and catechesis – ought to be a help in the search of the way that leads to a “new and better world” (John Paul II); to a personal conversion; and to the promised triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Those in charge of organizing the Novena ask all Christians making the Novena to pray with words based on the Act of Consecration of Russia and the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, addressed by Pope John Paul II to Our Lady on March 25, 1984, Feast of the Annunciation. Sister Lucia said: “this was the first triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary”! The Pope’s prayer had the force to move Heaven. Therefore, while we prepare for the centennial of the Apparitions, we want to remind to Our Lady the words of the Holy Father, for they were efficacious and did miracles. Thus should be our prayer and the whole Great Fatima Novena.
To conclude, we present the Prayer of Entrustment of the Novena, which alludes to the speech of Pope John Paul II made on the prayer vigil, at Fatima, on May 12, 1991: “Receive, O Mother of God and my Mother, this Great Fatima Novena, prayed in Your honour and for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, Light without sunset, which our steps seek with anxiety and often with uncertainty. Virgin of Fatima, walk with me! Lead me to Your Son! Lead me to the Port of Salvation! Pray for me, a sinner, now and at the hour of my death! Amen!”
Beata Kozakiewicz
TV Gloria – Poland
Annual Themes of the Great Novena of Fatima:
1. CONFIDENT OF VICTORY (2009)
Confrontation with the civilization of death
2.SECURE AT THE EGE OF TIME (2010)
Always with Mary
3.MORE THAN TEMPORALITY (2011)
There is heaven, hell and purgatory
4.WE DO NOT LIVE FOR OURSELVES (2012)
Reparation for the sins of the world
5.EUCHARISTIC KEY (2013)
Miracle of miracles that changes everything
6.INVITED TO HEAVEN (2014)
Yet the rosary, scapular, penitential string
7.POWER OF THE FAMILY (2015)
Home church that the gates of the underworld will not prevail against it
8.GOD IS MERCIFUL (2016)
Last word belongs to God who is Love
9.WAY THROUGH THE HEART (2017)
Covenant of hearts: Jesus’, Mary’s and ours