10 Things that Caught My Eye Today (Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, 2016)

1. The Lord has established his throne in heaven.

2.

Our Lady in May: Statue of Our Lady of Fatima in Annapolis. Today is her feast day.https://t.co/145MUp8kWl

— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) May 13, 2016

3.

Our Lady of Fatima, teach us to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit in history.

— Bishop Barres (@BishopBarres) May 13, 2016

4. Loving Christ’s Lambs and Sheep According to Our Lady of Fatima’s Appeal

5. Pope Benedict on this day in Fatima in 2010:

The Lord, our great hope, is with us. In his merciful love, he offers a future to his people: a future of communion with himself.

I was there. It was an incredibly renewing day. Someday I have to reconstitute some of the old photo reports from then — lost during some NRO server upgrade. Technology!

Some thoughts from 2010 on a link that does work here.

6. 15 Fatima things (a list from last year).

7. A gem from the Liturgy of the Hours today, from Saint Hilary on the Trinity:

Our Lord commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In baptism, then, we profess faith in the Creator, in the only-begotten Son and in the gift which is the Spirit. There is one Creator of all things, for in God there is one Father from whom all things have their being. And there is one only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist. And there is one Spirit, the gift who is in all. So all follow their due order, according to the proper operation of each: one power, which brings all things into being, one Son, through whom all things come to be, and one gift of perfect hope. Nothing is wanting to this flawless union: in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is infinity of endless being, perfect reflection of the divine image, and mutual enjoyment of the gift.

Our Lord has described the purpose of the Spirit’s presence in us. Let us listen to his words: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. It is to your advantage that I go away; if I go, I will send you the Advocate. And also: I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth. He will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine.

From among many of our Lord’s sayings, these have been chosen to guide our understanding, for they reveal to us the intention of the giver, the nature of the gift and the condition for its reception. Since our weak minds cannot comprehend the Father or the Son, we have been given the Holy Spirit as our intermediary and advocate, to shed light on that hard doctrine of our faith, the incarnation of God.

We receive the Spirit of truth so that we can know the things of God. In order to grasp this, consider how useless the faculties of the human body would become if they were denied their exercise. Our eyes cannot fulfill their task without light, either natural or artificial; our ears cannot react without sound vibrations, and in the absence of any odor our nostrils are ignorant of their function. Not that these senses would lose their own nature if they were not used; rather, they demand objects of experience in order to function. It is the same with the human soul. Unless it absorbs the gift of the Spirit through faith, the mind has the ability to know God but lacks the light necessary for that knowledge.

This unique gift which is in Christ is offered in its fullness to everyone. It is everywhere available, but it is given to each man in proportion to his readiness to receive it. Its presence is the fuller, the greater a man’s desire to be worthy of it. This gift will remain with us until the end of the world, and will be our comfort in the time of waiting. By the favors it bestows, it is the pledge of our hope for the future, the light of our minds, and the splendor that irradiates our understanding.

8. The Holy Spirit & Mary: Lessons for Pentecost

9. Not to be missed from St. Catherine of Siena in Magnificat today:

10.

If our hearts and actions are inspired by charity, by divine love, then our communication will be touched by God’s own power.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) May 13, 2016

PLUS:

Q&A with an eyewitness to John Paul II’s shooting 35 years ago today.

A beloved photo with scene-setting saintly addition a friend posted last night from our 2010 time in Fatima: