Mary Sturm has long appreciated the Rosary, but it wasn't until she witnessed the dedication of a group of people praying it after daily Mass at her parish, Holy Infant in Ballwin, that her love grew deeper.
Through this prayer, Sturm finds guidance from the Blessed Mother to stay connected to Jesus. The Rosary also was a great consolation to her when her husband of 43 years, Jim, passed away last summer.
"She helps me participate fully at Mass and help others," Sturm said of the Blessed Mother. "She gives me company, protection and reassurance."
In her apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, the Blessed Mother called on three children — Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto — to pray the Rosary daily for an end to the Great War — World War I. Our Lady of Fatima's messages of conversion and prayer (especially for peace), reparation and penance and devotion to her Immaculate Heart — all in the name of drawing us closer to her Son — serve as timeless messages a century later.
While the Church places importance on the angels and saints in heaven, no one in that realm quite stacks up to our Blessed Mother. This certainly provides an understanding of why Mary of all people has appeared to the faithful, through her apparitions at places such as Fatima, Lourdes and Mexico — Our Lady of Guadalupe.
"She's the perfect messenger, because she was the first apostle," said Msgr. Eugene Morris, who is working on a doctorate in Mariology from the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, Ohio. "Mary is the first one to offer Christ. She participates in that self-donation that Christ makes, which is central to the mystery of the Eucharist. She's always drawing us more deeply into a relationship with her Son."
Msgr. Morris noted that during the Second Vatican Council, "Lumen gentium," the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, properly situated Mary in the life of the Church. In fact, the council described Mary as "Mediatrix" because of her role in helping us understand Christ as the ultimate Mediator.
So how do we live the message of Fatima today?
"By a devotion to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart, which will lead us to our Lord's Sacred Heart," Msgr. Morris said. "The more we go to the Sacred Heart of the Lord, the more we encounter, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, His mercy."
That encounter with mercy involves the recognition and reparation for our sins and those of the whole world. That's something that Mary Sturm offers through her prayers in the Rosary. In fact, Pope Francis has granted a plenary indulgence (see related) for the Fatima centennial.
"The Rosary is the one I choose the most often, since Our Lady asked us at Fatima to pray the Rosary daily," she said. "With the Rosary, I can help souls detained in purgatory move more speedily to heaven."
World Apostolate of Fatima
The St. Louis Division of the World Apostolate of Fatima has promoted the message of Fatima in St. Louis for decades.
The local apostolate is part of the World Apostolate of Fatima, an international Public Association of the Faithful established by the Vatican in 2005 to promote the Fatima message. That includes making daily sacrifices, praying a daily Rosary, wearing the Brown Scapular and practicing the five First Saturdays devotion.
