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By Barb Ernster –
Reading and Writing: A Command from Our Lady
Many documents exist from Sister Lucia who wrote thousands of letters to people and clergy around the world: to her superiors, spiritual directors, bishops and popes. When Our Lady told her at age 10 that she had to learn to read and write, it was good, and she happily used these talents for the rest of her long life. Below is an example of how beautifully she wrote to a former companion from the Order of St. Dorothy, on the Rosary and the Holy Trinity. Sister Lucia’s holiness and deep spirituality come through in her writings. In this particular letter in September 1970, she was assuring the sister that such Marian practices as the Rosary, the scapular and devotion to Our Lady should not be downplayed, as had begun to happen after the Second Vatican Council.
Sister Lucia’s September 1970 Letter
My dear Mother Martins:
Regarding what you said about the prayer of the Rosary, it is a pity because the prayer of the Rosary or five decades of it, after the Holy Liturgy of the Eucharist, is what most unites us with God by the richness of prayers that compose it. All of them came from heaven, dictated by the Father, by the Son and by the Holy Spirit.
The “Glory” we pray between the decades was dictated by the Father to the angels, when He sent them to sing it close to His Word, the newborn Child. It is also a hymn to the Trinity. The “Our Father” was dictated by the Son and it is a prayer to the Father.
The “Hail Mary” is all impregnated with the Trinitarian and Eucharistic sense. The first words were dictated by the Father to the angel, when He sent him to announce the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”
You are full of grace because in you dwells the fountain of grace, and it is by union with the most Holy Trinity that you are full of grace. Moved by the Holy Spirit, St. Elizabeth said. “Blessed are thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.”
The Church, also moved by the Holy Spirit, added, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”
This is also the prayer to the Father through Mary. Because you are Mother of God, pray for us. It is a Trinitarian prayer because Mary was the first live temple of the most Holy Trinity. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child to be born will be called Son of the Most High.”
Mary is the first live Tabernacle, where the Father enclosed His Word. Her Immaculate Heart is the first monstrance that held Him. Her lap and arms were the first altar and the first throne over which the Son of God-made-man was worshipped. There the angels, the shepherds and the wisemen worshipped Him. Mary is the first, like a priest, to take in her pure and immaculate hands the Son of God. She took Him to the Temple to offer Him to the Father as victim for the salvation of the world. Therefore, after the Holy Liturgy of the Eucharist, the prayer of the Rosary is what better draws to our spirit the mysteries of Faith, Hope and Charity. She is the spiritual bread of souls.
The one who does not pray, weakens and dies. It is in prayer that we meet God, and in this rendezvous, He imparts Faith, Hope and Charity. Without these virtues, we can’t be saved. The Rosary is the prayer of the poor and the rich, of the wise and the ignorant. To uproot this devotion from souls is like depriving them of their daily spiritual bread. She is what supports that little flame of faith that has not yet been completely extinguished from many consciences. Even for those souls who pray without meditating, the simple fact of taking the beads to pray is already a remembrance of God, of the supernatural.
The simple remembrance of the mysteries in each decade is another radiance of light supporting the burning torch in souls. This is why the devil has moved against it—such a great war. And the worst part is that he has deluded and deceived souls of great responsibility in their position. They are blind men leading blind men. They pretend to base their saying in the [Second Vatican] Council and to not realize that the Holy Council ordered them to preserve all the practices of the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God. The prayer of the Rosary or five decades, is one of the most important, and according to the decrees of the Holy Council and the orders of the Holy Father, it must be maintained…
Let us pray, work and sacrifice and trust that finally, “my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” – Sister Lucia
Barb Ernster is the National Coordinator/Communications Manager/Editor for the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA. This article, originally written for the Winter 2021 edition of Soul Magazine, also appeared on our Fatima Blog back on March 2, 2021.
