12 may, 2014
Our Lady in Cloisters
Begun already in 2010, the celebration of the Centennial of the Apparitions, which will go on for a period of seven years until 2017, has entirely mobilized the life of the Shrine of Fatima. The purpose of this itinerary, more than to just recall chronologically an event, is to promote and facilitate a greater knowledge of the Message of Fatima, a more intense living of its theological dimension, a better awareness of its prophetic aspect, a keener perception of its specifically ecclesial side and a warmer reception of its challenges and ways of conversion.
Amongst the many activities and proposals to give body to this seven year itinerary, which is already a celebration, is the visit of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady to all the Dioceses of Portugal and, before that, the visit of the same Statue to all the Convents and Monasteries of Contemplative Life also in Portugal. Each Female and Male Convent and Monastery, in a total of thirty-seven, will receive the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady and keep it for a week.
 
Rector of Shrine has already presented this initiative to Monasteries of Diocese of Leiria-Fatima
In order to prepare this event, the Shrine will contact all the Convents and Monasteries in Portugal. The Monasteries of the Diocese of Leiria-Fatima – Poor Clares of Monte Real, Nuns of Our Lady of Visitation of Faniqueira, Dominican Nuns of Perpetual Rosary, Carmelite Nuns and Poor Clares of Fatima – have already been contacted by letter and, being that close, by the Reverend Rector of the Shrine of Fatima in person.
At the beginning of October, Fr. Cabecinhas had the opportunity to announce, in each of the five Monasteries, to the whole community gathered in one room, the visit of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady and also to explain, in detail, the entire celebrative itinerary of the Centennial of the Apparitions.
This initiative of the Shrine generated genuine and spontaneous joy in all the Monasteries visited. The visit of the Pilgrim Statue targets cloisters, that is, those communities with a very secluded intimate spiritual life, and will take place in 2014-2015, a year before the Statue is to visit the Dioceses of Portugal.
Convents and Monasteries of Contemplative Life are always very discrete, but also always imbued with a very profound life of prayer and service to God. The contemplative cloistered vocation, if not characterized specifically by going from town to town announcing the Gospel, is, however, characterized as having the mission of speaking to God of the life and needs of men. They are, therefore, places and communities where permanently are heard prayers of thanksgiving and supplication, prayers of praise and oblation. They pray for their intentions and, above all, for the intentions of all mankind.
Prayer as the support of everything
One of reasons and motivations for the visit of the Pilgrim Statue to Convents and Monasteries is, thus, that of asking these Communities to strengthen, with their prayer to Our Heavenly Mother, the foundation of all the events related to the celebration of the Centennial. If to celebrate the Centennial of the Apparitions is to engage in living the Message of the Lady more brilliant than the Sun, then any itinerary has in prayer its beginning, its course and its goal.
Prayer, then, will be the support of everything. The Shrine confidently receives, therefore, from each community the strength that springs from prayer. At the conclusion of each encounter, the Reverend Rector, on behalf of the Postulator for the Cause of Canonization of Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, left with each community relics of the Little Shepherds, which was once again cause for much joy.
Fr. Emanuel Matos Silva, Vice-Rector of the Shrine of Fatima
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