THE WARNING: DAILY DUTY

Daily duty is penance and reparation. Our Lord told Lucy of Fatima some years after the apparitions that the penance He now seeks and requires of us is that we embrace the daily duties before us. He demands nothing unusual, but only that we accept fully the discipline daily duty entails, and the pain it includes. Such fidelity will hasten The Triumph, since it puts into practice what has happened in the heart. We can pray and be converted interiorly, but our conversion must emerge in the fulfillment of daily duty and in responsible behavior. Love is not love until it is expressed in a human way. It must be visible in our relationships with others, if it is to become real.

There is considerable penance in our lives when we apply ourselves to daily duty. We need not look far from the demands of every-day life to discover self-sacrifice and love. The will of the Father is hidden in the ordinary responsibilities of each day. Not even Jesus Himself performed any special penance that we know of. He simply accomplished His Father's will, going about doing good. For His efforts, He was crucified, and by His pain He redeemed the world. So it is with all of us. The children of Fatima were not asked by the Lady "Will you please choose the hardest penance you can think of, to make reparation for the sins of the world?", but rather, "Will you accept all the suffering God will send you?" Into every person's life God sends suffering. The events and circumstances of each day point out to us the path of love God wishes us to follow. Our acts of penance and reparation are tied up in the little things, seemingly insignificant, that tug on us moment-by-moment, saying to us: "This way to love, that way to love." The will of the Father is evident if we are willing to embrace love and the pain it includes. Doing the Father's will in love is the perfect method to hasten "The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the Era of Peace."

[To be Continued . . .]