“I won’t ever abandon you, my Immaculate heart will be your refuge and the way which will lead you to God.”
(Our Lady to the little Shepherds of Fatima)

Dearest children, boys, girls, families, missionaries, consecrated brothers and sisters,

here we are returning with Mother Elvira from Fatima where from 8th December, the feast day of Mary Immaculate, our first boys house was opened… for the moment.
We’ve come back but the boys didn’t stay there alone: Our Lady has opened many generous hearts, that since the beginning have put themselves forward, helping to fix the house (there’s a lot to be done), giving us bread on a daily basis and we were surrounded by great friendship from families, neighbours, the Bishop, priests, most particularly Father Alvaro, the very faithful priest who has wanted the Community in Fatima for four years.
The fraternity is made of two small houses: in one of them there’s the dining room, a bedroom and the kitchen which has a cellar underneath which is being used half as the food dispense and half as the shed. In the other house there are two bedrooms and the Chapel.
Mother Elvira went to the boys house everyday to sustain and encourage them with her motherly embrace, a good laugh, some correction, work inspections, advice, apples and chocolate for snack… all of which with lots and lots of love! During two of her visits she wanted to walk around the land surrounding the house, which is immersed in green, surrounded by olive and vines, just like the places where the three little Shepherds herded their sheep and where they then had their apparitions of the Angel and of Our Lady! Before going to sleep in the evening, Mother Elvira, thinking of the boys, remembered with astonishment how happy the boys were to be in Fatima and the commitment that they put in to fix the house until it was clean, after days of heavy rain and mud everywhere. With as much as the statues put in place and the Chapel almost finished, in time for the day of the inauguration.
On the 8th day they were waiting for 200 friends but 300 arrived, from neighbours, friends from Lisbon and friends from Spain. Mother Elvira tirelessly kissed, embraced and blessed all making even the most serious people smile. After the Holy Mass, celebrated by the General Vicar of Fatima, everyone was invited to see the new fraternity, small but fixed up well by the boys. The afternoon continued with snack for everyone and then testimonies and a few songs. At the end of the evening we participated in the Holy Rosary in the Apparition Chapel and in the procession in the square inside the Sanctuary. The boys received the gift to pray two decades of the Rosary and to carry the statue of Our Lady during the procession.
In these days in Fatima we had the gift, everyday at 8 o’clock with the boys, to live the Holy Mass celebrated by our priests in the Apparition Chapel. During the day, us sisters, with Mother Elvira went to the Sanctuary to pray some walking Rosaries, to do Adoration and to visit the old Basilica where the tombs of the little Shepherds are. The friends were so nice as to take us to the places where the Angel and Our Lady appeared to the Shepherds, the homes and the places where they played and herded their sheep. These places are very well looked after, with a Stations of the Cross along the way and many small pieces of marble with phrases said by the Shepherds incised or significant events which happened to them. These help us to enter more deeply in the message that Our Lady left at Fatima. We entrusted all of you to the intercession of Mary and the three little Shepherds, whose peaceful and joyful presence can be felt in every angle of that holy land, in which these children offered their young lives into the hands and the heart of our dear, heavenly Mother. Thank you for your prayers which allowed this new beginning among the Portuguese people.

A hug from the heart to all of you!

Mother Elvira and the Missionary Sisters of the Resurrection

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