JOYFUL MYSTERIES
MARCH 20, 1997

The Annunciation

1. Messenger: Our heavenly Mother Mary, gave messages associated with the major Fatima apparitions. She told Jacinta, one of the three visionaries at Fatima…

"‘Tell everybody that God gives graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell them to ask grace from her, and that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be venerated together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Ask them to plead for peace from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the Lord has confided the peace of the world to her.’27

"This last message offers us an excellent opportunity to summarize the Fatima message. It tells us "that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be venerated together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

"At the center of the veneration for which Our Lord calls is the act of consecration to His Sacred Heart and to Mary’s Immaculate Heart." 28

2. You should not be afraid, for Jesus and Mary are with us. They are watching us, and they are helping us in everything that we do. God is in charge.
3. So we come to this rosary to gather and to pray as the Junior Shepherds of Christ Associates. It is in this rosary that we will receive help to not be afraid, to help to take the light to the dark world.
4. It is in going through our Mother Mary that we will be formed more and more into the image and the likeness of Jesus.
5. The Child Jesus was formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary, through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we go to the heart of Mary, the spiritual womb, we are transformed more and more to be children of light.
6. How Mary loves the children of this world. She guards them and mothers them more than any earthly mother. Mary guards us with her motherly care, and watches over us, and wants to lead us to the Heart of her Son, Jesus.
7. Christ showed us. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He came into this world in the Virgin Mary. We too must go to the Virgin Mary in order to have this close union with God. Mary is the gateway into the Heart of Jesus.
8. At Fatima, Mary spoke to the children and she called them her children. We must realize that she is calling us, her children, to the Heart of her Son, Jesus.
9. What of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary? The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are our refuge in this life. They are the Hearts of true love. It is in giving our hearts to Jesus and to Mary that we will have hearts filled with holy love.
10. So much of this world has turned to hearts that are cold. Jesus wants love, burning love, from the children of this world, and He is given a cold heart.

The Visitation

1. Messenger: We carry Jesus within our hearts.
2. When we visit others we bring the Jesus that lives within us to the other person. We embrace Jesus when we embrace each other in love.
3. Mary went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. The Child Jesus was within Mary’s womb. We carry Jesus within ourselves. We receive Him in the Holy Eucharist. When we go to Communion, we go to our pews, and we have the Son of God within our hearts. He is as present in our hearts as He was when He was carried in the womb of Mary, when she went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth.
4. We do not even realize the great gifts God has given to us when He gives Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist. Think of what it would be like if He took away the gift of the Holy Eucharist, if He took away the Mass.
5. We must be strong. We are the youth that are being sent to go into a world that has turned sinful. Some have turned their backs on God. We must realize, that we must be strong. It is hard in this world, but we must go to Jesus. We must spend time with Him every day.
6. Jesus is the Son of Mary. Jesus and Mary are with us.
7. Hail Mary…
8. We must listen to the words of scripture, the words that we are given as teachings. We must pray to the Holy Spirit that we will comprehend the word of God, for God is speaking to us in His word. The Holy Spirit gives us understanding into these words that we will know God and love Him.
9. Mary brought forth an infant child. She watched Him. She cared for Him. All through His life, she stayed close to Him. All through our lives our Mother Mary is forever by our sides.
10. We must be strong, for we are being called by God. It is not a myth. He is calling each one of us to be leaders to help to lead the other youth to God.

The Birth of Jesus

1. Messenger: The heavenly Father allowed Mary to appear at Fatima, and she told us what we must do. She told us that in order to have peace in the world we must give our hearts to her and to her Son, Jesus.
2. She said that if we did not pay attention to her there would be a great war. Man ignored the pleading of Our Lady at Fatima, and there was World War II. Many, many, many people were killed. They suffered a brutal death.
3. At Fatima, she showed the three young children the fires of hell. They were very young, and they said they would have died of fright had Our Lady not assured them that they would not go to hell.
4. Why would Our Lady appear to children and show children the souls suffering in the fires in hell?
5. Mary appears at Fatima, and she is ignored. To this very day we do not do what Mary told us to do at Fatima. At Fatima she promised in the end the Sacred Heart of Jesus will reign, and her heart will triumph.
6. Jesus Christ came into the world in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He came as the Light of the World. He will be, in this great era of peace to come, the King and the center of all hearts.
7. He came in poverty. He was born in a stable. He came to show us that the great riches are not found in the riches of the world, that they are found in Him. He is the King, but He comes into this world in poverty.
8. The greatest riches are found in the Heart of Christ.
9. It is so simple. Why do we not love God, why do we not love one another?"
10. Why does man think that he can ignore God, that he is in control, that he can do his own will?

The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

1. Messenger: The old man Simeon said in the Temple that "Look, he is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed—" (Lk. 2:34)
2. And he said to Mary, "and a sword will pierce your soul too—so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare." (Lk. 2:35)
3. Mary is the Mother of all the children of the world, and look how she is treated by so many of her children. Many abuse her name. They abuse her images. They do not love her. She is their Mother, and they do not love her.
4. Mary told us at Fatima what we must do in order to have peace in this world. The fourth commandment tells us we must obey our earthly mother. What makes us think that we do not have to obey our heavenly Mother?
5. She said that man was sinful and that he was offending God. She said to Jacinta before she died, "I can no longer restrain the hand of my Divine Son from striking the world with just punishment for its many crimes." ²⁹
6. Here it is 80 years after Fatima and we have disobeyed our heavenly Mother and the wishes that she gave to us when she appeared at Fatima. After World War II you would think that everyone would have heeded her message of Fatima.
7. Satan goes about the earth as a roaring lion, searching for souls to devour. When Mary showed the children at Fatima the fires of hell, she was telling them that hell was a reality and that we must go about the world and try to lead others to her Son.
8. What if you were one of the children at Fatima and our Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to you, in her light, and in her beauty? What if she said, "You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go…If my requests are granted, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will scatter her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be destroyed…" ³⁰ What if she showed you the fires of hell and the souls suffering? Would you help?
9. Would your life change if Mary appeared to you and told you these things? Would you go and spend your life trying to tell others about the vision that she gave to you? Would you take this with the utmost urgency? If Mary was appearing to you, would you do something to heed her warnings?
10. Remember Noah and the Ark? The people were sinning up to the time that Noah entered the Ark.

The Finding of Jesus in the Temple

1. Messenger: They were warned. They were warned over and over again of their sinfulness. They were told that they must change, but they would not obey and so God told Noah to build an Ark.
2. And all men were destroyed, but those men on Noah’s Ark.
3. Mary searched for the Child Jesus in the Temple. Today, there are many searching for those things that will make them happy. We will not be happy if our lives are not rooted in God.
4. We must go to Mary in order to be close to God. As Noah went into the Ark for his refuge, we to must go to the heart of Mary. She is the Ark that will lead us to the Heart of her Son.
5. So many this day are sinning. They must go to the temple. Mary is the temple that we go to, in order to find God. We go to her spiritual womb, to her heart, and we find God. We must do as Our Lady told us at Fatima, and give Mary our hearts. All through the day we give Mary our hearts and Jesus our hearts.
6. This is our job, to spread the Fatima message, to do what Mary has told us to do at Fatima, to give Jesus our hearts, and to tell all the other youth that we must do what Mary said at Fatima. We must give Mary and Jesus our hearts, pray the rosary, go to church on first Saturday, and tell Jesus and Mary we are sorry for the sins in this world.
7. Mary’s peace plan is so simple to follow. We have disobeyed our heavenly Mother at Fatima. Mary appeared on July 13, 1917 to the three children. Mary showed the three children a vision of hell. She told them,
   
   "You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish, in the world, devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace."³¹

   We must obey Mary. The plan is the same plan today. We must reach the youth of this world with the consecration We must tell them to give their hearts to Jesus and Mary.

8. Mary is the temple. We will find Jesus if we go to Mary.
   Song: "Oh Holy Dwelling Place of God…"
9. We have been given great gifts from Our Lord and from Our Lady. We want to be leaders, to lead other young people to Jesus and to Mary. We must thank them for the gifts we are given, for what we do with our lives will make the difference to so many souls. She showed the children the souls in hell. Visualize this as clearly as possible in your mind. What you do to help to spread the message of His love will make the difference to so many souls."
10. Can we truly look at our Mother, Mary? See her before us, adorned in the greatest light. See her glistening? Look into her beautiful face, into her eyes. Tell her we must help to lead her children to the Heart of her Son, that you will help her to help others so they will not be lost to the fires of hell forever.