Letter from the Prelate (29 April 2020)

With the month of May about to begin, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz invites us to unite ourselves to the Pope's intentions through recourse to the intercession of our Lady.

My dear children: may Jesus watch over my daughters and sons for me!

We are about to begin the month that traditionally in the Church we dedicate to our Lady. In Mary’s motherly mediation we find security and also strength in order to continue bringing her Son’s consolation to those in need of it. What confidence it gives us to address our Mother, as did Saint Josemaria, with that invocation: refugium nostrum et virtus. In the circumstances we are now experiencing all over the world, Mary is our strength and our refuge.

In many countries, the beginning of May will find us still in our homes, hardly able to go anywhere. This situation will perhaps make it easier for us to live the customs of Marian piety more as a family, including the Rosary and even the May pilgrimage. Although in these circumstances we may not be able physically to visit sanctuaries or shrines, we can always visit these places virtually with the digital means technology places at our disposal. And we can even invite our relatives, friends and acquaintances to accompany us.

I especially ask you that, in these visits to our Mother, you keep very much in mind the intentions that Pope Francis expressed to us in his letter on April 25thth. There he invites us to rediscover the practice of the family rosary and to continue asking for the end of the pandemic and for our Lady’s protection for those who are suffering most intensely.

Your Father blesses you with all his affection,

Rome, 29 April 2020