Rosary and Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, June 13

In my parish, it has been a tradition that every 13 day of the month, a public recitation of the Holy Rosary followed by Mass will be held to commemorate the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima. After the long awaited construction and the blessing and dedication of the new Shrine to Our Lady, these devotions and Holy Mass are now celebrated there rather than in the Church proper, weather permitting.

Yesterday was a glorious day, with nary a cloud in sight so the rosary and Mass was scheduled to be celebrated outdoors, at the Shrine. The photo above shows Bernie leading the rosary. The altar and credence table were already set up and ready for Mass. The photo below shows our assistant parish priest, Fr. Mark Michael celebrating the Mass. Note that when Mass began, it was still quite bright.

Fr. Mark proclaiming the Gospel. As yesterday was also the Feast of St. Anthony, the sermon also focussed on the person of St. Anthony and his fidelity to the Gospel.

I have some photos of the novena to St. Anthony which I had attended which I've been meaning to put up but I keep getting sidetracked. The feast had been transferred to this Saturday at St. Anthony's Church and there will be a candle light procession around the town of Nibong Tebal. I hope to be able to go and share this experience with you.

The offertory. By now it is starting to progressively get dark.

Dusk doesn't last very long, in these equatorial parts. As we move along, it was already night.

And it was completely dark by Communion.

The photos above and below shows the people lining up to receive Holy Communion. You can see the chairs that have been set up on both sides of the shrine as well as at the back. You couldn't see it earlier because I was sitting in the front row. It was moving to see people kneeling on the tarred road during the Consecration and the Ecce Agnus Dei, disregarding their personal comfort to honour the Lord truly and substantially present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Perhaps the Corpus Christi sermon did rub off on them =)

I estimate the crowd to number about 200.

Hopefully, we will be able to continue this tradition for a long time to come.

For more images of the Shrine, pls have a look at the Maundy Thurday vigil at the Shrine where we kept watch with Jesus through His agony in the garden.