GO! Your Mother is Calling! JOHN M. HAFFERT Why This Book? Why GO? Where? The Pope says it all! Places o f pilgrimage, statues, and pilgrimages are all means which the Church and popular piety offer us so that, with their help, we can deepen our own personal spiritual lives our prayer and union with God and the saints, and make our daily Christian witness fruitful. Fatima (like some other great Marian shrines) is made more holy by the apparitions o f God’s Mother, through which she herself chose this place for her sanctuary. Here she is especially dose to the desires and needs of people, and approaches God’s throne with her power­ ful intercession on behalf of all those who turn to her in a faithfilled and trusting visit to this special place o f graces. At the same time Mary addresses her “ Message of Fatima” to all pilgrims, her urgent invitation to penance and conversion, and to ceaseless prayer for the conversion of sinners and the world, which today more than ever is in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Do not let this pilgrimage to Fatima be a passing event, which ends with your return home. Rather, make this pilgrimage a new beginning fo r your spiritual life. Continue what you began again in Fatima in your per­ sonal, family, and social life. Continue your interior prayer to the Mother of God, asking for the grace of penance and conversion for yourselves, and for all peo­ ple and nations. — Pope John Paul II Address to German Pilgrimage to Fatima in special au­ dience, May 3, 1986 (Osservatore Romano). GO! Your Mother is Calling! JOHN M. HAFFERT IMPRIMATUR: Rev. Msgr. John R. Torney Administrator’s Delegate Copyright © 1986 by John M. Haffert 2 Contents 1. W hy This B ook?.............................................................5 2. A New Id e a ..................................................................... 9 3. Why G o ?........................................................................15 4. W here?............................................................................ 19 5. Let’s Go to Portugal....................................................31 6. L et’s Go to S pain ......................................................... 43 7. L et’s Go to Ita ly ........................................................... 55 8. L et’s Go to F rance....................................................... 63 9. The Gateways: Porto, Loreto, Lyon ............................................. 74 10. Ireland—E ngland......................................................81 11. A pparitions N ow ........................................................ 87 12. Shrines Near H om e....................................................97 13. The Pilgrim ...............................................................105 14. The Pilgrimage A postle.........................................I l l A ppendix .............................................................................117 3 Above: Pope John Paul II at Fatima. “It has been my custom to make pilgrimages to Shrines of Our Lady, starting with my earliest youth. I know very well that every people, every coun­ try has its holy places: Places of special encounter between God and human be­ ings; places in which Christ dwells in a special way in our midst. If these places are so often dedicated to His Mother, it reveals all the more fully to us the nature of His Church. — Pope John Paul II 4 Chapter 1 Why This Book? Now, past seventy, and anxiously considering what there is of greatest importance which might require furher effort on my part, I asked myself: 1. Do the dozen books I have written say all that I have felt was important? 2. Am I satisfied with the structure of the World Apos- olate of Fatima, will it endure and grow? Perhaps a synthesis is needed to tie together my most important books on the Morning Offering, the Rosary, the Scapular, the Eucharist... to show more clearly that these ‘‘devotions o f the Two Hearts” provide a form ula o f holiness. The books say much, but many people do not read. And even then, only the Holy Spirit can enable those who do read to understand. So I ask: Is there not some other single device or prac­ tice which might serve to instruct and inspire the apostles o f the future? And it appears to me that there is one. There is something which in ju st one or two weeks can transform an average person into an ardent apostle, as happened to St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius Loyola and so many others. That something is a Pilgrimage to places of “ special contact with Heaven” to experience the divine reality in a personal way. Our Lady said, for example, that those who would come before the altar at the R ue du Bac in Paris would have graces pouredforth upon them... there where She showed Herself as Mediatrix of Grace. But while Our Lady made this promise to those who “come to the foot of this altar,” the same is also true about 5 so many other places where Our Lady has appeared, where She continues to manifest herself in a special way to those who make the sacrifice of “coming” to visit their Mother. What can equal the personal experience of the Holy House of Nazareth? It is now enshrined in a great Bas­ ilica on the Adriatic coast, over one of whose doors a Pope inscribed the words: “Tremble all ye who enter here, this is the holiest place on earth.” To what can we compare the personal experience of touching the rock of Lourdes, or the personal encounter with saints in the places where they lived, worked and are buried... sometimes where their incorrupt bodies still speak to us with miraculous realism? Yes, a pilgrimage requires travel.. .effo rt.. .money. But most of us today do all three just for a two week summer vacation. And a Pilgrimage can be the greatest vacation of all! Who Would Do It? It is not a question of visiting any Shrine, and certainly not a question of a “ haphazard” meandering from one Shrine to the other. Our Lady Herself has set a pattern of intervention, of “visitation” to our modern world. It began in Paris in 1830, reaching a climax at Fatima, and continuing now in many other parts of the world. After more than thirty years of experiencing the won­ derful fruits of Pilgrimages, I decided to take time out to write this book about it, to plan a comprehensive Pilgrimage. One of the reasons I decided to make this effort is be­ cause of a particular “ wonder” which impressed upon me the joy which Our Lady seemed to take in the sacrifices people make to come to Her Shrines. Of course there are many other reasons why I decided to take time out from everything else to write a book about the ‘ ‘Great Ave Maria Pilgrimage’ ’ and to dedicate what­ ever time was necessary in order to make this nonprofit, low-cost Pilgrimage available to as many as possible. There have been the many wondrous signs of God’s favor personally experienced on pilgrimages over a period of more than thirty years . And I pray that many others will 6 have similar experiences which may deeply affect their lives. and through them invigorate the Apostolate until all the world echoes with the salutation of the Archangel: A ve Maria! Throughout this book we speak of the Shrines as “spe­ cial places of contact with Heaven.” Perhaps Solomon best describes what we mean in the 8th chapter of Kings. The Ark of the Covenant had just been solemnly trans­ ported from Mt. Sion to the new temple where God now manifested His Presence by a cloud. “ Is it then to be thought, ’ ’ the great and wise Solomon exclaimed, “ that God should indeed dwell upon earth? For if heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built!” Solomon then proclaimed that the cloud of God’s Pre­ sence symbolized the fact THAT HERE IN A SPECIAL WAY GOD HEARD PRAYERS. “That Thou mayest hearken to the supplication of Thy servant. .. Whatsoever they shall pray for in this place, and hear them in the place of Thy dwelling in Heaven.” Today we have the true and real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist in our local churches. But still there are special places to which we can apply the words of Solomon: “Here in a special way God hears prayers.” And perhaps even more, we might add: Places where in a special way we experience the Divine Reality. For this reason the Ave Maria Tours were founded. For this reason the airline, Skystar International, was form­ ed. And finally, for the same reason, I have written this book which covers most of the major shrines... all of which are now available at low cost to anyone who wishes to go on the “ great Ave Maria Pilgrimage.” So when you read this book you are not reading about remote places which you may never hope to visit. You are not reading about places of which you might only dream. The non-profit Ave Maria pilgrimage puts it all within your range! Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says: “ One of the signs of our times is the announcement of Marian apparitions multiplying all over the world. For example, reports are arriving from Africa and from other continents at the 7 section of the congregation that is competent to deal with such reports.” Towards the end of the book we speak of the appari­ tions in Africa, and also of Garabandal, Medjugorje and other current apparitions. I believe with all my heart in the title of this book: GO! YOUR MOTHER IS CALLING! Cardinal Ratzinger. 8 Chapter 2 A New Idea The first Ave Maria Tour began in a very unusual way thirty-two years ago with a tragic accident. The late Msgr. Harold Colgan and I had started the Blue Army as an international organization in 1950.