PREFACE Most Reverend Robert W. Finn Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph Print out version

Fatima’s “Angel of Peace” appeared to the three little shepherds in 1917, and convened
the first “Children’s Holy Hour.” Quickly they would become students in the “School of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” and apostles of prayer and sacrifice. God used these
small children to renew the Gospel message of repentance and call the world back,
through Mary, to His Son.

On the 90th anniversary of the apparitions I had the privilege to preside at the Basilica of
the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in Washington D.C., at the 2007
Worldwide Children’s Eucharistic Holy Hour.

Crowning the image of Our Lady of Fatima and entrusting ourselves to her classroom of
faith and love, we readied our hearts in prayer and song and adored our Lord Jesus Christ.

In response to the children’s questions I wanted to teach about Eucharistic adoration – the
first and highest prayer of the human heart, a prayer which directs itself to the supreme
and sublime mystery of the Godhead. At the same time, I learned from our children what
the world learned from Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta: a way of trust and joy and prayer by
which we approach the Blessed Sacrament, hand in hand with Mary, and learn to live
with a more pure love.

We prayed before the monstrance, and contemplated the mysteries of the rosary, focused
as they are on the unfolding revelation of the Incarnate Lord, His victory over sin and
death, and the exemplary participation of Mary in the pathways of the Christian journey.

As priests facing the challenging circumstances of our Pastoral Ministry, we daily come
before the “Ineffable Mystery:” the living Presence of Jesus Christ. In Holy Mass, and in
its extension in adoration, we draw strength and light from the Eucharistic Sacrifice, “the
center and root of the whole priestly life,” and the source “from which principally flows
the priest’s pastoral love.” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, no. 14)

Children also are drawn to the Eucharistic Jesus. It is not that they become suddenly
capable of articulating deep mysteries – any more than we do - but that they begin to
acquire peace and a listening heart necessary to following our Lord.

God chose the children at Fatima to be apostles for peace in the world through prayer and
sacrifice. The “Lady dressed in white” prepared them to suffer much; to persevere in
virtue; and to be images of holiness in ordinary life.

This simple outline offers a framework for and resources for such a Holy Hour in your
diocese and parishes. I ask my brother bishops and pastors throughout the world to
consider the value of children’s Eucharistic adoration for the sanctification of families,
and as a locus of intercession for peace and authentic conversion.
I join the founders of the “Worldwide Catholic School Children’s Eucharistic Holy Hour”
in inviting you to gather for the annual observance on the First Friday in October as
participants in a global response to the New Evangelization following Mary’s invitation
to renewal.

In Christ and Mary,
+Bishop Finn

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