Reason 1. Our crosses have the potential to increase the flow of grace in the world. Press the black button below to read an explanation from Fr. John Bartunek about why and how that is possible.

Reason 2.  Our crosses benefit others when we offer our sufferings up as a prayer of intercession for them. When I say benefit, I mean that they can save them from eternal damnation - from going to hell. All the saints knew this. In this session we will focus on the story of Our Lady of Fatima and the three shepherd children. Watch the video below where Ralph Martin shares the story of Saints Jacinta and Francisco and Servant of God Lucia dos Santos. FYI In this video Ralph is giving a retreat to the Marian Fathers.

After watching the video read this:

On July 13, 1917 Our Lady of Fatima recommended to the three shepherd children:
“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: ’O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’”

One year before Our Lady appeared to the children, the Angel of Peace asked them to do this as well. On his second visit the Angel told the children: “Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.”

Lucia, trying to understand how to obey the angel, asks: “How are we to make sacrifices?”

The Angel of Peace responded: " Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it God as an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended and in supplication for the conversion of sinners.”

What does it mean to “make of everything a sacrifice”?

Our days our filled with potential sacrifices. To start with, you can offer your daily duties according to your state in life (e.g. married, single, student, job, family, etc.), especially the ones you do not enjoy. Do them with all the love, devotion, professionalism and diligence that you are capable and offer them to God as a prayer of reparation for sinners.

After that you can add self-imposed penances like getting up early to pray, not eating sweets, or going without cream in your coffee.

This teaching is key to living a life of sacrificial readiness for God and souls. We are called to make everything we experience an offering to God, whether it is something we enjoy, a self-imposed penance or something we must endure: all these things can be transformed through love and elevated into a gift to God for the redemption of souls. 

To increase the merit of the children’s offering the Angel added: “Above all, accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you.” 

These are the penances that can be the most difficult to offer as a gift, but, for that very reason, have the most value and merit. In offering back to God the sufferings that He sends, those things which are so contrary to our desires, things we could or would never choose for ourselves, we avoid the temptations of self-complacency, self-will or pride in doing self-imposed penance only.

Think of how many things that happen each day that are not as we would like them to be. All of these things are a gift from God, an opportunity for us to make reparation for the sins that offend God and as supplication for sinners. We can also offer them as indulgences for our loved ones who have died in reparation for the sins that they did not make amends for before their death (see more about this in session three). Concretely, we can offer what we:

• Do not like (sickness, disappointment, loneliness, difficult relationships, etc.)

• Did not choose (busted pipes, traffic, SSA, gender-identity crisis, heavy workload, rejection, the death of a loved one, etc.)

• Cannot change (bad weather, fatigue, lack of appreciation, grief, etc.)

  As things happen throughout the day, that fall into any of these categories, we can accept them with trust in God (Divine Providence) and offer them with love. We can “offer them up.”

Our Lady weeps from heaven for her children who have by their own free will gone to hell and for those on their way. What she asks of us is that we offer prayer and sacrifice, penance and reparation for the conversion of her children on the road to hell – to save them.

We all have family and friends who might not be ax-murderers, but are not on the right path. Our Lady has given us a mission of prayer and penance for their conversion. Many of us are wasting the constant flow of opportunities to offer things up for their conversion. Its time to stop wasting our chance to save those whom we love and hate.

Sr. Lucia from Fatima writes: This is the Call of the Message: To make sacrifices as an act of reparation, begging for the conversion of our brothers and sisters who have wandered off on false and erroneous paths. Yes, to pray and make sacrifices so that our whole life may be a sacrifice offered to God on the arms of our day-to-day cross, in union with the Cross of Christ, for the salvation of souls, co-operating with Him in his redemptive work…As we live our daily lives we come across all sorts of sacrifices which we can and must offer to God.