By Jennifer Brinker | jbrinker@stlouisreview.com
In just a few months, Marianna Higgins will be preparing for one of the biggest moments of her vocation as a mother.
On April 8, one of her 11-year-old twin daughters, Raynie, will undergo a spinal fusion surgery. Raynie was born with spina bifida and later diagnosed with scoliosis. Raynie's sister, Mercydies, has been a big help as a caretaker, said her mother.
"God's not going to give us more than we can handle," said Higgins.
So she's doing what any Catholic mother would do when faced with such a situation. She brought the matter to the Blessed Mother.
Higgins and her daughters were among more than 500 people who visited the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima last weekend at Immaculate Conception in Arnold. The Jan. 16 stop was part of a tour of the statue in the St. Louis Archdiocese this month. The evening service included adoration, the Rosary, brown scapular enrollment and prayers of consecration.
The history of the statue dates back to 1946, when young people from Portugal attended a congress on Fatima in Lisbon and took a statue of Fatima with them. As they walked to Lisbon, they stopped in towns along the way, and people gathered to pray. The statue returned to its original location of Cova de Iria, Portugal, but people still wanted to see the statue in their own communities. The following year, sculptor José Thedim created a new statue, which was blessed by the Bishop of Leiria at Fatima, and it was named the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Since then, the statue has traveled to more than 100 countries, including Russia and China.
The purpose of the statue is to spread the message from Our Lady of Fatima, which is to offer prayer and penance in reparation for sin. In particular, she asks for communions of reparation on the first Saturday of the month. Daily, the faithful are called to offer each act as a sacrifice for sin, to pray the Rosary, to consecrate themselves to her Immaculate Heart and to wear the brown scapular as a sign of their consecration.
Fatima's message is timeless and can be applied to all the ages, said Carl Malburg, one of two custodians of the statue, which is based in Munster, Ind. In fact, the last seven popes have endorsed her message, he noted, including Pope Benedict XVI, who visited Fatima last year.
Malburg, who has traveled with the statue around the world for almost two decades, said he is on the road at least 10 months out of the year visiting churches, schools, nursing homes, prisons and other places, spreading Fatima's message. For the last few years, the 70-year old has been working with a new custodian, Patrick Sabat, who is expected to become his replacement some day.
While there is a history of occasional unexplainable physical miracles attributed to some who visit the statue, Malburg noted that perhaps the most important "miracle" is the conversion of heart.
"People are constantly asking us, 'Is it true there are miracles? Is it true the statue cries?' and all those phenomenon?" said Malburg. "And it is true that those things happen occasionally. But I have always maintained that (conversion of heart) is the most important 'miracle' that God can give us, because a cancer cure will only last a few years and then we die from something else," said Malburg. "A conversion changes eternity. It's probably the best miracle that Mary gives."
While we are encouraged, through the saints, to embrace Jesus' cross, Malburg said perhaps the next best thing we can do as the faithful is to turn to the Blessed Mother for guidance.
"The next best thing to say when you're faced with a problem is, 'Mother Mary, I need some help from you.' That's music to a mother's ears. A mother loves to hear that, and she loves to respond to that simple request from her children."
Michelle Wolk, who helped organize the evening prayer service at Immaculate Conception, said that if the statue inspires just one person to convert, "it's worth every single bit of time and work that goes into" the effort. As a mother of eight children, "I've always been drawn to the Blessed Mother and Our Lady of Fatima. There's a lot of times when I'm going through something, and I said, 'Blessed Mother, please help me.'"
Her hope is that last weekend's gathering "will instill in them that there's somebody to turn to. As human beings we can't do everything. But the Blessed Mother can go to her Son Jesus and do wonders."
