2026 Visitations - Parish of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Adur Valley, Diocese of Arundel and Brighton
Ave Maria! The 2026 visitations have begun. First stop was the Parish of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Adur Valley, Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. It was held on 7-8 March 2026. Rev Fr Graham Ricketts, the PP, received, crowned, and blessed the NPVS of Our Lady of Fàtima, the Relics of Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, and the Centenary Icon of the First Saturdays Devotion. The day's event was attended by at least 100 of the faithful from the parish as well as the neighbouring ones. There were also two other priests from the Diocese who attended the special day. One of the highlights of the event was the Showcase of Programmes offered by WAF E&W: the Fàtima Prayer Cell programme, the Home Pilgrim Virgin Statue Visitation programme, and the Promoters and Children of the Eucharist/Young Missionaries of Mary programme. The faithful did learn on the practicalities of learning, living and spreading the message of Fàtima through the different presentations and Q&A. Being the first Saturday of March, the requirements of this much needed devotion were provided and fulfilled: Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession; Receiving Holy Communion during the Mass; Recitation of the 5 decades of Joyful Mysteries; 15 minutes meditation on a mystery of the Rosary by Fr Graham. All of these were done with the intention of making Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. All who attended signified that the day was like their retreat during this season of Lent. Special thank you to all who came and praying that they will now live and spread the message of Peace and Personal Salvation ๐ St Peter, pray for us. St Francisco, pray for us. St Jacinta, pray for us. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us. Our Lady of Fàtima, pray for us. Our Lady Queen of Peace, pray for us.
9 Day Novena Day 1 - 5 May / 5 October Day 2 - 6 May / 6 October Day 3 - 7 May / 7 October Day 4 - 8 May / 8 October Day 5 - 9 May / 9 October Day 6 - 10 May / 10 October Day 7 - 11 May / 11 October Day 8 - 12 May / 12 October Day 9 - 13 May / 13 October
The first apparitions at Fatima unfolded in the radiant joy of the Easter season. They echo beautifully and profoundly the three great solemnities that crown this sacred time: Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity. Each reveals a facet of God’s saving love, and each resonates with the message entrusted to the shepherd children. Ascension lifts our hearts to God through prayer, sacrifice, and hope. Pentecost pours out the Holy Spirit, whom Our Lady invites us to welcome through the daily Rosary. The Holy Trinity draws us into the very mystery of divine love. Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity form a single movement of God’s gift to humanity. Each Solemnity reveals, in its own way, the fullness of God’s plan: to raise us, heal us, and invite us into his own life. Ascension: Christ Exalted, Humanity Raised Christ’s Ascension is not His departure but His exaltation of human nature itself. In the Summa Theologiae , St Thomas Aquinas writes that Christ ascended “to prepare the way for us,” lifting our humanity into the very presence of God. The Ascension is therefore not absence but promise: Where Christ has gone, we are called to follow and it accomplishes three main things: • It increases our faith , because we now believe without seeing. • It strengthens our hope , because Christ has opened heaven to humanity. • It directs our charity , because our hearts are drawn upward to God. This upward movement of the soul echoes the message of Fatima. When the Angel of Peace appeared to the children in 1916, he taught them to adore God with profound humility, an act that lifts the heart toward heaven. The Ascension reminds us that Christian life is always oriented toward God, and the Rosary is that ladder of contemplation that draws us upward, mystery by mystery. Pentecost: The Spirit Who Perfects If the Ascension lifts humanity to God, Pentecost brings God’s own life into humanity. St Thomas Aquinas, "Pentecost is that moment when the Holy Spirit is given to the Church 'as the soul is given to the body'." The Spirit animates, unifies, and sanctifies. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that Mary was present in the Upper Room, a detail, profoundly significant. Mary, who had once conceived Christ through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, now stands among the disciples as the Spirit descends again, this time to overshadow the disciples and be revealed and vivified publicly at Pentecost. Thus, Pentecost becomes, in a sense, a new Annunciation: The Spirit comes upon Mary and the disciples, so that Christ may be made present in the world through their witness. There is also the theological explanation when we talk of the birth of the Church. The Church is born from the pierced side of Christ on the Cross, where blood and water flow forth (Jn 19:34). The Fathers, especially St Augustine sees this as the Sacramental origin of the Church: The blood signifying the Eucharist and the water signifying Baptism. From the new Adam’s side, the new Eve, the Church is brought to life. Pentecost is the public manifestation and empowerment of the Church, when the Holy Spirit descends upon the Apostles and sends them forth in mission. What was conceived sacramentally on Calvary, at Pentecost is revealed and vivified publicly. Pentecost also resonates deeply with Fatima. When Our Lady first appeared on 13 May 1917, she asked the children to pray the Rosary daily “to obtain peace for the world.” Peace is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and the restoration of relationship between God and men, ending the separation caused by sin. The Rosary is a school of the Spirit, forming hearts to be capable of receiving and spreading divine peace. Each ‘Hail Mary is an invitation for the Spirit to overshadow us, forming Christ within us, just as He formed Christ in Mary. Pentecost is not a historical event, but a living reality. Pentecost and Fatima together remind us that renewal begins with the Spirit poured into receptive hearts. In this way, the Holy Spirit: • Perfects our understanding , enabling us to grasp divine truth. • Strengthens our will , empowering us to live virtuously through its various fruits. • Unites the Church , making many members one Body in Christ. Trinity Sunday: The Mystery of Love Itself Trinity Sunday crowns the Easter season as this mystery is not abstract; it is relational, explains St Thomas. The Father sends the Son, the Son reveals the Father, and the Spirit unites us to both. Everything God does in the creation, redemption and sanctification, flows from this inner life of His love for us. Few modern witnesses illuminate the mystery of the Trinity as profoundly as Venerable Sister Lucia of Fatima, whose encounters with heaven in her vision of the Trinity, continue to guide the faithful today. Sister Lucia recounted the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima on 13 May 1917 as a light “clearer than crystal” and “more brilliant than the sun”. This first early experience prepared Sister Lucia for what would become one of the most significant mystical graces of her life: the vision of the Most Holy Trinity at Tuy, Spain in 1929.
Whenever Our Lady has appeared on earth, whether at Fatima, in Lourdes, or to our holy father St Dominic in 1208, she has told us to pray the Holy Rosary. On the 13th May 1917, Our Lady appeared on a small Holm Oak tree to three little shepherds in the Cova da Iria in Fatima. She asked the children to pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of war. As such, the Holy Rosary must not remain an ornament, or a sentimental gift, or a pretty necklace that hangs by our bed. It must be taken in our hands, just as Our Lady does. Mary leads us, and asks us all of us to pray the Rosary every day, just as she asked the little children. When Lucia, the older of the three shepherd children, asks if Francisco will also go to heaven, our Lady replies “He will go there too, but he must say many Rosaries.” In October 1917, Our Lady says: “I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue to pray the Rosary every day.” So many times, Our Lady gives us this instruction in her various apparitions throughout the world. Why pray the Rosary, because Our Blessed Mother knows what is best for every single one of us, and as every mother, she wants the best for her children. Mother Mary told us to pray the rosary every day. The Rosary is not a set of beads, not just a set of Biblical meditations, but above all, a means of prayer. It has to be prayed, which means that it connects us to God, who is the object of our prayers. Mary guided Sr Lucia and conversed with her. Mary is conversing with us too and guiding us to Jesus whenever we pray the Rosary. In 1208, St Dominic had the privilege of being the first person to receive the prayers of the Rosary from Mary. He learned how to pray the Rosary, and thus how to ponder the mysteries of Christ’s incarnation, his life, his saving work. Our Lady came to St Dominic in a dream, and she told him that the Rosary is the “weapon, the Holy Trinity wants to use to reform the world”. In other words, God wills that the renewal of the world, the turning away from sin and violence and hatred, should happen through a prayerful meditation on the truth and light of the Gospel. Indeed, Our Lady repeatedly promises that God will convert hearts and transform the world through the Rosary for the Rosary is a proclamation of the saving works of God through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Hence Mary told St Dominic, “In this kind of spiritual warfare, the principal weapon has always been the ‘Our Father’ and the ‘Hail Mary’, which are the foundation-stone of the New Testament.” What this means is that the essence of the Rosary is the heart of the Gospel, a proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. To understand this Good News that changes hearts and converts the world: first, we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, the prayer that dares to call God ‘Our Father’. We place the words of the Son of God on our own lips. Thus, we are formed by God’s power and grace in the virtues of the Son towards the Father: humility, obedience and trust. Through the ‘Our Father’, we allow ourselves to be transformed by grace and become more and more like Christ, more truly God’s sons and daughters. The ‘Hail Mary’ recalls the pivotal moment in history that changes all of creation. The Gospel today tells of that moment of the incarnation when, through Mary’s obedience and faith, God becomes Man in Mary’s womb. Through her ‘Yes’, joy has filled the whole world. For as Zephaniah says: “Lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord.” Every time, we pray the ‘Hail Mary’, we recall the wonderful work of God claiming this world for Christ, rescuing men and women from Satan’s lies, and making us, co-heirs with Christ to the Kingdom of heaven. For each ‘Hail Mary’ is in fact a proclamation of the victory of God. The more fervently we pray it, with faith in the victory of God, with humble trust like Mary’s, then the more victorious we are, in spiritual battle against the enemies of God. Hence, Sister Lucia, the visionary of Fatima said: “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” In the month of the Holy Rosary, Our Lady reminds us all of God’s promise. Pray the Rosary every day. Pray the Holy Rosary for peace, and pray it for an end to all evils. Just as the apostles prayed in the Upper Room in Jerusalem with Our Lady, and the Holy Spirit came down in the form of fire, so when we pray the Rosary, we join Our Lady and the Apostles, and the Holy Spirit comes to us. The Spirit of God comes to drive away evil. The Holy Spirit comes to bring healing grace and strength from heaven. And the Holy Spirit kindles the fire of love in our hearts. For our own salvation and the renewal of the world comes from having God’s love in our hearts. Then, like Our Lady, who treasured and pondered the mysteries of God in her heart, we shall also be filled with the grace of God, and we shall know the joy and victory of having God-with-us. (Based on Fr Lawrence Lew’s homily on the Holy Rosary, October 2019) ๏ปฟ Short Biography: Fr Lawrence Lew, OP, is the Chaplain for Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. He is the global Promoter General for the Holy Rosary, overseeing the growth and promotion of the Rosary Confraternity for the worldwide Dominican Order. In particular he has a love for Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, and a promotes the message and lessons of Fatima.
