This is a critical time in history in our country and the world. Recalling another critical world situation, when St. John Paul II was in Fatima on May 13, 2000, to beatify Jacinta and Francisco, he called them “two candles lit by God to illumine humanity at times of darkness and anxiety.”

On Oct. 13, the 104th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun, children of the United States and the world can be other Jacintas and Francescos multiplying those candles millions of times to pray by joining the 19th annual Worldwide Children’s Eucharistic and Marian Holy Hour. The event will be broadcast live from EWTN’s Our Lady of the Angels Chapel in Irondale, Alabama, at 9:00 Eastern Time (adjust for your time zone).

“Our children are now living in dark and anxious times,” says Connie Schneider, founder and president of Children of the Eucharist, which originated the event 19 years ago. “Our country is in deep trouble and we need help. I think people forget that children belong to the Church militant and can be called upon.”

She says, “Please open your hearts and see how the children of the world ‘console the Eucharistic and Marian Hearts of Jesus and Mary.’”

EWTN’s Father Joseph Wolfe of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word will again lead the hour.

 

Children’s and Youth’s Power in Prayer

“One of the most important things that EWTN does is to unite people, young and old, throughout the world in prayer,” explains Father Wolfe. “We truly become one in the One Lord Jesus Christ whom we will adore in the Most Blessed Sacrament. And we become one in prayer with Our Lady, joining her in her intercession for the needs of our anxious times as we meditate on the mysteries of her Son’s life in the Rosary.”

The prayers of children and youth are powerful in the sight of God. Schneider reminds how Our Lady of Fatima revealed to the seers, three young children, the winning way for the entire world in this spiritual war— the Rosary, Entrustment to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, reparation and more.

“First, she sent the Angel of Peace as her tutor of love, to draw the children into the Eucharistic presence of Jesus, and to teach them powerful prayers to pray before the Eucharist,” Schneider notes. Again, in our day, Our Lady of Fatima continues to call the children of the world to Eucharistic Adoration and the Rosary.

Seeing the crisis of faith in the world’s future and the “flame of faith” growing dim in the world, Children of the Eucharist, Young Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary’s goal is to enroll the children into the School of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

At Fatima in 2000, St. John Paul II also told youngsters, “Dear boys and girls … Our Lady needs you all to console Jesus, who is sad because of the bad things done to him; he needs your prayers and your sacrifices for sinners.

“Ask your parents and teachers to enroll you in the ‘school’ of Our Lady, so that she can teach you to be like the little shepherds, who tried to do whatever she asked them.”

Then he added these words of Jesus: “Father, to you I offer praise, for what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children.”

Indeed, children’s prayers at this confusing time in our world will be powerful. As Father Wolfe explains, “Jesus in the Gospels enlisted children as a model for us and Mary in her approved apparitions enlisted little ones who responded wholeheartedly, as children do. Recently, a young father, who became a parent for the first time during COVID, told me how this child kept him focused on what is important in life. Children remind us of the primacy of love, and when they pray, we are inspired to ‘become as children’ too in our prayer.”

 

Children’s World Rosary Vital

Because this is truly a worldwide effort, EWTN will broadcast this 19th annual Worldwide Children and Youth Eucharistic Holy Hour to more than 150 countries and territories.

“We again plan to have a number of families whose heritage is from various continents of the world, praying the World Mission Rosary of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen,” adds Father Wolfe. “In the World Mission Rosary, we intercede for the needs of each of the five continents in each of the five decades.”

The Children of the Eucharist is a program of the International World Apostolate of Fatima. Américo Pablo López Ortiz, international president of the World Apostolate of Fatima, stated in a release:

“We pray and hope that thousands of families will join before their TV to participate in the midst of the pandemic of this very important act of reparation and afterwards will change their lifestyles according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, renouncing to the worldly spirit, the spirit of evil, and filling their homes with God’s grace and mercy, the slogan of Fatima. We thank the Children of the Eucharist, Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, for this important development.”

 

The Prayer of the Young Is Critical

St. John Paul II told children in his Christmas Letter to them in 1994, “Just as Jesus in the Gospel shows special trust in children, so his Mother Mary … has not failed to show her motherly care for the little ones. … Jesus and his Mother often choose children and give them important tasks for the life of the Church and of humanity.”

John Paul added, “The Redeemer of humanity … eagerly awaits their prayers. What enormous power the prayer of children has! This becomes a model for grown-ups themselves: praying with simple and complete trust means praying as children pray.”

He continued, “Jesus and his Mother often choose children and give them important tasks for the life of the Church and of humanity.”

 

Big Recommendation

Schneider recommends the children and youth and their parents also lead up to the Oct. 13 Holy Hour with a novena to the Queen of Peace.

From Oct. 5-13, the novena consists of praying nine Memorares each day for nine days.

The intentions are for priests, life, families, an end to the human tracking of children, an end to the pandemic, the conversion of sinners and the hastening of the promised Triumph of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.