During my first three months at Visitation of Our Lady parish, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about our history. These opportunities to learn sometimes simply come from picking up the phone at the office.

“Do you still have the Mary statue that I could take home and pray with?” a woman inquired. I had no idea what this parishioner was talking about. I asked around the office but no one seemed to know for sure what program the woman was talking about. I was about to try to find another statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary to share with her when Jenny Doskey came back to the office.

She told me that we used to have a program through the school where students and parents of our younger students would pick up a blue bag with a statue of Mary and pray with it for a week. When Jenny told me that, I felt like Indiana Jones finding the roman numeral X in the library (see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).

Jenny took me to the storage room where it was being stored. When I opened the blue bag, I unwrapped a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Fatima! There were VHS tapes and cassettes on Mary so I knew that this program hadn’t been active for awhile. I was delighted to learn that part of the 50-year story of our school has included families asking Mary to visit their homes and bring them to Jesus just like she did for her cousin Elizabeth (see Luke 1:39-56).

What if we invited students and parents to take the Fatima Statue into their homes again during the year in which we commemorate our 50th anniversary? I asked Fr. Mike and Mrs. Levet and they supported the idea. The Fatima Statue Home Visitation program is active again for our 50th anniversary year!

Starting on Tuesday, September 8th, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, one of our VOL school families started the program again and took home the statue. We have a wonderful opportunity to pray in thanksgiving for Mary’s tender love for us over these 50 years and to ask her to help us in the years to come.

If your child currently attends Visitation of Our Lady school, please consider signing up for the program. We have had 50 beautiful years full of many wonderful graces at Visitation of Our Lady school. Mary, our special patroness, wants to continue to visit us and bring us Jesus whether the statue visits our homes or not! Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.