Brothers and sisters

Yesterday I realized that I have friends in Syria. I actually already intuitively knew this, but I guess that I did not want to pay attention to it. You know about the theory of the “Six degrees of separation”? It is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world.  I find myself two steps away; I know someone who knows people in Syria.  It is therefore normal that I have friends in Syria.

And this got me thinking…

I was quite in shock when I realized all of this because I also became conscious about the fact that I am doing nothing about the conflict that is presently tearing apart not only Syria but also much of the Middle East. I was never concerned by it; “Not my circus, not my monkeys” is the popular expression these days. How wrong am I to think this way! Are we not all brothers and sisters in Christ? Am I not, to some extent, the keeper of my brothers and sisters?

Ok then, what can I do?

While pondering over this, I remembered Fatima’s message. In each of the six apparitions, Our Lady asked for the daily Rosary, especially as an instrument of world peace. In the third apparition, she expressly revealed this: "You must recite the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war for only she can obtain this."  The Rosary has obtained many, many graces and blessings; it has ended wars, prevented conflicts, obtained important conversions and on top of all this, he who says the Rosary is bound to receive many personal graces.

The Rosary is a weapon given to us directly by Our Lady. It is her favourite prayer, and when we pray to her using the Rosary, she takes this meagre offering and turns it into a strong and powerful plea, a “weapon of mass construction”. Someone once compared the Rosary to David’s slingshot that killed Goliath because the power of God was with him.  I like this image.

So, I will use the Rosary as a weapon against ISIS because only with Our Lady - and I would add particularly Our Lady of the Rosary - can we defeat this enemy. Our Lady of Fatima gave us an easy and extremely effective way to end a war: we must use it again, for Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and for all the surrounding countries. This is what I will do for my brothers and sisters in the Near and Middle East.

Dominique Leboeuf