The great worldwide action – A Marian pastoral program

Our Lady asks us to spread her PRAYER and IMAGE as a completely peaceful contribution that everyone of good will can do in preparation for the dogma and for world peace. She herself gave a name to the diffusion, calling it a “great world action” (Oct. 11, 1953) or even a “work of redemption and peace.” (Apr. 1, 1951)

It may seem surprising in the first moment that Our Lady calls the spreading of her prayer and image a “work of redemption and peace”. Mary’s vocation consists in guiding us to Jesus, our Redeemer, and to the sacraments and thereby to interior peace. Those who know this are happy to take part in such a work of redemption and peace.

Each one of us, even a child, can help to offer this prayer card in a friendly way to all our brothers and sisters, be they believers or not. This magnificent “work of redemption and peace” (Apr. 1, 1951) is something Mother Ida saw in the amazing image of billions of snowflakes around the globe:

“Just as the snowflakes whirl over the world and fall upon the ground in a thick layer, so will the prayer and the image spread over the world and fall down into the hearts of all nations. Just as the snow melts into the ground, so the fruit, the Spirit, will come into the hearts of all people who pray this prayer every day.” (Apr. 1, 1951)

Convinced of the tremendous importance of this worldwide action, the visionary worked tirelessly until the end of her life to send prayer cards out throughout the world. In doing so, she often felt so incapable. Therefore, the Lady once encouraged her, saying, “You are afraid? But I am helping you! You will find that the spreading will happen as if by itself.” (Apr. 15, 1951) “Mary is taking full responsibility for this.” (Apr. 4, 1954)

The summons of the Mother of All Nations to work with her is one that she addresses also to us: “And now I am speaking to those who want a miracle. Very well then, I tell them: go with great ardor and zeal about this work of redemption and peace, and you will behold the miracle.” (Apr. 1, 1951) “Help with all your means and see to the outspreading, everyone in one’s own way.” (June 6, 1952) “This action is not for one country; this action is for all nations.” (Oct. 11, 1953) “They all have a right to it. I assure you that the world will change.” (Apr. 29, 1951)

“The outspreading shall go through the monasteries…” (Mar. 20, 1953) “[It] shall be spread in churches and by modern means.” (Dec. 31, 1951) “The Lady of All Nations will be brought throughout the world in the same way, from town to town, from country to country. This simple prayer will create one community.” (Feb. 17, 1952)

In the mean time, the prayer has been translated into more than 70 languages and millions of prayer cards have reached countless countries throughout the world. Over the course of the years, many beautiful testimonies, accounts of conversion, and even of healings and other miracles have arrived at the shrine in Amsterdam. These have taken place because people have come to know Mary as their personal mother through the prayer cards.

Even cardinals (as seen in the above photo of His Beatitude, the Syrian cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud of Rome, as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches) and bishops of various continents have made pilgrimages to Amsterdam and have given witness at the International Days of Prayer to the graces they have received in their dioceses.

In the mean time, the image is to be found in numerous churches and chapels. In many countries, the faithful see to it that a pilgrim image visits families, prayer groups, parishes, monasteries, schools, prisons, etc. Of course, to display it in public places, such as churches, hospitals or schools, it is naturally necessary to first receive the permission of the priest or those responsible.

“Go with great ardor and zeal about this work”

It is such a beautiful task to be able to help in this worldwide action to prepare the faithful for the proclamation of a new Marian dogma, about which Our Lady said, “Once the dogma, the final dogma in Marian history, has been proclaimed, the Lady of All Nations will grant peace, true peace, to the world.” (May 31, 1954)

Billions of people know nothing of Jesus, their Redeemer, and of the power of the cross. Most people do not know that Mary is their very personal mother. Can we be responsible for this? Around the globe, we hear the media speak of life threatening danger which grows every day and becomes ever more frightening. But they are helpless and have no solution.
Our Lady, however, does have a solution. As she did before in Fatima, she even gives us an infallible plan to save us. She gives us a precise strategy: the “great world action” as she says, in which all nations should be involved through our missionary zeal.

We Catholics, who have the grace to know and understand this, therefore have a great responsibility. People should not be able to say to us later, “What, you know about this? You knew how you could stop this worldwide catastrophe and you didn’t tell us?!”
With the Miraculous Medal, we know that within ten years, already a billion of them had been spread out around the world. We could accomplish that with the prayer card of the Lady of All Nations in a single week these days. We only need to work together in harmony with bishops and priests and make use of the means of communication and media that are already available to us. The Lady of All Nations urged us to do exactly this: “This prayer shall be spread in churches and by modern means… that the world may be delivered from degeneration, disaster and war.” (Dec. 31, 1951)

We Catholics have the responsibility to bring Mary to all people, as their mother, and she will then open their souls for the Holy Spirit.

When the Twin Towers collapsed through a completely unexpected terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and the Iraq war began, military chaplains distributed 50,000 prayer cards in just a few days to US soldiers from every branch of the military, even to the non-Catholics! And everyone swore the same: “Yes, that is exactly what we need … that we may be preserved from degeneration, disaster, and war!” So it was that the prayer of Amsterdam quickly became known in the USA as “Our Lady’s Prayer for Peace” or “Our Lady’s Peace Prayer”.

Fr. Mandato of the US Navy had 2,000 prayer cards sent directly to the USS Bataan warship. At Charleston Airforce Base, South Carolina, Fr. Del Toro arranged for all the pilots and their crews to receive the prayer card. Army Chaplain Carlson saw to it that his troops, a battalion stationed in Texas, received 3,000 prayer cards shortly before shipping out to Iraq. In that way, a quarter of a million prayer cards were distributed in three months in the USA alone. On EWTN, the largest Catholic television station in the world, the prayer from Amsterdam was shown every hour.



Source: Conference by Fr. Paul Maria Sigl,
God shows us through Mary, the Mother of All Nations, the way to true peace
Cologne, Germany, May 31, 2009