Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 1, 2007 / 08:41 am
More than 800,000 people from across Argentina and other countries gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in the city of San Nicolas de los Arroyos on September 25 to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the Marian apparitions there.
After a Mass celebrated by Bishop Hector Cardelli of San Nicolas de los Arroyos, thousands of people filed their way through the shrine to pray and offer thanks to Our Lady of the Rosary.
At 3pm under a shower of rose petals, the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary was carried through the streets of the city to the field where the she appeared to Gladys Motta on September 25, 1983.
After the procession Bishop Cardelli celebrated Mass again, praying that “the constant presence of Mary would be the great sign of our times.”
“When we refuse to listen to Mary [when she tells us] to obey what He tells us, when our will does not conform to that of God out of ignorance and refusal to accept it, the feast of our lives is left without the best wine; we no longer celebrate, but rather we waste it and squander it on things that take us away from God, on pride and arrogance that supplant God.”
He noted that during the last century, “the number of Marian apparitions has multiplied,” and that people are being called “to return to the World, to do the will of God, to be converted in Jesus Christ. The merciful mother makes use of apparitions to call us to the urgency of conversion,” he stressed.