FOCUS to Consecrate Apostolate to Jesus through Mary on June 13

Since its founding in 1998, FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, has encouraged staff, missionaries and students to invoke the graces of the Blessed Mother in their efforts to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church and to promote the New Evangelization. On June 13, 2017, FOCUS will consecrate the apostolate to the Virgin Mary to petition her assistance for deeper sanctification of missionaries and staff and for a special blessing of their missionary work and the apostolate as a whole.

“We will encourage living throughout the year our Lady’s request at Fatima to pray, suffer, offer penances and make sacrifices for all souls, with a special focus on praying the rosary and cultivating a devotion to her Immaculate Heart,” said Curtis Martin, FOCUS founder.

“We will also invoke the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe for our spiritual multiplication efforts, praying for fruitfulness like what we experienced in Mexico in the 1500s with about 10 million individuals brought into the faith in 10 years,” Martin added. “In a way, Fatima focuses on the missionary’s interior life and Guadalupe focuses on the missionary’s exterior life. Both are directed toward the same end: the salvation of souls through a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ and fulfillment of His Great Commission to make disciples of all nations.”

Last year, FOCUS announced the consecration of its spiritual multiplication efforts to Our Lady of Guadalupe through the limited period of December 12, 2016, to December 12, 2017. This new consecration of FOCUS to Jesus through Mary, petitioning especially the graces offered at Fatima and Guadalupe, is a perpetual consecration, to be renewed each year both on June 13 and on December 12 (the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe). It is dedicated to the whole of FOCUS.

The consecration will start on June 13, the 100th anniversary of the second Marian apparition at Fatima. During June, the annual FOCUS New Staff Training is held at Ave Maria University. The Act of Consecration will be made during the celebration of Mass on June 13 at Ave Maria Catholic Church in Ave Maria, Fla. It will be followed by a rosary procession with more than 600 people walking with the World Apostolate of Fatima’s statue of the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of Fatima. Attendees will be offered a choice either of a Guadalupe-themed rosary from the Basilica in Guadalupe or a Fatima-themed rosary from Portugal. FOCUS plans to live stream the event at www.facebook.com/focuscatholic/.

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Through many communication avenues, FOCUS will encourage students, staff, alumni, benefactors and others to live our Lady’s request at Fatima to pray, suffer, offer penances and make sacrifices for all souls and to have special recourse to Our Lady of Guadalupe when engaging in efforts to spiritually multiply. Several Facebook events and videos will provide the background for and true meaning of the consecration and will also offer ideas on how to invoke the graces of the Blessed Mother.

About FOCUS
The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) was founded in 1998 and invites college students into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church, inspiring and equipping them for a lifetime of Christ-centered evangelization, discipleship and friendships in which they lead others to do the same. During the 2016 – 2017 academic year, nearly 600 missionaries are serving full-time on 125 college campuses, located across 38 U.S. states and in two pilot locations in Austria. More than 20,000 students have been involved with FOCUS, who after graduation have the opportunity to move into parish life to continue their missionary work. Within this number, more than 600 have made decisions to pursue Catholic religious vocations. By 2022, FOCUS expects — God willing — to have 75,000 students transitioned into many of America’s 17,000+ Catholic parishes. FOCUS missionaries are typically recent college graduates who devote two or more years of their post-collegiate lives to reach out to peers on campus. To learn more, visit us at www.focus.org.