Imagine a million children and youth praying the Rosary during a Holy Hour on the same day during the Eucharistic Revival.

It can be done because Eternal Word Television Network will broadcast the Worldwide Children’s Eucharistic Holy Hour to more than 160 countries around the globe from the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. Children and youth everywhere will be able to join their peers gathered at the shrine for the blessed hour on May 13.

In a short video message, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress, links this event to the national Eucharistic Revival: “I’m inviting pastors, teachers, DREs and parents to request prayers from our children and youth for the following events. First, May 13, 2024, the 22nd-annual worldwide Children’s Eucharistic Holy Hour in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and July 17 to 21, the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana, inviting the entire world to spiritually unite in prayer for its success. In May, the children throughout the world will have been united in prayer for some time for the ongoing success of the worldwide Children’s Eucharistic Holy Hour and the National Eucharistic Congress, bringing the love of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist to the next generation.”

Father Joseph Mary Wolfe of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, who will lead the Children’s Holy Hour on EWTN, likewise connected it to the Eucharistic Revival. “This Children’s Eucharistic Holy Hour will be broadcast for the first time from the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville with the children from Sacred Heart Catholic School,” he told the Register. “The shrine is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. I believe Mother Angelica began a Eucharistic revival when she built this beautiful proclamation of the Real Presence. In fact, one of the Eucharistic Pilgrimages will be passing through the shrine, so it is fitting to have the children lead us in prayer.”

The St. Juan Diego Route of the pilgrimage will stop at the shrine on June 20.

Father Wolfe said of the importance of including children in prayer, “The statue of Divino Niño in the piazza [at the Hanceville shrine] has a quote from Isaiah 11:6 ‘And a little Child shall lead them.’”

Connie Schneider, president of the Children of the Eucharist, Young Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (ChildrenoftheEucharist) that founded and sponsors this Holy Hour, agreed, telling the Register that “the Child Jesus desires this. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’ (Matthew 19:14).”

And the May 13 timing is providential.

“It will be the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and many of the prayers are related to that apparition and to St. Francisco and St. Jacinta,” Father Wolfe explained. “Children, too, are called to be saints, and witnessing other children praying at the shrine will encourage them to love Jesus and Mary, too. St. Francisco spoke of loving the ‘Hidden Jesus’ in the Blessed Sacrament and St. Jacinta of offering to God all that is difficult in life. Those are such important messages for us today, young and old.”

Even before Our Lady appeared to the children at Fatima, she sent her Angel of Peace, who asked the three children to make reparation to our Eucharistic Lord. He held a chalice with the Host suspended above it, from which drops of Blood fell into the chalice. Leaving the chalice and the Host suspended in the air, he prostrated himself on the ground beside the children and made them repeat this prayer three times: “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences with which He, Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg you for the conversion of poor sinners.”

The children explained later that, on May 13, the Blessed Mother appeared and was bathed in a light so brilliant and intense that its rays penetrated their hearts and they saw themselves “in God; we were moved by an interior impulse and fell to our knees, repeating: ‘O most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love you in the Most Blessed Sacrament.’" In this same first apparition, Our Lady told them, “'Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.’”

This Worldwide Children's Eucharistic Holy Hour carries out the lessons of Our Lady’s first appearance at Fatima and will do so on the feast day itself during the Holy Hour.

Schneider shared some appropriate words St. John Paul II wrote to the young in his 1994 “Christmas Letter to the World’s Children.” He wrote: “Just as Jesus in the Gospel shows special trust in children, so his Mother Mary, in the course of history, has not failed to show her motherly care for the little ones. … It is absolutely true: Jesus and his Mother often choose children and give them important tasks for the life of the Church and of humanity. … The Redeemer of humanity seems to share with them his concern for others: for parents, for other boys and girls. He eagerly awaits their prayers. What enormous power the prayer of children has! This becomes a model for grown-ups themselves: praying with simple and complete trust means praying as children pray.”

Father Wolfe shared about how much Our Lady wants children to grow in faith. “I interviewed the postulator for the causes of St. Francisco and St. Jacinta, Sister Ângela de Fátima Coelho, and I asked her why the children were able to grow in heroic virtue at such a young age. She responded that Mary brought them quickly there. That is a beautiful, consoling truth for all of us. Notice how that began at that first apparition, something that this Children’s Holy Hour will be bringing together with Eucharistic adoration and the Rosary.”

Schneider emphasized that the Eucharistic Revival is also for the children of the world: “Bishop Cozzens recognized this and opened his heart to bring our Catholic-school children and all children to pray for the success of the Eucharistic Revival. If we have no Eucharist, we have no Catholic faith.”

Our Lady of Fatima is calling the children of the world to Eucharistic adoration and the Rosary, said Schneider, referencing, “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).

In addition to taking part in the Holy Hour from EWTN, Schneider hopes that “pastors, teachers and parents could gather our students and children to visit Jesus before the Blessed Sacrament for a few minutes to pray the prayers of Eucharistic reparation. At Fatima, the Angel told the children that their prayers and sacrifices would bring peace to their country.”

Referring to the upcoming EWTN broadcast on May 13, Schneider concluded, “Imagine a children’s Eucharistic revival! It can happen if we unite.”

JOIN IN PRAYER

The Holy Hour will be broadcast on EWTN, Monday, May 13, at 10 a.m. Eastern. Note: This year, another Holy Hour will be held again in October (day and time to be determined).