Programs & Events :: All Night Vigils

(See below for link to 2010 schedule of All Night Vigils)

The first all-night vigils were made by Our Lord Himself, for the Gospels say that He frequently went off “to a private place” and prayed all night. And Our Lord kept vigil the very night He was betrayed, a scene that is all too familiar to us—the Agony in the Garden—the first sorrowful mystery of the Rosary. Before entering into His agony, Jesus made this plea to Peter, James and John: “My heart is nearly broken with sorrow. Remain here and stay awake with me.” Returning to His Apostles, He found them asleep. One can feel the sadness in Our Lord’s words to Peter: “So you could not stay awake with me for even an hour?”

For many centuries the Church encouraged the practice of all-night vigils before the celebration of great feasts, such as the Nativity, Pentecost, the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul and especially, the queen of all vigils, the Resurrection. The penitential character of these vigils becomes evident from the fact that when the practice of the all-night vigils gradually disappeared, they were replaced by fast and abstinence on the day preceding the feast.

When Our Lady of Fatima pleaded for prayer and penance for the conversion of sinners, it is not surprising that the practice of all-night vigils became part of the response to her plea. In her final appearance to the children, Mary, with profound seriousness and a sad expression on her face, said, “Do not offend Our Lord anymore, for He is already deeply offended.” This recalls Our Lord’s words from Gethsemane, “My heart is nearly broken with sorrow…..stay awake with me.”

When asked to summarize the Fatima message, Bishop John Venancio, former bishop of the Diocese of Leiria-Fatima, said: “Fatima is reparation, reparation, reparation, and especially Eucharistic reparation.”

Reparation is atonement to God for our sins and the sins of others. The angel of peace taught us how to make reparation when he told the children during his second apparition, “Offer up prayers and sacrifices to the Most High. Make everything you do a sacrifice and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended and in supplication for the conversion of sinners.”

Click here for the 2010 schedule of All-Night Vigils in the Archdiocese

To get an All-Night Vigil scheduled at your parish,
call Claude Medina, 651-457-6609.