Today, I want to share with you not just a message, but a story. It’s a story that could belong to any of us. It’s the story of James, a husband and father of three whose life was upended just days before Christmas. For sixteen years, James worked at a factory, building a future for his family. Two days before what should have been a season of joy, his company announced layoffs. Just like that, he was out of a job, his last paycheck barely enough to cover the rent. He watched the lights go up in his neighbors’ windows and heard families sing and celebrate, but instead felt the heavy shroud of anxiety and sadness descend on his home.
Waiting in the Dark: When Advent Feels Heavy Instead of Hopeful
James tried to stay brave for his wife, Amy, and their children: twelve-year-old Allie, who grew serious and careful almost overnight; eight-year-old Ben, still stubborn enough to believe in Christmas magic; and little Sophie, who just wanted her father to smile. But at night, James would lie awake, staring into the darkness, wondering how to say there would be no gifts, not even a tree. He felt a different kind of emptiness, a pressure he’d never known before, questioning not just his future but God’s presence.
As Advent unfolds before us, we’re handed an invitation—not just to more lists, more shopping, or more frantic hustle, but to something riskier and far more honest. Let’s take a glimpse at someone in our own midst—a woman like Samantha, perhaps someone you know, perhaps someone a little like you.
Every year, Samantha mapped out her perfect Christmas with military precision: menus, presents, decorations, endless lists promising a season that would finally feel right. And every year, as she sat among the torn wrapping paper and cold leftovers, a hollow ache settled in. “Hollowed out by the holidays,” she joked. But beneath that joke—loneliness, disappointment, a hunger for something real.
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed John Preiss, president of Fatima Family Apostolate, via phone on October 24th, 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
Carrying on Father Fox’s Legacy
Fatima Family Apostolate was founded by Father Robert J. Fox nearly forty years ago. How do you continue his mission today?
He founded in 1986 and what we do today through our media, our website, and the materials he wrote (over 50 books) we spread the message of Fatima to families. The main thing we focus on is praying the Rosary daily, wearing the Brown Scapular, and doing the First Saturday Devotion.
The Heart of the Fatima Message
Many Catholics know the basics of Fatima—the apparitions, the Rosary, and the call to conversion—but fewer grasp its full depth. What do you think is the most misunderstood or overlooked part of the Fatima message today?
I think just living it out in your daily life. We have Catholics that come to the shrine that haven’t heard about Fatima. We have so many different Marian devotions. People don’t realize that the Fatima message (I call it the CARE- Confession, Adoration, Rosary, and the Eucharist) and the First Saturday Devotion is the nucleus to our faith.
Family Life and Fatima
The Apostolate emphasizes the family as the foundation of faith. How can modern families—often busy, distracted, and digitally saturated—practically live out the message of Fatima in their homes?
What we have to do as parents is to set aside time for the message of Fatima. After work we are tired, the kids are running around. It’s about commitment. We commit to soccer, swimming, and other things. There’s so many opportunities, but we as parents need to be committed to praying the Rosary together as a family. So we set a time around 7:30pm to pray the Rosary as a family.
My wife and I were already praying the Rosary by ourselves. When you have a lot of children like we do the more structure you have, especially in prayer it just works out better for everyone.
Image courtesy of John Preiss.
Mary as Model and Mother
As someone deeply devoted to Our Lady, how has your own relationship with Mary grown through your work? Can you share a moment when you personally experienced her intercession or maternal guidance?
I definitely have grown, it’s been a spiritual blessing to be a part of this apostolate. As a convert in 2000, I didn’t have a devotion to Mary prior to my conversion. Meeting Fr. Fox and learning about Fatima has been helpful in my prayer life.
There was an instance where my niece was in an accident, hit by an 18 wheeler, and we prayed the Rosary and I got a sense that things will work out.
I also remember when, before I was a part of the apostolate (around 2008), I was in Adoration. Fr. Fox was ill and stressed at this time. I went to church and asked Our Lady and Our Lord for a sign of how I could help Fr. Fox, and I heard church bells. I didn’t believe it so I asked them again how I could help Fr. Fox. And I heard the bells again.
Fr. Fox soon after made me the executor of his will and Vice President of the Fatima Family Apostolate.
Evangelizing Through Media
Your website and blog are vibrant resources for formation and inspiration. How do you see digital evangelization—especially blogging and social media—helping to renew Marian devotion in our time?
I see that you can make videos to reach more people. The Internet and social media can be bad but it can be used for good. I see now that I can do 10x more today than I could 10-15 years ago.
It’s so much easier to create products and start a blog than ever before. God has given us the resources and the ability to evangelize and we have to use every tool at our disposal to bring people to the faith.
Fatima and the World Today
Looking at the cultural and moral challenges we face globally, how do you see the message of Fatima speaking prophetically into our current moment?
Fatima is a message that is timeless. The thing we need to focus on now is the First Saturday devotions. Some say we need to do the consecration to Russia, we have a letter from Sr. Lucia saying that the consecration was done in 1984 by Saint Pope John Paul II. We can get caught up in various conspiracies, but if we want peace in our world we need to pray for peace. The message of Fatima is even more relevant. We need to live out the messages of Fatima and not the controversies.
Hope for the Future
What gives you hope as you look to the future of the Church and the families you serve?
I see that the young people are coming to church. The priests coming out of seminarians are more on fire for the faith. Your age group (millennials) is trying to develop their prayer life.
What does the CARE program bring us to? It’s to the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And First Saturday Devotion is the way to strengthen families. Will we have total peace? Probably not, but it will be a different kind of peace, a peace in our hearts that God is in control.
There’s one parish in our diocese that has four Latin Masses each Sunday. It’s neat to see the young families. And the goal is to have them pass the faith onto their children.
We have to have a generational change in the Church. Where we can teach our children to pass on the faith to their children. And I hope that continues. That’s how the world gets better, when we are practicing our faith. It might take a few generations to notice the changes.
Are there upcoming projects or initiatives from Fatima Family Apostolate that readers can look forward to?
The main project is promoting Fr. Fox’s books Eucharist: Heaven and Earth Unite. We also have a museum and it’s on the road to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Hanceville. We have first class relics of Saints Jacinta and Francisco.
We are looking to do an event at our center in May 2026.
About John Preiss:
John C. Preiss is the Director of the Fatima Family Apostolate and an accomplished Catholic author dedicated to promoting devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and deepening the faith of families worldwide. As a convert to the Catholic Church, John brings a passionate and personal perspective to his ministry. John and his wife Teresa, reside in Hanceville, Alabama with their ten children.
Today I want to share with you the story of my best friend, Mark—a man who, like many of us, always considered himself a person of faith. Mark was faithful to Mass, devoted to service, and kept his rosary close by. Then came that dreadful day: his company downsized, and he lost his job. Suddenly, his world was turned upside down.
Job hunting became his entire focus. Mark poured over online applications, crafted cover letters, hustled every hour of the day, skipping meals, and convincing himself that Sundays were too precious to spend at church. “I’ll pray later,” he thought. “Right now, I have to work.” Sound familiar? Life’s uncertain moments can shake us, and when our routine is upended, it’s all too easy to assume we’ll come back to God—once life is less complicated.
But weeks of rejection wore Mark down. His faith felt distant; his hope, almost gone. It took a caring friend from church to reach out, listen, and gently remind Mark that we need God most when we feel out of control—not because God will solve our troubles instantly, but because He promises to walk with us through them. Jesus calls us to “stay awake”—not to let worry, fear, or busyness blanket our faith.
That very night, Mark picked up his rosary, dusted off his prayer life, and asked not for a job, but for peace. The next day he went back to Mass. Being there, he noticed something different—something softer and clearer in the choir’s song, something opening up inside himself. In the weeks that followed, Mark rebuilt his rhythm of prayer, reconnected with his community, and felt his anxiety begin to loosen its grip.
A new job eventually came, through a connection he made at church—one he’d have missed if he’d stayed isolated. But looking back, Mark realized that the real transformation wasn’t finding work. It was learning to stay awake to God’s presence, preparing his heart for Jesus’ arrival in ways he’d almost overlooked. And it made all the difference.
